Dropped Kerb - unusual question

kiddy_guy

They only had 1 car and parked it on their drive.

specialboy

kiddy_guy wrote: »

Thanks all.


It is really the issue of getting off that's the problem.


I do understand that it's not illegal, but it could be constituted as an offence that is either ticketable or towable, but that assumes that they are blocking tmy drive, when in fact, they are technically just blocking theirs.


As regards the H bar - as it's just 1 double drop kerb, it's one continuous H bar covering both drives.


I will discuss it with them, but I cannot believe they are so ignorant that they cannot realise what an issue it's causing.[/QUOTE]



They wont know its a problem until you point it out to them, knock on their door and ask them to park 2ft back.

specialboy

Iceweasel wrote: »

I agree about not posting a google street view - I never meant that you should and I apologize if you thought I was.

Lowered kerbs and white lines have no meaning in law at all - they are there to discourage people from parking.

Parking on a white line at a lowered kerb is not an offence in itself.

However blocking you in is - that would be a crime - but you are saying that it is possible to exit.

Parking and blocking your entry is not a crime and is of no concern to the police.

Daft as it may sound, you have an unassailable right to exit your property - but no rights at all to enter it.

I think you need a friendly chat with your neighbours and explain/show them the difficulty you are experiencing.

No need to mention laws, rights, or police at all - at this stage.

Can you provide a link to that please because im sure the law/rules changed a few years ago to make it an offense either way.

esmerobbo

When they park on the drive do they block the pavement?

flea72

Reverse onto your drive, that way you can enter the road, head-on, and not have to slide out, over your neighbours side.

The problem isnt your neighbours right to park over their dropped kerb, its the fact your driveway isnt deep enough to park head-on. Easiest way to solve this is for you to pay to have the dropped kerb widened/moved

esmerobbo

Driving out would always be best, but I assume if you need to reverse out at an angle you would need to drive out at an angle?

I once lived in a house with a similar problem, my neighbour could go straight in up the side of their house, I couldn't and my front garden was not long enough to take the cars length. So I had to park at an angle nearly parallel with the house to get my car off the pavement. To get out I had no choice but to go over part of my neighbours drive, luckily it was never a problem as they needed to swing into my property if they wanted to take their car into the back.

Having a chat with them would be best they may not realise that they are making it difficult for you to get out.
If as I asked above they are blocking the pavement, you could point out they could get nicked for it!

Nodding_Donkey

If you can drive in you can reverse in, job done

esmerobbo

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

If you can drive in you can reverse in, job done

Indeed but you may still have to cross onto the neighbours side of the drive! (As I did)

Iceweasel

Parking on a white line at a lowered kerb is not an offence in itself.

However blocking you in is - that would be a crime - but you are saying that it is possible to exit.

Parking and blocking your entry is not a crime and is of no concern to the police.

Daft as it may sound, you have an unassailable right to exit your property - but no rights at all to enter it.

specialboy wrote: »

Can you provide a link to that please because im sure the law/rules changed a few years ago to make it an offense either way.

I have looked for any info to clarify this and it's difficult.

You are right in that the law changed in 2004 with the Traffic Management Act.

But the whole dropped kerb and white line thing is a complete nightmare and must be researched with regard to your particular locality.

There are different rules that apply only in London, some in England (and Wales?) only and God knows what the situation is in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Highway Code says 'do not' - it does not say 'must not'. So that is no help.

Some councils will only take action in busy commercial areas and not in residential streets.

The Police are of use only when there is a car which cannot access the 'highway' from a drive and are no real help in accessing a driveway from the highway.

It's made complicated because a car may be hidden in a garage at the end of a driveway, and not obviously being blocked as a car sitting on the driveway would be.

Whether it's actually a crime or not doesn't help as it's certainly not one of their priorities. I wouldn't advise anyone to dial 999 because they couldn't get onto their driveway.

Here are 3 interesting finds:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?189892-Blocking-my-Driveway-Help-please

https://www.sevenoaks.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/82321/Leaflet-Explaining-New-Parking-Contraventions.pdf

http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/white_bar_faqs_may10.pdf

Maybe someone else can find clear 'Chapter & Verse' on this one.

kiddy_guy

Hi all again - thanks for the many replies !


So...


They are literally parking over about 4ft of the H-bar. Or they have visitors that do so. They can't move back because they're parking there because there's no more spaces available. Basically they're being lazy and don't want to park round the corner on a nearby road. They cant reverse back a little bit, as there's another car there in a recognised space.


They are not blocking the pavement unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you see it.


We can't easily reverse onto the driveway as explained, and increasing the width of drop curb would not help as we still can't park on the driveway without being at an angle.


Completely agree that my driveway isn't deep enough to park head on, and we can only park at a slant, but it's not been an issue until the new neighbours arrived. We would have to drive out at an angle in any case even if reversed on, so whilst it would be better, the nose of a large estate car would be poking out onto an A road, rather than the tail - either way without decent visibility you're taking a chance. It doesn't help also that the vehicle they choose to park over the T bar is a large 4x4.


It's a very tricky one to know whether technically they are just being a PITA or are actually breaching any rules.