Where do I stand regarding parking over my own driveway?

RachVG

Long story, I apologise - hoping to give as many details as possible!

We've lived in our house for almost 20 years, with the same neighbour the whole time. We've always been friendly, but in the last few years this particular neighbour has had some health issues, his wife hasn't been at all well, and he doesn't leave the house at all any more. This means he now spends all day getting himself involved in things that aren't his problem.

We have a driveway down the side of our house. It's a very thin driveway - you can get a car in but you can't get the doors open - I know this as I put the my car (a tiny 3 door Aygo) there once to wash it and I could barely get out. The family who lived here before us used to use the driveway to drive down into the back garden and park there, but long before we bought the house from them they had the garden changed so there's no parking round there now. This driveway (and our back garden) are a legal right of way for him, as he lives in the middle of the terrace and has no other way to get his bins out for collection, etc. We were advised of this before we bought the house and it's never been an issue.

We have an outhouse in the garden, recently he noticed the hinge was damaged and decided that it would be terrible if the door fell on us (!) as there's only me and my mum here (I'm 27, Mam is in her 50s - not elderly at all!) so when his daughter came to visit and Mam and I were both at work, they changed the hinges and put a latch on for us! He thinks he's being helpful but it's annoying/frustrating, and probably technically trespassing as the right of way documentation we have follows a specific path through the garden and the sheds are not part of that route!

Anyway, the parking part of my issue: the driveway is shared. He no longer has a car or drives, so I park in the spot he used to use - in front of my gate, just next to a bus stop (so I can't park any further forward or I would be in the bus stop). Around Easter time, a visiting car from up the road was parked in the spot behind mine, in front of our dropped kerb/drive. Everybody who lives on the street knows the driveway isn't used for cars and it's fine by us if people park there because if there's somebody in my space, I'll park there too. But at Easter, he called the police (on Good Friday!) and they came out. I'm not sure exactly how the conversation went but they found the owner of the car and asked him to move it. Apparently this was because my neighbour had claimed emergency vehicles wouldn't be able to get around the back if there was a problem.

As I've mentioned, it's a VERY thin drive. There's no way an emergency vehicle could ever get around the back, apart from possibly the cycling paramedic - and his bike wouldn't be obstructed even with a car parked in front of the driveway!

Since then he's grumbled about it to us when other people that we don't know have parked there but he's never said anything about me doing it, because he knows it's my car so if I needed to move it, he knows who to ask. In fact two days after he had this man's car moved on Good Friday, his daughter visited and parked there herself!! He didn't have a problem with that!

About a month ago I woke up to find a note through the door asking me not to park there. We'd arrived home about 9.30pm and when I got up at 10am the next morning, his note was already there! The car in "my" space hadn't moved, so it was Saturday before I actually moved the car.

On Monday, we discovered he'd left a voicemail on our landline on Friday night complaining that "I see R still hasn't moved her car" and that that I'm "in breach of law" and infringing on his access rights. By this point I'd moved the car so we ignored it, and he never mentioned a thing to either of us despite Mam being kind enough to wash their bedsheets, buy them some groceries etc.

Since then, I've been lucky in that I haven't had to obstruct the driveway at all in that time - the few times people have parked in "my" space, I've been able to inch close enough to them that it doesn't block the driveway and it hasn't blocked them in because the bus stop at the other side is always empty so they can always get out. Each of these times I've moved my car back into "my" space as soon as they've gone.

Sadly last night I got home at 11.30pm and there was a car in my usual space; I blocked the driveway, the car in "my" space left mid-morning today, and around 12.30, after lunch, I went out to move my car forward. We found a letter on the mat - typed up - listing his rights in terms of right of way and being very confrontational. We have decided to ignore the note (again) - Mam has put it back in the envelope and back on the mat so she can claim ignorance if he mentions it, but we suspect that he won't!

After the last note we got out some documentation that came when we bought the house which states that he's allowed to get his horse & cart up the drive (it's a very old house!!) but an updated letter from the 1980s states he has no vehicular access, so I really don't understand his problem!

Since it's my driveway, even though he has a right of way, he can't ask me to do this, can he? The driveway itself isn't being blocked, he can get his bins out etc with no problem - in fact he could easily get a wheelbarrow, bike, anything he likes except an actual vehicle which has always been agreed isn't part of his access right anyway - I'm not blocking the driveway gates, just the access on to the road itself. I only park there when other cars are parked in front of my gate and as soon as they move, I always move the car forward so the drive isn't blocked as I know how he feels about it.

Our Council is Selby District Council if that helps - I'm no great legal mind so I have absolutely no idea which websites to check for these kind of things!

Coupon-mad

You are possibly in danger of him calling the Police to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice for obstruction I think.

If this website is up to date then it seems that Selby do not operate Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (i.e. the Council do not issue parking tickets in your area, only the Police?):

http://www.newparkinglaws.co.uk/blog.aspx

Look near the bottom of the link, it says Selby are not operating decriminalised parking enforcement (underneath that, there's a section on 'Parking Next to a Dropped Kerb' but don't get bogged down with that because it's not relevant to a Council not operating parking enforcement, yours is not a 'Special Enfoprcement Area').

Personally I think I would still park there when you need to, and have a pre-printed notice in your glove box to display on the windscreen when you need to. Summat like 'This car belongs to the owner of xx Name of Road and the driveway is not able to be used for vehicular access so any temporary parking in front of this driveway is authorised by the homeowner and not causing any obstruction or access issue.'

Hopefully then any PCSO called by MiseryGuts would read the note and ring your doorbell if he calls them, rather than just issue an FPN.

devonlad

Well written and not to long.
To me this sounds like a case of "have nothing better to do". My father in law is the same since he retired, everything is a disaster or a problem. When he moans about something we just nod and go along with it.
Yours sounds a bit more complicated. Perhaps you should arrange a meeting with your local council to get them to explain who has what rights etc. If they do say you are not doing anything thats good cos as he playing by the book and the law he will have to abidde by the councils ruling. He might not like it but at least you can rest easy, well untill he finds something else which i bet he will :beer:

taffy056

Can I ask why don't you or your mam actually speak to the chap? It all sounds like a sledgehammer to crack a nut, you are neighbours and have been for 20 years. Its odd that you are communicating only in writing, and are ignoring the fact that its good to talk

RachVG

Thanks for all of the opinions - the glovebox note is a good idea as something to have handy! Meeting with the council or popping in to have a word with the police are also good suggestions - Mam manages a deli in the town and often puts together buffets for the police training courses, perhaps she can have a quick word when she next speaks to one of them!

Taffy, good question! - I haven't actually seen him since this all started, I work a fair distance away so I'm out of the house between 7.30am and 8pm, and we know they're always in bed by 8.30 and then they get up early the next day. They mostly live in the back of the house so I only see them in passing very rarely.

Mam has been in their house since the first note to take them some groceries and return their washed sheets - she decided she didn't really want to cause massive confrontation or "sour relations" (a term of his own from the latest note!) so if he didn't bring it up, neither would she (as he's the one with the problem, not us), and he didn't, so she let it drop.

One of us will probably say something now that a second note has emerged - for now we're ignoring as we'd rather have all the facts when we do speak to him! He's one of those types of people who think they know all of the laws, and even if he doesn't he phrases things as if there's no question he's right, so we'd rather be sure!

Buzby

All this would disappear if you agreed to the removal of the dropped kerb. It is this that will always result in police enforcement. As the driveway is yours you can ask for the rights of the dropped kerb to be extinguished, but you might have to pay for the works (or get a contractor to do it).

At a stroke, this will solve the issue.

devonlad

Buzby wrote: »

All this would disappear if you agreed to the removal of the dropped kerb. It is this that will always result in police enforcement. As the driveway is yours you can ask for the rights of the dropped kerb to be extinguished, but you might have to pay for the works (or get a contractor to do it).

At a stroke, this will solve the issue.

Good one didnt think of the curb one that prob best

It sounds very awkward but you sound honest etc and they been good neighbors so tactics be good he might to be involved with a solution to distract him from moaning.

Buzby

He probably won't realise the significance of the removal, and still complain, cut without the drop there is no recognised right of access - so you'd be safe!

PasturesNew

RachVG wrote: »

Since it's my driveway, even though he has a right of way, he can't ask me to do this, can he? The driveway itself isn't being blocked, he can get his bins out etc with no problem - in fact he could easily get a wheelbarrow, bike, anything he likes except an actual vehicle which has always been agreed isn't part of his access right anyway - I'm not blocking the driveway gates, just the access on to the road itself.

Could an ambulance crew get him down the driveway and into the ambulance in a wheelchair?

The thing is, if he has a right of way, then whether you decide how much room he needs is irrelevant if he has the right of way over the whole width. He can come out and do cartwheels along it if he wishes, or if his visitors wish.

RachVG

I'm not sure whether or not removal of the dropped kerb would be an option for us, at least cost-wise if nothing else, but I'll certainly mention it to mam as one of the possible options!

We get the impression that his long term behaviour was one of the things that led the previous occupiers to move house, and after 17 years of pleasant neighbourly-ness I certainly hope he's not going to get so bad that he drives us out too!

PasturesNew wrote: »

Could an ambulance crew get him down the driveway and into the ambulance in a wheelchair?

The thing is, if he has a right of way, then whether you decide how much room he needs is irrelevant if he has the right of way over the whole width. He can come out and do cartwheels along it if he wishes, or if his visitors wish.

Yes, they could. Easily. And they would be more likely to take him down the front path anyway, which they have done with his wife on numerous occasions over the last year or so, but if for some reason they needed to get around the back, they certainly could.

Surely the point is that I'm not blocking his access to the drive itself at all? He can get whatever he likes in and out of the gate and onto the pavement - he can happily use the full width. The only thing he can't do if I park there is get down onto the road (public highway), and as his right of way doesn't include vehicular access to his property it shouldn't be an issue.

bhafc123

Block of garages at back of houses - some are owned privately and one rented (council) - they are in a bad state of repair - massive cracks and leak badly...
A neighbour wants pull his down and build a new one....but of cse this will affect the other garages - all joined together.....can we be forced to to build another one or share the cost of building these?
We own our house but I'm curently unemployed and we cannot afford to build another garage? or share in cost of......we dont have a car but use it for extra storage....when we bought the hse the garage was included in the sale.