parking on street - neighbours say we shouldn't

[jaybee]

Yeah the whole "my space" thing is cringe obviously. As long as the neighbours refer to them as "the spaces" are being taken by your 4 cars, I think that's ok. When it becomes about a specific space because it's nearest to person X's house...that's selfishness again so...
Is it worth it over some cars ultimately? A balance definitely needs to be struck. With 4 cars then yes, I think your driveway needs to be full with the 3 cars to justify parking the 4th in the road. How long does it take to shuffle the cars ultimately

 

[pepp77]

I'm going to have to disagree to some extent. Yes it is first come first serve, but....he has 4 cars. FOUR. OK this is temporary and will eventually go down to 3 but still. As has been pointed out, it is always best to try to get on with neighbours. You say that they have not converted their front spaces to accommodate cars. Yes but you do not know their circumstances. Maybe they cannot afford to. Maybe they live in rented houses. Maybe they never had a problem before you came with 4 cars and therefore it is a major change in their lives to have to now struggle to park when they arrive back home after work or whatever.

We have a long single file driveway where you can park 2 or at a push 3 cars in a row, and yes we do often have to shuffle the cars about. I do this because I'm nice and it frees up road space for guests of other houses and our neighbours guests and cars. It goes both ways. I think you are being a bit selfish thinking in the way you are thinking. You are right that you are entitled to park publicly as you wish but the point is that you have to live with these people day to day. I'd hate to be hated by neighbours as it just adds to daily stress so close to home. We have work for that.

Some households do need to own several cars... I get that. We are one of them with 2 and soon to be 3 I expect. In the future it could be 4. But I'd feel a right **** taking up any more public spaces than I had to. If it had to be regular I would park one of mine far away down the end of the road for example.

He might have had 4 cars in that one instance, but as 2 are always on his drive, it only means he had for that one instance the same number of cars on the road as the moaners and normally he has less cars on the road than the moaners.

Anyone who sides with the moaners over this needs to be a bit more realistic that you cant moan at someone for doing something legal in exactly the same place as you are.

 

[jaybee]

He might have had 4 cars in that one instance, but as 2 are always on his drive, it only means he had for that one instance the same number of cars on the road as the moaners and normally he has less cars on the road than the moaners.

Anyone who sides with the moaners over this needs to be a bit more realistic that you cant moan at someone for doing something legal in exactly the same place as you are.

So "legally" parking 10 vans that you own in the road is fine?

 

[Greebo]

Why should he? These neighbours don't own the road.

Because sometimes for peace and quiet and getting on with your neighbours this can be the better solution rather than starting a neighbour war which can quickly escalate.

Then you find out you struggle to sell your house.

 

[Greebo]

know the feeling we have a grass verge outside ours and the world and his son always park on it , royal mail/deliveries even takeaways, never outside nextdoors etc always ours.

our verge looks terrible theres is almost pristine...so makes me want to put stones around it , but know im not allowed grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Some people do that in our village esp on the verge at a tight t junction. There is no way i can turn the horsebox down my lane without going onto the verge so i always take great pleasure in running over all the rocks and dragging them along the verge trashing it every time I drive the horsebox home

 

[Nasher]

Some areas do have local rules about parking. But the council doesn't care until someone complains.

E.g. I live in a cul-de-sac and you aren't supposed to park anywhere on the road, even in the gaps between driveways. I think it's to do with fire engine access. Also visibility for people coming in and out.

Most residential areas also have rules against parking up commercial vehicles over night.

 

[lordrobs]

We have three cars and three off road parking spaces but they are single file. If I need/want the front car out I have to shuffle all three. Yes its a PITA but the alternative is to park outside our front garden which is directly opposite two drives. They could still get on and off their drive with one of our cars there but it would make their life more difficult, which I'm not prepared to do. On the odd occasion I did park out there for an hour or so I'd have the car half up on the grass.

This was the situation for 8 years then Covid hit and my neighbour brought home a mini bus daily and parked it outside our house. Nothing stopping him doing that but I found it quite ironic that he gave zero thought to those two drives he'd near enough blocked. He does have a drive but doesn't use it as the layout is pretty terrible plus another neighbour has an arrangement with the person on the other side of him that he can park his van outside his garage... as long as he leaves enough room to get the door open, which leaves next door with a tricky parallel parking move to do every time they get home or want to go out.

Words were said (not by us) so the mini bus then moved outside his place and their car went to the hammer head at the end of the close. Several months of cat an mouse then went by where the person who's house was in front of said hammer head would claim the space and as soon as they went out the other neighbour would claim it back. Hammer head person has off road parking for 3 cars, 4 at a push. They have 2... That ended up in words being said with both feeling the other was unreasonable.

So... we now have a fantastically complex situation where 5 houses are annoyed with at least one other household... all over parking. Thankfully the mini bus is gone and its no longer an issue and everything is back to normal but it just shows how one extra vehicle can cause no end of issues. Also how a "I can legally park there and it makes my life easier so deal with it" attitude would have made this situation permanent if I decided to make everyone else suffer because I choose to have a toy car.

OP - a garden is a garden, not an unconverted drive way so get that thought out of your head for a start. Also you say they don't have drives but also that they park zero cars on their drive so which is it? If you mean they don't park on their garden then... well... that's not what they are for

 

[jaybee]

We have three cars and three off road parking spaces but they are single file. If I need/want the front car out I have to shuffle all three. Yes its a PITA but the alternative is to park outside our front garden which is directly opposite two drives. They could still get on and off their drive with one of our cars there but it would make their life more difficult, which I'm not prepared to do. On the odd occasion I did park out there for an hour or so I'd have the car half up on the grass.

This was the situation for 8 years then Covid hit and my neighbour brought home a mini bus daily and parked it outside our house. Nothing stopping him doing that but I found it quite ironic that he gave zero thought to those two drives he'd near enough blocked. He does have a drive but doesn't use it as the layout is pretty terrible plus another neighbour has an arrangement with the person on the other side of him that he can park his van outside his garage... as long as he leaves enough room to get the door open, which leaves next door with a tricky parallel parking move to do every time they get home or want to go out.

Words were said (not by us) so the mini bus then moved outside his place and their car went to the hammer head at the end of the close. Several months of cat an mouse then went by where the person who's house was in front of said hammer head would claim the space and as soon as they went out the other neighbour would claim it back. Hammer head person has off road parking for 3 cars, 4 at a push. They have 2... That ended up in words being said with both feeling the other was unreasonable.

So... we now have a fantastically complex situation where 5 houses are annoyed with at least one other household... all over parking. Thankfully the mini bus is gone and its no longer an issue and everything is back to normal but it just shows how one extra vehicle can cause no end of issues. Also how a "I can legally park there and it makes my life easier so deal with it" attitude would have made this situation permanent if I decided to make everyone else suffer because I choose to have a toy car.

OP - a garden is a garden, not an unconverted drive way so get that thought out of your head for a start. Also you say they don't have drives but also that they park zero cars on their drive so which is it? If you mean they don't park on their garden then... well... that's not what they are for

This is exactly why I do think through the situation if we were to get another car. Currently we have 2. Adding a third would complicate parking a little bit. There are times we need a third but have so far worked around it. I like the simple life of having 2 cars and a drive that comfortably takes 2. we possibly could do 3 hence why we have been looking at a Mini as one of the best short hatchbacks that is still relatively decent.

 

[lordrobs]

This is exactly why I do think through the situation if we were to get another car. Currently we have 2. Adding a third would complicate parking a little bit. There are times we need a third but have so far worked around it. I like the simple life of having 2 cars and a drive that comfortably takes 2. we possibly could do 3 hence why we have been looking at a Mini as one of the best short hatchbacks that is still relatively decent.

Definitely give it some thought. We didn't plan it this way as my MX5 was my only car, my wife used to get public transport to work 4 days out of 5 and I'd mainly commute in hers. I then changed jobs and got a company car hence ending up with three.

The three car shuffle is a pain. If a couple of neighbours have people over or just one visitor on the street when we had the bus issue and it was too much of a logistical chore to bother with so I'd just take whatever was at the bottom of the drive.

Likewise when we have visitors, I normally end up shifting one of the cars out of the way so they have somewhere to park.

My neighbour the other side got so fed up with shuffling cars he converted his front garden but I'd rather not have a car within 18 inches of my living room window

 

[watercooledman]

once this has started it will carry on and on.

 

[squerble]

We currently live on a terraced street, and with many of the houses (including ours) having 2 cars, space can be at a premium sometime. There are certain neighbours who are steadfast in their belief that have to be outside their house at all times, often moving their car two houses down if someone leaves so they can be closer to their own etc, but not leaving a car's length in front or behind so then you lose parking capacity.

Quite sad really - I appreciate it's frustrating when you can't get in front of your own home, especially when you're laden with children and shopping, but it's a public road and everyone has exactly the same right to park wherever they please. Most cars are the width of the houses so it's not even possible to park car-to-house as it were, as there'd be no room for manoeuvring. We're looking to move in the next couple of months to somewhere with a drive though, and one with enough room we can get rid of the front garden and make space for two cars off road, leaving the pavement free for our visitors or other neighbours etc.

To OP, I'd agree with some others here that you should have stood your ground to the point of "sorry, it's only for the weekend" or whatever and left it at that.

 

[ahar]

Yuk, the only way to fix this is get neighbours together and bring bottle of single malt to hammer out some informal rules between you. Once you're 1/2 way down the bottle it should be easy to agree.

That said, my wife's aunt has had a parking war with their neighbour for ages - they bought a cheap car and insure and tax it just so they can park it on the road where it ****** him off. Sad times.

 

[Bluecube]

So "legally" parking 10 vans that you own in the road is fine?

It may be in your title deeds that you’re not allowed commercial vehicles in your driveway even if they’re your own. If someone files a complaint with the council then generally the council will tell you to park on the road even if you’ve space in your driveway!

 

[CrazyGreggy]

Sorting it out amicably is the quickest route to it being ancient history. If either of you starts antagonising, it'll either rumble on for years or start to escalate. My neighbour has 3 cars, one of them is sometimes parked in such a way that you can only get 1 car in a space that'll fit 2. We're opposite a primary school, so there's often some clown that blocks the drive, either fully or partially, for half an hour or so while they drop the little one (who I can only assume doesn't possess legs) off.

The last thing I'm going to do is storm out there waving my warrant card around, it's not worth the endless grief and stress of escalating it. My neighbour doesn't even know I'm in LE, and I'd prefer to keep it that way.

 

[MrRockliffe]

What’s your boxing stance like OP?

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

People can be so funny about parking.

I have a driveway that can fit 4 cars on it. 1 car is stored on there and rarely moves, and we have two cars that move often. We often get station parkers using our street, and it winds up a lot of people who did not convert front gardens into driveways.

One day I had a large delivery of soil coming, so I moved my car and put it on the road not outside a house (opposite a green-space). It was there for about 5 hours. When I came back, it had been keyed....

 

[Hades]

If they blocked me in like that I would buy a crappy shed of a car and leave it permanently outside their house.

 

[200sols]

Because sometimes for peace and quiet and getting on with your neighbours this can be the better solution rather than starting a neighbour war which can quickly escalate.

Then you find out you struggle to sell your house.

The neighbours sounds like idiots, starting to block cars in etc. They escalated it not the OP, I wouldn't be explaing myself in a situation like that.

 

[pioneer2000]

interested to hear what we can do.

our drive way comfortably allows 2 vehicles, or 3 with the 3rd blocking the other 2. we park on the drive, and 1 on the road, as well as have motor bikes on the drive too.

today for the first time we've had an extra vehicle so put that on the road too, so now 2 on drive, 2 on the road, by weekend it'll be back down to 1 on road.

So why wasn't it 3 on the drive and 1 in the road?

 

[Greebo]

The neighbours sounds like idiots, starting to block cars in etc. They escalated it not the OP, I wouldn't be explaing myself in a situation like that.

Exactly. Already the neighbours have escalated it. Rightly or wrongly the Op for the sake of peace with the neighbours should have moved one car when first asked.

I have been there and done that with neighbours. Starts off with one small thing where they are in the wrong and a few months later its all out war.

Now we hate each other, wont even speak to each other and report each other to the authorities over the slightest thing.

I got a court order against him and had to get the police involved and shopped him to building control.

Started years ago when we complained about the building work noise and dust.

Just not worth it IMO.