Dropped kerb issues

Roxy123

hi there

some months ago new neighbours moved in 2 houses down from us. The street we live on is fairly busy and where we are there are mostly terraced houses on our side. In front of the houses there is a section marked with dashed white lines where residents park although it is not a residents only parking scheme or anything. Some residents seem to have dropped kerbs and paved front gardens. Most of these are okay however the neighbour referred to has to stick out slightly when they park on the garden. They have a dropped kerb but also a marked parking bay at the front.

When they first moved in the woman was moving her furniture using a borrowed van and reversed the van into my car whilst I was fetching things from the back seat. It was a fairly strong "bump" and caused me to fall sideways hurting my back. She must have known that she hit me but ignored me completely and started moving things into the house. I politely said "excuse me, you do know you hit my car don't you" to which the gentleman (?) said "oh, well I can't see any damage". I told him that I would like the insurance details as damage isn't always obvious and he said he would bring them round later. He never did and as there was no obvious damage I left it despite being a little sore where I'd fallen.

Some time later and I had returned home from work early as I was quite unwell. There is a new estate being constructed opposite us and the workmen had filled up the parking area. The only space in the parking area was in front of their dropped kerb so I parked there. I would not normally park in front of someones drive however they didn't always use it themselves (presumably because the car doesn't fit properly) and once the workmen left there would be plenty of space.

I had gone to bed feeling awful when I was woken by thumping on my door. My daughter answered the door and the woman who had driven the van into my car was very abrupt and quite rude insisting that I move the car immediately. I made my way to the door to explain but she'd apparently stormed off after I wasn't out to move my car in the 60 seconds she thought was reasonable.

I got dressed and moved the car however she had parked in one of the available spaces and never bothered to move it onto the garden.

Today, once again I was home early and feeling rough and again there was nowhere else to park. I had intended to move the car once the workman outside the house had gone however it had slipped my mind until the thumps on the door started. I went to the door and again she was shouting and rude - I could perhaps understand this if there had been nowhere else to park. I was in the middle of something and told her after her attitude last time she could wait a few minutes until I was ready.

My daughter then sees someone from their property walk in front and down the road side of the car with an arm stuck out towards the bonnet. My son and I go out to look at the car and find it has been keyed across the whole width of the bonnet. I knocked on their door (which the man finally opened after 3 or 4 minutes) and asked why they'd felt the need to damage my car. He didn't seem to know what I was talking about (or played dumb) and I was about to return home to ring the police to report it when the woman and a relative came towards me. The relative (herein referred to as "mother") came right up to my face in a very aggressive manner and started shouting at me for "constantly causing trouble". I pointed out the the only "trouble" in the 6 months (not certain of time exactly) they'd been living there was them reversing a van into my car and the two occasions I've parked in front of their house and both times that had happened they had been aggressive over it. I was accused of claiming they'd caused my car to "rust" when they hit it and that I said they'd damaged the car (although she couldn't say to whom this had been said). I was told I lived in a dump and asked if I'd stopped dealing drugs (I have no idea where this torrent of abuse stemmed from but it certainly wasn't factual).

I have reported the keying of my car to the police but I would like to check that I am correct in thinking that the charge of parking alongside a dropped kerb does not apply where you are parked in a designated parking area - which I believe I was?

I know there are those on here that will say I was inconsiderate and shouldn't have parked in front of their house and I accept that, were the situation reversed, I would want the car moved however I would not have acted the way they have on any of the three occasions and the fact that they have only had my car parked there twice in that time should make it clear that it's not some campaign against them, merely a result of the major works of the new builds causing temporary parking issues that should be able to be resolved with a polite request to move the vehicle at the earliest convenience.

If I was a vicious and vindictive as them I would report their car when it's parked on the garden for overhanging the footpath but I really don't want this to escalate further, just have the car damage repaired.

esmerobbo

The problem is you can park over their dropped kerb and if they don't complain you will probably not get a PCN or an FPN, it used to be you can block people out but could not block them in! Now some councils and Police are enforcing blocking the dropped kerb.
However saying that if the anti social maggots have already damaged your car then I would imagine if you parked there again they will do the same!