Allocated parking vs driveway - does it matter?

mi-key

I think it can depend on what the street is like as well. My previous  house had a drive you could fit one car on, and space out front for another ( was a standard 1930's bay fronted semi, so each plot was a decent width ). On the rare occasions I couldn't park outside there were two long stretches where our street connected to the main road, so were along the side of the long back gardens of the houses on the main road so you could always park there instead.

Where you get terrace or modern crammed together houses without drives though it can be a nightmare if each house has 2 or 3 cars, and only really has space outside for 1. Half the time you see a space further along the road, and when you get there realise you couldn't fit a smart car into it !

lookstraightahead

mi-key said:

I think it can depend on what the street is like as well. My previous  house had a drive you could fit one car on, and space out front for another ( was a standard 1930's bay fronted semi, so each plot was a decent width ). On the rare occasions I couldn't park outside there were two long stretches where our street connected to the main road, so were along the side of the long back gardens of the houses on the main road so you could always park there instead.

Where you get terrace or modern crammed together houses without drives though it can be a nightmare if each house has 2 or 3 cars, and only really has space outside for 1. Half the time you see a space further along the road, and when you get there realise you couldn't fit a smart car into it !

Actually yes that's a good point. We're on a lane really and it's not close to anything like a train station / school, so the only people on the road are the residents.

Gavin83

Thumbs_Up said:

Noneforit999 said:

If we had to move again, a driveway for at least 2 cars would be something I would not compromise on, irrespective of how many other boxes the house ticked. 

I wished my ex-neighbour had you your mindset, bought his dream forever home, the only problem was he had only space for 1 car. It doesn’t matter though, he pays his road tax, so he can park his second car anywhere he pleases.  

Assuming he was parking legally and also not on someone elses land then your ex-neighbour had a point.

People get very funny about parking but ultimately no one has a greater right to park a piece of road than anyone else, assuming no parking restrictions are in place.

lookstraightahead

Thumbs_Up said:

Noneforit999 said:

If we had to move again, a driveway for at least 2 cars would be something I would not compromise on, irrespective of how many other boxes the house ticked. 

I wished my ex-neighbour had you your mindset, bought his dream forever home, the only problem was he had only space for 1 car. It doesn’t matter though, he pays his road tax, so he can park his second car anywhere he pleases.  

I had a neighbour who thought the road outside of her house was hers and asked other neighbours to move their cars 😂. We had to explain that it wasn't her road. 

Thumbs_Up

You are assuming he/she was parking at the front of my house, and you assume correct, and yes, yes, he/she paid the road tax, so yes, you are entitled to park “legally” wherever you like.

2nd day in he/she knocked on my door “can I park outside your house”

1 week later, engine oil leaking profusely all over the road, he/she even topping up the engine oil later on.

1 month later, goes on a 2 week holiday, takes the car he usually parks on his drive, and leaves the leaky one outside my house.

6 months later, without asking me, decides to trim my hedge so he can park closer to the kerb.

Yes my friends, you may mock me, but I will bang on this message forever more...The  best neighbours to have, is to have no neighbours. Ah, life’s rich tapestry.     

lookstraightahead

Thumbs_Up said:

You are assuming he/she was parking at the front of my house, and you assume correct, and yes, yes, he/she paid the road tax, so yes, you are entitled to park “legally” wherever you like.

2nd day in he/she knocked on my door “can I park outside your house”

1 week later, engine oil leaking profusely all over the road, he/she even topping up the engine oil later on.

1 month later, goes on a 2 week holiday, takes the car he usually parks on his drive, and leaves the leaky one outside my house.

6 months later, without asking me, decides to trim my hedge so he can park closer to the kerb.

Yes my friends, you may mock me, but I will bang on this message forever more...The  best neighbours to have, is to have no neighbours. Ah, life’s rich tapestry.     

Tbf I get the no neighbours at all bit 😁

Abbafan1972

user1977 said:

Blank11 said:

Abbafan1972 said:

Definitely driveway - but I would try and avoid shared driveway/access with a neighbour. 

The driveway is actually shared with the neighbour if you’re meaning there is no fence or separation between the two houses driveway. What issue would shared driveway pose? 

That’s not “shared” then, so not a problem.

I was meaning that most neighbours will be ok, but on the off chance your neighbour turns out to be an A-hole and has more cars/frequent visitors. The prospect of them taking up more space and blocking you in/out would put me off. 

dannim12345

This thread reminded me on a time I went for a meal at a village pub. A resident on the street called the pub to say a car (mine) was blocking their drive. I didn’t think it was but went out. My car was parked fine/legally but being close to their drive meant they would have to do a couple of turns to get in rather than just drive straight in.  I was already out there so I just moved but couldn’t believe it.  

Ditzy_Mitzy

dannim12345 said:

This thread reminded me on a time I went for a meal at a village pub. A resident on the street called the pub to say a car (mine) was blocking their drive. I didn’t think it was but went out. My car was parked fine/legally but being close to their drive meant they would have to do a couple of turns to get in rather than just drive straight in.  I was already out there so I just moved but couldn’t believe it.  

People can be very funny about that sort of thing.  I once parked partially across the mouth of someone's 'drive' without realizing, on the basis that the entrance was so overgrown with bushes that vehicular access to the property was impossible.  When I got back the householder came out in high dudgeon, railing about the fact that I had 'blocked his drive'.  I asked him what he was talking about, and he pointed out a hitherto unseen - by me - drive surface with grass growing on at least half its width and a carport almost completely obscured by hedging.  There was no car in said carport, for obvious reasons.  I asserted, politely, that there was no drive, in the factual sense, to obstruct and that no vehicle could be driven onto the property.  The householder started shouting about how that 'wasn't the point'.  I left him to it.  

n.b. There was a dropped kerb, but I assumed it was just an extension of the drop for the drive of the house next door.  Silly me.  

Postik

lookstraightahead said:

I had a neighbour who thought the road outside of her house was hers and asked other neighbours to move their cars 😂. We had to explain that it wasn't her road. 

I had this when I parked outside someone's house once, something I normally try and avoid.  The woman came out and asked me to move, so I politely agreed that I would.  But as I was moving the car it got my goat when she said, "You're not allowed to park there" so at that point I got into an argument with her and pointed out that whilst I was willing to move the car, it was a public road that she didn't own, and technically I could park where I liked.  I couldn't get the message through to her and eventually it resulted in her threating to call the police.  I was with my wife and kids at the time so hardly a threat, I think it was at that point my wife told her to go away and phone the police, and bizzarely the woman said she would do it another day

Back to the issue at hand, I used to have a shared driveway (it was a driveway divided into 3 "segments" on the deeds).  There was room for 2 cars in each segment but I used to park mine further back to avoid being dinged by one of the neighbours.  To be fair he used to park slightly off his section to give me more room to get in and out, so it was all amicable.  Had it not been, it would probably have stressed me out.

As someone else posted further up, in a car park I will park miles away from anyone else, and look for the "bonus" spaces (those on an end where you only have to park next to one car rather than two, or where there's an odd space that has been made extra wide).  I keep my cars for longer than most and can't stand them getting dinged.  For that reason, I would hate allocated parking where I had to park close to someone else every day and be at their mercy as to whether they dinged my car or not.