Fencing off parking on private road?

[WallyBird]

Originally Posted by maninthestreet

It's a private road - buy an old banger that still looks reasonably ok, declare it SORN (so no road tax, mot or insurance required) and park it outside your house where this person parks.

Not sure how this would help - I assume the OP wants to be able to park near own house, so they can take the baby and shopping in? This would just reduce the number of places and annoy people more.

However, the OP is quite lucky to have so many spaces for the number of cars - I have enough room for at least one big car on the road outside my house (maybe two small ones) but it is always full with people from other houses/roads/B&Bs. Nothing I can do, except not use the car! On our road, we do try not to block "other people's" spaces, unless there is no option. But I guess the situation with your neighbour has gone beyond that, so you will just have to put up with it and be glad you don't end up having to park quarter of a mile away, up a steep hill, and across a main road! (That is what can happen round our way.)

I do understand that it is frustrating not to to have your own spot, I feel the same, but it really does not sound too bad as long as there are always enough places on the road. Maintaining good relationships with your neighbours is more important than parking on "your" side of the road.

[BobQ]

Originally Posted by mummybaker

Is there space at all to have a small driveway put in and dropped curb? if there was even if it was big enough for a smart car it would help. They then legally cannot block your rights of access or whatever its called. I know this as I once got towed when I forgot I'd parked over a friends neighbours drive by about 5 inches and then had a drink so left the car over night. I came back to find they'd called the police and had it towed despite it being a double drive and them having a micra. Very petty but it was the law and cost me £150 to get my car back.

I am always having to but up with selfish parking like that. It should have been £1500

Seriously it may have been petty in the situation you described but its amazing how many people think that being slightly over the drive is OK (however difficult it makes turning out) or say "well you only had to ask me to move" or "sorry but we were only there for 5 minutes".

[BobQ]

There is really not enough information to answer the OP's question. Looking at the plan it seems unlikely that the space outside number 11 is allocated to the owner.

I once owned a house that had a shared private vehicular access to allow access to the garages at the rear of the houses. There were always disputes over inconsiderate parking on the area outside the garages but the deeds did guarantee access to the garages and rear gate via this shared area of land. My conveyancing solicitor explained that the land was probably still owned by the builder who had erected the houses, but was of no commercial value to the builder since he had granted free rights of access over it in perpetuity. He said that the usual outcome in this situation was that when access route needed to be repaired the then residents would have to adopt the land and repair it themselves at which point the original builder would almost certainly sell them the land for a nominal sum to avoid the hassel or accident claims. The OP may have a similar situation.

I think the big issue is whether the owners of the houses without the road in front of their houses have any right of access to the private road. Were all the houses built at the same time by the same builder?

[G_M]

The fact that it is a private road seems to me to probobly be irrelevant!

If it was a public (adopted) road, with that set-up, you would have no right to park outside your house. Everyone would have equal rights to park wherever they wanted.

Neighbour disputes are unpleasant, but sadly from time to time they occur, and in this scenario I see little you can do other than try more negotiation, or accept it.

If a parking place was an essential requirement, you should have either bought somewhere with a drive or double-checked the legal set-up in this private road!

Yes, as suggested, the Land Registry is the place to look for confirmation of road ownership, ROW etc, but don't hold your breath. It is VERY unusual for a road to be split up so that each house soley owns the section of road outside. Much more likely to be joint ownership of the whole road, or zero ownership but a ROW.

[deannatrois]

When I lived in a house on the edge of a large council estate, we had allocated parking, the residents of the council estate didn't. So of course, there was one nasty man who used the bay in front of our house. I Politely told him that the parking space in front of our house was allocated to and needed by us and he replied in much the same vein.

So every time he parked there I stuck a large notice on his windscreen pointing out that there were other parking spaces and could he please not use this one. He soon started parking elsewhere (not in the neighbour's parking spaces either). Needless to say, I used the stickiest most awkard to get off tape I could find to stick the notice to his windscreen.

I'm sure its not the sort of thing a person should do.., but it worked.

[J i m]

It's definitely annoying if you have an allocated bay and then someone else decides to park in it, it's even more annoying if you've just done a 14 hour day at work and all you want to do is go to bed and not search the streets for a alternative parking space.

But non allocated road is simply first come first served, no rights.

[kev225]

The deeds are pretty useless, don't even show who's responsibility the fences in the back garden are.

The houses seem to all be the same style so I would assume were all built by the same builder, but that will have been a very long time ago, nobody seems to know who owns the road.

I'm going to put some metal posts down with a chain to cordon off the road in front of my house. Only the owner of the road can complain since I won't be blocking right off access down the road. Since evidence of ownership has been lost in time I'm pretty sure no-one will be able to do anything about it.

Perhaps not the most legal/moral course of action but we'll see if it works, if not I'll just have to remove the posts, costing me little.

[BobQ]

Originally Posted by kev225

I'm going to put some metal posts down with a chain to cordon off the road in front of my house. Only the owner of the road can complain since I won't be blocking right off access down the road. Since evidence of ownership has been lost in time I'm pretty sure no-one will be able to do anything about it.

Perhaps not the most legal/moral course of action but we'll see if it works, if not I'll just have to remove the posts, costing me little.

Well that is one solution. Might work or might lead to a punch up

Have you considered asking the other neighbours who back on to the service road what they think. If you could get them to agree a couse of action you might jointly be able to get some legal remedy.

[evansmummy]

We live on a unadopted road with a similar set up to you. Everyone is generally respectful that the space outside your house is yours to park in even if it is unoffical.

I think maybe trying to talk to her again, with baby on hip and loads of bags at your feet. If you're polite about it instead of demanding it might appeal to her better nature.
If you start getting angry about it she'll do it all the more.
Unfortunately, unless you find aomething that says otherwise, you live on a street where it can't be enforced so you have to deal with it. You do have an advantage of having spare spaces opposite which a lot of terraced streets don't.

[Strapped]

Enjoy your neighbourhood dispute!

[giddypenguin]

Originally Posted by kev225

Moved into our house a couple of months ago, fully knowledgeable that parking was a bit awkward.

So you knew it was a problem before you moved - therefore it must be a problem for everyone else, and yet you still moved in and now your plan is to claim a bit of land for yourself?

Just over a year ago, we sold our old home, 50% of the reason we moved was due to parking. Knowing that everyone was in the same situation on our street, and how it annoyed everyone, if someone had just moved in and did this, there would have been fireworks.

Are you sure that this space is worth the potential stink this is about to kick up? Why should you have anymore right to a space outside your house than anyone else? Just because you can't find evidence of anyone else owning it, does not make this right (even if you will 'get away with it')

[andy.m]

parking is a VERY contentious issue.
Almost everybody is under the misapprehension that they are entitiled to park outside their home.

[giddypenguin]

Oh, and on my old street, if someone had of done that, I'm pretty sure someone would have parked on it anyway.

[Strapped]

Originally Posted by giddypenguin

So you knew it was a problem before you moved - therefore it must be a problem for everyone else, and yet you still moved in and now your plan is to claim a bit of land for yourself?

Just over a year ago, we sold our old home, 50% of the reason we moved was due to parking. Knowing that everyone was in the same situation on our street, and how it annoyed everyone, if someone had just moved in and did this, there would have been fireworks.

Are you sure that this space is worth the potential stink this is about to kick up? Why should you have anymore right to a space outside your house than anyone else? Just because you can't find evidence of anyone else owning it, does not make this right (even if you will 'get away with it')

Also, owning a piece of land sometimes doesn't give you exclusive parking rights anyway, depending on what the original planning for the land says. (As my neighbours have recently discovered the hard way! Shame they wasted their money buying the road off the developer )

[kev225]

Quite a few people have said that just because we knew it was an issue before we bought we should put up with it.

We knew it was an issue and have the intention of doing something about it if possible. Just like we knew the floors were bare so we fitted carpets. The only difference is this might not work. Unfortunately we're not rich enough to move into a place with all we want without working a little at it.

I left a polite note explaining why parking in the space opposite instead (no extra effort for her) would make life easier for us, she responded 'tough s##t'. Who's being unreasonable?

No, we may not have the 'right' to park in front of our house, but rational people would think it's not that much of an ask, we have one car unlike the two/three/four of others on the street and there are two spaces in front of our house.

I'm going to mention it again to her in person and if she's still ignorant and rude about it then I'll push it as far as I can since there'll be no nice neighbourly relationship to ruin.

[Strapped]

Originally Posted by kev225

I left a polite note explaining why parking in the space opposite instead (no extra effort for her) would make life easier for us, she responded 'tough s##t'. Who's being unreasonable?

<snip>

I'm going to mention it again to her in person and if she's still ignorant and rude about it then I'll push it as far as I can since there'll be no nice neighbourly relationship to ruin.

You left a NOTE on her car? Was this your first contact with your new neighbours?

Ummm, yes...perfectly reasonable. Now I strongly suspect this is a big wind-up.

[Errata]

If there are two spaces in front of your house I don't understand what your parking problem is. One for you, one for her would seem to be a solution.

[giddypenguin]

Originally Posted by Errata

If there are two spaces in front of your house I don't understand what your parking problem is. One for you, one for her would seem to be a solution.

From looking at the diagram and the thread, I think there are more cars than spaces.