Shared drive with neighbours - Am I not allowed to block my own half of the drive?

SneaksyWhippet

mr_stripey said:

SneaksyWhippet said:

The layout you describe is uncannily similar to my house, except I am the one with with lamp post.

Dropped kerbs are in shown in dashed red. We actually have a fence where the dashed orange line is, between the two driveways. The pink circle is the lamp post.

When I want to reverse the red car onto my driveway, it requires some wiggling around the lamp post. Generally that is fine, but if there is a car parked where the yellow one is (where my neighbour across the road often parks, obstructing part of their own dropped kerb), or if the purple one is covering part of our dropped kerb, it can be tricky. In fact if the road is busy, any cars blocking any part of any of the dropped kerbs (ours, or opposite) can even make it tricky to reverse the blue car onto the drive too.

My neighbour generally parks in the purple location (they're currently in the process of re-doing their driveway, so don't park on it at the moment), but occasionally their visitors block part of our dropped kerb. I've always managed so never said anything, and it's very rare, but it is a problem for me when they do. It looks as if "my" lamp post may be in a less problematic position than for your neighbours so it's potentially more of an issue for them.

For the sake of neighbourly relations, and being considerate, I would avoid blocking any of your dropped kerb. Park in the purple position where possible (grab the space with your own car earlier in the day if required when you're expecting guests, so your guests can park on your drive), or elsewhere on the street. If your parents struggle to walk far, maybe you could park further down the street and they could use your drive.

Blocking the dropped kerb is causing problems for your next door neighbour, but may also be causing issues for people across the street if the layout is mirrored on the other side.

PLOT TWIST - you are next door neigbours with the OP....

Haha I almost made that comment myself...but my neighbour doesn't park on their drive at the moment, only has one car and I've never complained to them about parking! 

blue_max_3

He should just park his cars, to make it impossible for his neighbour to access their driveway. That would save him worrying about making it difficult. And he'd have the use of at least four spaces. Win, win.

ChocolateWombat

Reading this old thread.

The basic principle seems to me that the OP should not be inconveniencing her neighbour who lives there, to benefit the visitors.  If anyone should be inconvenienced, OP should be bearing the minor inconvenience.

There was an easy solution - OP could move their car ahead of parents arriving.  This meant elderly parents could park in front of house and neighbouring residents still had easy access to their own off-road parking.  OP would simply need to work in the road where there was space and walk back.  Why haven’t they done this already?  The inconvenience to themselves would be minimal and it would deliver a benefit to their visitor and neighbours.  The right thing is usually to out yourself out slightly like this, rather than put someone else out.  OP stresses this happens rarely, so quite why they couldn’t move their own car onto the road remains unclear.  The only thing I can see is that they were obsessed with their own ‘rights’ and preferred to have their own and parents’ convenience even if it did put the neighbour out and inconvenience them, and remove the access they had a right to by living there.

We have some off road parking, but not enough if we are around and have 2 or 3 car loads of visitors.  Our default position is to move ourselves if there is someone with limited mobility coming.  We would expect to walk a short distance back to the house and not expect a limited mobility guest nor an immediate neighbour (especially if we had one whose access to their drive was impacted by some parking patterns) to be inconvenienced.

Sorry but OP sounds like the kind of person who if they had 5 cars and space for 2 or 3, would be parking their extra cars outside the homes of neighbours who don’t have any off road parking, or at the end of a curl de sac where a turning circle is meant to be for everyone to use.  The multiple cars cause inconvenience and further walking for everyone else, but never Op.

Ath_Wat

ChocolateWombat said:

Reading this old thread.

The basic principle seems to me that the OP should not be inconveniencing her neighbour who lives there, to benefit the visitors.  If anyone should be inconvenienced, OP should be bearing the minor inconvenience.

There was an easy solution - OP could move their car ahead of parents arriving.  This meant elderly parents could park in front of house and neighbouring residents still had easy access to their own off-road parking.  OP would simply need to work in the road where there was space and walk back.  Why haven’t they done this already?  The inconvenience to themselves would be minimal and it would deliver a benefit to their visitor and neighbours.  The right thing is usually to out yourself out slightly like this, rather than put someone else out.  OP stresses this happens rarely, so quite why they couldn’t move their own car onto the road remains unclear.  The only thing I can see is that they were obsessed with their own ‘rights’ and preferred to have their own and parents’ convenience even if it did put the neighbour out and inconvenience them, and remove the access they had a right to by living there.

We have some off road parking, but not enough if we are around and have 2 or 3 car loads of visitors.  Our default position is to move ourselves if there is someone with limited mobility coming.  We would expect to walk a short distance back to the house and not expect a limited mobility guest nor an immediate neighbour (especially if we had one whose access to their drive was impacted by some parking patterns) to be inconvenienced.

Sorry but OP sounds like the kind of person who if they had 5 cars and space for 2 or 3, would be parking their extra cars outside the homes of neighbours who don’t have any off road parking, or at the end of a curl de sac where a turning circle is meant to be for everyone to use.  The multiple cars cause inconvenience and further walking for everyone else, but never Op.

Have you heard about that battle down in Hastings?  What are your views on our new Norman overlords?