Anyone have parking wars with their neighbours?

[hurfdurf]

To be fair in Weston that type of house probably costs 50k

 

[moon man]

Back in West Yorkshire before I moved down I had a lot of these problems ,4 car family's dumping cars outside our house ,it became quite stressful tbh ,ended up losing it afew times but it also inspired even more mortgage over payment for the Cornish escape.
Now I have a drive and a space at the top of the garden (put pots there just in case) plus it's a private road and blocking me would block the other 3 houses on my hill so it doesn't happen

 

[moon man]

The previouslymentioned parking reservation pot method ,not really needed by hey ho

 

[ICDP]

Am I a bad person, or is this a tale of karma?

I had some issues with a neighbour at my old neighbourhood who would frequently have visitors or family park their car over my driveway. One day I came home from work and the driveway was blocked by his daughter's car, so I asked him and her if they could move the car so I could park in my house. He and his older son's and daughter got abusive and refused to move the car, so I had to park on the kerb in front of the house. Unfortunately a stolen car came down the street being chased by the police, mounted the kerb and totalled my car. I had to claim from my own insurance and it cost me a few grand on higher premiums over the next few years. The only solace I got was that the impact from the stolen car shunted my car into the neighbour's daughter's, car causing it significant damage. They even threatened to claim off my insurance but didn't have a leg to stand on really.

A few years later the neighbour was on holiday and their house was empty. On my way home from the pub in the early hours, I noticed a couple of men climbing through a side window into the neighbours house. Immediately I thought, better phone the police because this is obviously a break in. Then I remembered what a bunch of hateful morons these neighbours were and how much they cost me, so I just shrugged and thought "knock yourselves out guys". It seems the burglars took a load of stuff including TVs, jewellery, gaming consoles, money and the keys to one of their cars to drive it all away in. I even watched them from my window as they loaded the car up before they made off with it all. When the neighbours came home, they obviously phoned the police about the break in and the police went around all the neighbours asking if we saw anything. I made a statement saying I didn't see anything but that I had noticed there was a window left open they maybe got in through. The police officer even remarked how that explains why there was no sign of forced entry.

I have no idea if me saying that invalidated any insurance claim but I console myself with the thought that it did and enjoy the sweet taste of revenge. I moved out a few years later and yes, it was a very bad neighbourhood in West Belfast, so I am well out of it. I now live in a house with a very large driveway and parking that can fit 3-4 cars and have very friendly and decent neighbours.

 

[CraigN]

To be fair in Weston that type of house probably costs 50k

Was going to say, isn't Weston-Super-Mud where those live who cannot afford the nice areas of north somerset?

 

[hurfdurf]

Was going to say, isn't Weston-Super-Mud where those live who cannot afford the nice areas of north somerset?

I wouldn't look down on WSM if I lived anywhere in Somerset, because lets face it, if you aren't within a 5 minutes commute of Bristol City Centre that isn't a ghetto, you aren't any where worth living and have no position to be looking down your nose.

 

[Minxy]

I'm very lucky. You can squeeze two small/medium cars nose to tail on the driveway, one across the driveway and one behind the house in a private parking bay. I also live opposite a turning circle big enough for 4 cars so generally parking is pretty easy.

If only this were still true. The next door neighbour has had a complete wobbly and no longer speaks to us. We share a small T shaped car park behind the houses with the other two houses in the block. We all have sheds at the back of the bays and mine had been there since before I even moved in. Obviously this means each car sticks out slightly further than if there were not a shed there but for twelve years this was not an issue until the neighbour decided to buy himself a new car. Then all of a sudden my shed is a problem and he knocked on my door and demanded I took it out. Our house isn’t very big and so we do need the shed which I explained to him. He basically started being quite abusive and you could almost see him stamping his feet in front of me because I didn’t just roll over. I stood up to him and told him he needed an attitude adjustment if he wanted our help (which if he was prepared to speak to me properly then he would have got, we aren’t nasty neighbours) but he’s one of these who seems to think the world revolves around him so when he started chucking out rude four letter words then that changed things. I don’t see why I should put up with that from anybody.

He challenged my other half to get the new car out of its space and the OH did so without issue which I think just embarrassed him and didn’t help. The new car is also shorter than the old car. We only have a medium sized van and a car so we don’t take the mick with parking. We eventually calmed the neighbour down and left it on the best note we could saying we would see whether we could do anything to minimise the issue but he just totally blanks us now. It’s a shame.

 

[paradigm]

Our cul-de-sac was the subject of parking wars because of the actions of a single moron who lived directly opposite us. You know the type, watches the road all the time so he could move his car the second someone left. Unfortunately we got new next door neighbours with two cars instead of one, meaning that said idiot now ended up “nabbing” a space on the road far less often.

All of the houses here have space for two cars on their driveways, however they are single file, meaning you’d have to move both cars to get the one at the back out, this is what appeared to irk mr moron the most, that he’d have to move his wife’s car to go to work. He started parking on my lawn, claiming that I couldn’t read the title deeds properly and that it was his lawn (even though google maps shows their used to be a border between the two plots, that was there when he moved in). I erected a small “hammer into the ground” style fence (only around 8” high), only to come home and find him throwing them at my cars.

Ended up with the police involved and never spoke directly to him again (his poor wife seemed mortified that her husband was a pillock). They ended moving out in the middle of the night, much to everyone’s joy and surprise. The new couple are lovely, so it’s all good now.

 

[DanTheMan]

It never ceases to amaze me how angry and irrational get when it comes to 'their' parking spaces.

If I lived somewhere where space on the street for parking was in short supply, I'd accept that sometimes I'd get the space in front of my house and other times I wouldn't. Seems pretty straight forward.

There is a house down the road who run an upmarket private hire firm and have 2 s classes on the drive and 2-3 merc vitos on the road outside. I dread to think what they'd do if someone dared to park within the vicinity of their house.

 

[Semple]

Am I a bad person, or is this a tale of karma?

I had some issues with a neighbour at my old neighbourhood who would frequently have visitors or family park their car over my driveway. One day I came home from work and the driveway was blocked by his daughter's car, so I asked him and her if they could move the car so I could park in my house. He and his older son's and daughter got abusive and refused to move the car, so I had to park on the kerb in front of the house. Unfortunately a stolen car came down the street being chased by the police, mounted the kerb and totalled my car. I had to claim from my own insurance and it cost me a few grand on higher premiums over the next few years. The only solace I got was that the impact from the stolen car shunted my car into the neighbour's daughter's, car causing it significant damage. They even threatened to claim off my insurance but didn't have a leg to stand on really.

A few years later the neighbour was on holiday and their house was empty. On my way home from the pub in the early hours, I noticed a couple of men climbing through a side window into the neighbours house. Immediately I thought, better phone the police because this is obviously a break in. Then I remembered what a bunch of hateful morons these neighbours were and how much they cost me, so I just shrugged and thought "knock yourselves out guys". It seems the burglars took a load of stuff including TVs, jewellery, gaming consoles, money and the keys to one of their cars to drive it all away in. I even watched them from my window as they loaded the car up before they made off with it all. When the neighbours came home, they obviously phoned the police about the break in and the police went around all the neighbours asking if we saw anything. I made a statement saying I didn't see anything but that I had noticed there was a window left open they maybe got in through. The police officer even remarked how that explains why there was no sign of forced entry.

I have no idea if me saying that invalidated any insurance claim but I console myself with the thought that it did and enjoy the sweet taste of revenge. I moved out a few years later and yes, it was a very bad neighbourhood in West Belfast, so I am well out of it. I now live in a house with a very large driveway and parking that can fit 3-4 cars and have very friendly and decent neighbours.

Sounds like a good karma story to me.

All of the houses here have space for two cars on their driveways, however they are single file, meaning you’d have to move both cars to get the one at the back out, this is what appeared to irk mr moron the most, that he’d have to move his wife’s car to go to work.

Whilst we don't really have any parking wars, our driveway is like this - long enough to comfortably hold 3 cars. The neighbours houses are all identical, so everyone has a 3-car-length driveway, but because of the single-file aspect, most of them will park 1 car on the end of the driveway and one out on the road. Our neighbour has a car for him and a car for his wife. His wife barely ever drives so their car just stays at the far end of the driveway, but despite the gap on their driveway, he'll 9/10 times decide to park outside our house.

I'm a pretty reasonable guy. If he had family visiting etc and needed to park outside our house then i wouldn't have a problem. It just irks be with the laziness of parking outside our house rather than on his own driveway. I mean why live in a house with a big driveway if you're not going to use it. Certainly from reading a number of stories on here, a lot of people would love a driveway like that.


We have had parking wars when we lived in a flat previously. Our building had something like 28 flats across 3 floors, and each flat came with a dedicated parking bay + 4/5 visitor bays. There were another 2 buildings of flats, i reckon maybe 20 flats each but they didn't build any dedicated parking for these flats. Whilst most of them were retirement flats, pretty much every resident owned a car, and they all had to park out on the road. We had two cars to park, so also had to make use of this road, and you were pretty much restricted from going out in the evening because if you did, your parking space would be gone very quickly and not a hopes chance of securing another that evening. In the end we used to just leave mine parked up over the weekend, and drive around in the missus car.

 

[Begbie]

Yeah, all the time. I was parking at the front of my house until someone decided it was theres. I couldn't be bothered with the aggro, so parked elsewhere. Couldn't get a space one day, and parked elsewhere. Got a knock on the door, accusing me of being in his space. Was really tempted to buy a second car.

 

[DXP55]

When we were looking for a renter 12 yrs ago we found a nice house but went to look at it again on sunday morning - no chance - you could just about get down the road -never seen so many cars.
Now own a small bungalow but can get at least 8 car on drive/garage/in front of window.
We only have one car and I am so glad I bought houses with decent drives.

 

[humanlaptop]

We live in a new build with a garage, so we are very lucky in that sense. The garage is huge, so could easily fit in any size car no worries. Then our actual drive fits 2.... we could then put another 2 in front of the house as we are off the main estate road, with our own small road for 4 houses, of which as we are at the end, I could easily have 2 possibly 3 (if smaller) more cars there. There is also room for 4 cars off road near us if there was any issues.

Fortunate and I couldnt imagine the hassle some of you have to deal with.

 

[Stu999]

It’s a shame for new estates that many of these issues are caused by planning regulations, density requirements and the brain dead idea of not providing enough parking for each house to ‘encourage’ public transport use whether it is practical or not.

The road outside my house is barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other, it’s bonkers.

 

[[TW]Fox]

It’s a shame for new estates that many of these issues are caused by planning regulations, density requirements and the brain dead idea of not providing enough parking for each house to ‘encourage’ public transport use whether it is practical or not.

The road outside my house is barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other, it’s bonkers.

Even when they do think about it you still get problems - near me each house has two off road parking spaces and most have a large garage (6x3m) and yet you still get people with 5 cars buying a house with 2 spaces outside, filling the garage with rubbish and leaving their cars on the pavement. A common one is people with a tandem driveway who don't want to move cars on and off it to let another car out, so just park on the pavement instead.

We spent absolutely ages making sure we bought somewhere with sufficient parking for our needs - we had to reject a couple of really nice places because of it.

 

[bainbridge]

We have a driveway for 2 cars and adequate parking was a prerequisite when househunting, however our neighbours, who don't have a driveway leading to a garage, have ideas which they clearly made up themselves about some spaces being guest spaces and others being their space.

 

[SDK^]

Nothing like the other posts for me but my story.

The guy in the house opposite us has two cars, a Lexus RX SUV and a Mercedes C Class AMG trim which he parks on his drive but has only used them a handful of times in over 3 years. This means his daughter and wife park their cars on the pavement/road, causing an obstruction for me, so I need to do a 3 point manoeuvre to reverse park on my drive

Really not sure why he spent £80k+ on cars when they never get used

 

[Semple]

When we were looking for a renter 12 yrs ago we found a nice house but went to look at it again on sunday morning - no chance - you could just about get down the road -never seen so many cars.
Now own a small bungalow but can get at least 8 car on drive/garage/in front of window.
We only have one car and I am so glad I bought houses with decent drives.

It's funny reading that as it just sprang to mind an occasion we experienced when we were buying a house last year. We'd seen a house pop up on rightmove that met a few of our requirements, the pictures showed what looked to be a good sized driveway for 2 cars, and a cursory look on Google maps street view showed what appeared be ample space on the road as well.

Arranged a viewing for the upcoming weekend, and when we got there, the photos of the driveway were clearly misleading - you could never fit two cars side-by-side, and the driveway was barely long enough (most cars actually hang out over the pavement). Also being a weekend when most people were home, the street was absolutely chocker full of cars parked on pavements etc. Needless to say we didn't even bother viewing the house. It was clear that parking was going to be an issue there.

 

[happy_2008]

Our new property has a driveway big enough for 3 cars so hopefully we wont have this problem in future.

 

[Alex_6n2]

The mother in law has a neighbour opposite with garage and driveway space for 2 cars.

For some reason they absolutely must park outside her house, in such a manner that makes parking cars either side almost impossible. All whilst having spare space on their own driveway

Didn't realise this kind of person was a regular occurrence! I find it very odd