Am I Breaking the law if I park in front of an unoccupied off-street parking space?

foxandco

Am I right in assuming that no law is broken if I park in front of an unoccupied off street parking space, i.e a house owners off street parking space?

In the past, my local newspaper has printed an article stating the police and council will not intervene in disputes where a car has been parked across the entrance to an off street parking space that is empty.

Am I also right in the belief that the lines painted on the road are merely curtesy lines and once again have no legal definition?

My job, heating engineer, means I have to visit numerous properties every day and many of the roads I visit are almost empty of parking spaces, so I park in front of an empty space and leave the house number where I am working and a contact number. I usually have at least one altercation a week with the house owner who believes that not only do they own the parking space on their property, but also have the divine right to the road space in front to it, including the right to sanction who can and cannot on the road in front of their OSP space.

When I point out out they have no right to the road space and have paid for the right to travel over the pavement to access their off street parking space only, they usually become apopleptic with rage and threaten to call the police. Often, when I enquire, do they need me to move, in order to park a vehicle, the answer is usually "No, my partner won't be back until this evening".

On the two occasions I have refused to move, having first established they had no need of the space and the police having been called. I have been called on my mobile and asked to move and when enquiring as to what authority they have to ask me to move I have received two differing responses.

1: You are causing a public nuisance and disturbing the peace!
2: No offence is being committed Sir, but if you were to move it would make life easier for everyone.

Please someone..... What is my legal standing?

nic_santorini

look up the law on obstruction of a highway. If there is no car on it, you are not obstructing anyone on the highway, so I think you are right. If there is a car on it and they want to get off, you are then causing an obstruction. Double check though

Coupon-mad

It's no contravention unless you are in a Special Enforcement Area (Google it). So if in London - any London borough - you would get a PCN from the Council for Code 27 (parked adjacent to a dropped footway). Lots of threads like that on pepipoo:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=30

But it's not just London so you would need to be sure that the Council where you are working do not enforce dropped kerb contraventions. THere will be no signs at all to tell you one way or another, the only place you could check would be the Council website I suppose. Many do enforce this rule nowadays as it's a good moneyspinner for the Council with no outlay for signs or lines; in my area they do and I am in West Sussex, not London.

HO87

To stop on the highway and in so doing knowingly block someone's off-street space thus preventing access to or egress from it is, regardless of what anyone has told you, an offence - wilful obstruction of the highway (s.137 HA 1980). The definition uses the word wilful and all that means, in this context, is that you parked knowing that you were blocking someone's space but carried on and parked anyway. The fact that the space is not currently being used and is unlikely to be so for some while - and demonstrating that you had made such enquiries, leaving a means by which you could be contacted would mitigate the offence. Were the police to show up and you refuse to move your vehicle this would inevitably, and in short order, lead to your arrest.

However, whether the police would take any action without there being a direct complaint I would think unlikely and if by some miracle a patrolling bobby came across your vehicle and considered it a problem then the first thing he would do is to speak to you to get you to move it.

On the other hand there is the real issue of breach of the peace into which you could be drawn because of the actions of some Jeremy Kyle-fuelled foul-mouthed fishwife. The police have a duty to maintain the peace and if that meant that the aforementioned human public-address system was made to shut up by your moving your vehicle at the request of the police then I would suggest it would be wise to do so. Unless, of course, you fancied a trip to the local custody suite.

There is no simple, single answer to this situation and you are going to have to gauge each stop on its merits. Don't, however, be under any illusions as to your status if you do block one of these off-street spaces. Being ready to move, if necessary, has to be the watch word - and, clearly, already is.

maninthestreet

Try parking in the road across the entrance to your local police station car park - see for how long the Police 'refuse to intervene'......