Allocated parking vs driveway - does it matter?

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I suspected my neighbour was dinging my car door on our shared drive, evidence being chip marks along his car door edge that aligned with my slightly dented door. I never took him to task about this because he was a good neighbour I didn’t even mention it in passing. oh, my car was worth 1.5k his 35 grand.

robatwork

You obviously already know the answer to the question as you have asked "is 12 more than 5?" - there must be more to it.

Is your question about value - what is the value of a drive given the properties are identical maybe? 

Noneforit999

This is a no brainer, if you have the choice you would be mad to prefer allocated parking over a driveway.

In a car park, I usually park as far away from other cars as I can manage in the hope nobody parks next to me (doesn't always work) so I couldn't bear parking next to someone outside my own house each day. 

Each to their own though.

cymruchris

Definitely a driveway for me over allocated parking. There's always hassle about people parking in your space - parking badly around your space - and sometimes using permits that expire. I once had a car in my allocated space with a valid permit, and was away for a month, the permit expired - a new one was sent in the post - but as I wasn't there to attach it, I came back to 8 parking tickets. All were cancelled - but it was a waste of time and effort resolving it.

user1977

Assuming a normal sort of layout, a driveway is also effectively additional garden space for kids to play on, DIY, or whatever else you want to do with it - whereas an allocated parking space is probably only going to be suitable (and legal) for parking a car on.

Ditzy_Mitzy

There's allocated parking and there's allocated parking. I've lived in a maisonette that had a private car park immediately outside and an allocated space adjacent to my front door. There was no competition for spaces and the area was ample for the cars of residents and visitors. To all intents and purposes the allocated parking was identical, in a practical sense, to having a drive.

A car park with narrow spaces twenty yards away from the premises would have been another matter. Look at where the spaces are, what access is like and, crucially, how wide they are when making a decision. A space that mandates reversing in will be inconvenient, on occasion, when you want the boot facing the front of the space. Narrow spaces are irritating and so on.

I wouldn't counsel against allocated parking per se, but you need to give serious thought to how good it is. As an aside, there are often service charges applicable to communal car parks. Arguably, one is also obliged to maintain a private drive so there are costs associated with both.

hildasmuriel

It also depends on how wide the drive is. If the drive is particularly narrow, you might end up like our neigbours who have never used the drive at all on the grounds that it is 'too much hassle to drive into and reverse out of'. Much easier to sling it on the pavement. 😏

molerat

My son has allocated parking. Not in front of his house as those 2 belong to a house in the next part of the street, go figure. Most houses have 1 space and there are a couple of visitor spaces. A house at the far end of the cul de sac has 4 cars, a work van, a trailer and a caravan. Absolute chaos and no spaces left for visitors. My private drive, and the same with all the houses on the street, has space for 2 cars. There is also street parking space in front of the houses unlike with my son's house. And it is great being able to cut up a 5 metre plank or 8x4 board, have a cement mixer running, have huge deliveries and all sorts of other uses for that space. And not having every passing dog peeing up your wheels. It makes life so much easier. When house hunting a private driveway was probably the top tick box.

YoungBlueEyes

Private driveway for me too.

The main thing of it is this. Your driveway is your own, allocated means someone else is letting you have a go on it for x amount of time and under these conditions. What if they change those conditions? No logo'd work vans. No caravans or boats. Now you need a parking permit. Now we're charging you for that permit. Etc etc etc.

spoovy

I had a place with allocated parking a few years ago. Wasn't really a problem until they started building a new housing development round the corner, then suddenly my space was occupied by a selection of scaffolders, brickies, roofers etc every day for the next 18 months.

We were supposed to have a parking management company to deal with this stuff but they did literally nothing, which I gather is not unusual.

How do you fancy having a row with a different granite-faced Lithuanian brickie every single day for a year or ?

I've now got a driveway.