Parking issue with neighbours

princesspinky

Hi everyone,

We moved into our rented house 2 months ago, our neighbours have a scrap van and also a small car.

We have a drive for our 2 cars, they do not have a drive.

They park both vehicles on the road, day and night, and quite often block our drive so we cant get on off!!!

We have been very polite and asked them if they mind pulling forward so we can get on/off etc and they turn round and say ohh give me 10 minutes :mad:

I have 2 dogs and a baby on the way! :eek: i am really stressing about the future when baby is here.. i cant keep sitting in the car waiting 10/15minutes sometimes more for him to move his van so i can get on the drive and in my house! :mad:

Someone else in the road has complained to the council about his van before and he shouldnt leave it parked there overnight but he does!

Is there anything that can be done?

battleborn

Get 2 traffic cones and place them either side of your drive.

Or, start parking where he parks, so he can't block your drive, he should then get the message.

Good luck hope this gets solved as I understand your frustration.

browneyedbazzi

Does your drive have a properly dropped kerb? If it does then he can be fined for obstructing the drive by the council's civil enforcement officers. If you give them a call and let them know when it is often a problem they should come round and pop a PCN on the vehicle - one or two of those should get the message home. You may also be able to get the council to paint lines across the end of the drive to make it clear that it's a no-parking area (although you may have to contribute to the cost for this as councils are rather cash strapped and this sort of thing is optional so low down the priority list).

If your kerb isn't properly dropped then technically you shouldn't be driving over the kerb to park on the frontage and there's nothing wrong with him parking there.

princesspinky

Thank you.

Yes the kerb is properly dropped.

Out of the 6 houses by us, we are the only house with a drive and a dropped kerb.

gazzak_2

I have neighbours who also think nothing of parking halfway over our drive making it difficult to get out. They have 3 cars and no drive, we have 2 cars and space for both on the drive, but the entrance to our drive is 1 car width.

Eventually this pi**ed me off so much, (after politely informing them that their parking made it VERY difficult to get out), that I simply parked both our cars on the street, and in a way that I was close enough to the drive entrance that they couldn't park there, and taking up 2 spaces outside ours and their house with 1 car. As the street is quite crowded anyway, they were badly inconvenienced. I kept this up for a month, (told you I was pi**ed off), and after parking on the drive again we haven't had another problem.

battleborn

If you have a fence nearby, you could hang sign saying "please do not block driveway"

battleborn

gazzak wrote: »

I have neighbours who also think nothing of parking halfway over our drive making it difficult to get out. They have 3 cars and no drive, we have 2 cars and space for both on the drive, but the entrance to our drive is 1 car width.

Eventually this pi**ed me off so much, (after politely informing them that their parking made it VERY difficult to get out), that I simply parked both our cars on the street, and in a way that I was close enough to the drive entrance that they couldn't park there, and taking up 2 spaces outside ours and their house with 1 car. As the street is quite crowded anyway, they were badly inconvenienced. I kept this up for a month, (told you I was pi**ed off), and after parking on the drive again we haven't had another problem.

Thats the way to do it, glad they got the message.

PollyOnAMission

I've been in a similar situation with one of my neighbours for six years! It's a nightmare; I feel your pain. In my case the offender is my neighbour's son, who visits daily. I've spoken to him multiple times but he is the type who just does NOT care in the slightest, and the type who would not be at all bothered by a ticket/being reported (he'd just ignore it). It's impossible to reason with people like that! He's shouted abuse at me multiple times while I've always been polite (which causes him to call me posh and stuck up).

I started parking over my driveway where he always parks, and he had the nerve to call ME selfish! He's on another planet.

On a practical level your options are

a) Report it to the council (you'll be able to find their procedure on their website; in my council's case they have to observe the vehicle there for 20 minutes) so he will get tickets/be towed. This may or may not open his eyes and make him stop, but it is also likely to anger him and could make your life more difficult.

b) Try to have a real conversation with him, where you explain calmly exactly why it is bothering you, suggest alternatives for him, and explain the law regarding dropped kerbs. Mention that you may sometimes have to leave in the middle of the night, and point out that it wouldnt' be ideal for him that you'd have to disturb his household. If he's the type to care about other people this might appeal to his better nature, however if he's the type to not give a flying fish it won't affect him in the slightest.

c) Try to come to some kind of compromise with him, e.g. he can park there during the day while your household is at work (for example), but that at evenings, weekends and overnight you want free access. This is really unfair on you and he has no right for this kind of understanding on your part, but practically it could be one of your best options.

d) Start blocking your driveway yourself (one car on your drive, one on the road) so at least you can always do the moving yourself. However this could be a pain and you may not always get there first.

e) Move house

I've tried b, have ended up with c (sort of), do d when I can (housemate/visitors block my car in on the driveway rather than park elsewhere on the street, which I would choose to do anyway to keep the street free for other people to park) but ultimately I'm aiming for e. In my case a isn't really going to happen because, to be honest, I'd be frightened of repercussions. The offender in my case is NOT a nice character.

I really feel for you

aileth

Shame they don't have a drive so you could do it to them in return. I bet they wouldn't find it so acceptable then.

Georgiegirl256

battleborn wrote: »

Or, start parking where he parks, so he can't block your drive, he should then get the message.

This is exactly what I would do! He can't really kick up a fuss, after all, it is YOUR driveway.

This would annoy me so much :mad: I was parked in my parents driveway once, and the family of the woman over the road parked right in front so I couldn't get out, then when I went to tell her, she had an attitude about it like I had done something wrong :mad:

mad_dr

PollyOnAMission wrote: »

Mention that you may sometimes have to leave in the middle of the night, and point out that it wouldnt' be ideal for him that you'd have to disturb his household.

Bingo! When your baby arrives you'll be up at all hours of the night feeding, etc so every so often, when they've blocked your drive and you're up for the 2:30am feeding, go and bang on their door claiming that you need to nip out for some nappies and then suddenly realise that you've got some stashed in the cupboard that you momentarily forgot about...