Parking problems on an unadopted access road

We live on a small, private and unadopted access road in England.

There are five dwellings on the road. All the houses have off-road parking. If a vehicle is parked on the access road, it makes it difficult for residents to manoeuvrer onto and off their drives. Visitors are required to park on nearby, adopted roads.

One of the properties is owned by an elderly couple – let’s call the Jack and Jill. It has a relatively small single garage, which was used to house a motorbike trike. This trike was Jacks’s pride and joy. Because of that, for a period of time, we have allowed Jack to park his SUV alongside his house on the access road. Providing that he positioned it correctly, we could just about get in an out, albeit with some difficulty in the constrained space this left. Vehicles have sustained damage (the walls and houses are all stone built) whilst manoeuvring in this awkward space, and the presence of Jack’s SUV was undoubtedly a factor.

Sadly, Jill has recently died and Jack has lost his driving licence. He is now talking about selling the house to relocate because it is too big for him. The trike and the SUV are no longer there and, to be honest, it’s a huge relief – getting in and out on the access road is suddenly so much easier and less risky.

Our problem is, how to make it clear to him, and any agent acting on his behalf, that anybody purchasing the house will have to use the single garage for any vehicle that they have. Specifically, there will be no option for them to park vehicles on the access road in the way that Jack has. It has been made clear to him, in the past, that he has no legal right to park on the access road and has only been able to do so with the forbearance of the other residents. This was prompted by him attempting to park two vehicles in the access road, which brought things to a standstill. He has not volunteered any legal basis for his parking – beyond “the inalienable right of any Englishmen to park outside us house” whether it causes problems for all the other residents or not.

How best to tactfully, but firmly, approach this? The last thing we want is for somebody to buy the property, under the misinformed impression that they have a right to park on the access road. That could lead to dispute and confrontation with the other residents from the start. We would much rather that any prospective buyer understands the situation from the outset. There isn’t a dispute, as such, so I’m not sure if there is anything for him to declare. We don’t want to upset Jack, but neither do we want him to sail off into the sunset and leave us with a big problem.

Anybody else had to deal with a situation like this?