Parking in front of driveways

phill79

wendy24g wrote: »

Dont make me laugh, here they think its reasonable to build town houses on an estate with no parking at all! Idiots. There are plans for another 1000+ houses and I read that they are trying to have less than 1 parking space per house???

PS love the sig

I think the garage counts as 1 space and the drive is another, whether the garage can actually fit a car in is not important apparently.
I agree, totally stupid.

brightonman123

are there any markings on the road, or a no parking sign in view? may be worth putting a (polite!) note on theie windscreen..

then consider slashing the tyres if they keep on..

Freddie_Snowbits

Firstly rule 243!

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_069860

The use some heavy rocks across the entrance.

Thridly, use what snooze did.

Nicki

Got back from the school run today to find someone parked in the driveway again. Decided to do as kr15 said and block them in (keeping a very close eye out to make sure I didn't get a ticket from the traffic warden as my car was then partly on the pavement and partly on my drive. The woman came back after an hour and a half, and was furious with me for blocking her in because she was "just visiting her mate" and it was all residents parking along the main road. We had a stand up row and I said I wouldn't move my car to let her out until she forked out the same amount she would have paid if she had got a parking ticket. She ended up throwing a tenner at me, I moved the car and she drove off almost in tears.

I did feel bad about making her so upset, but I was very annoyed that I hadn't been able to park myself for over an hour, and by the assumption that it was fine to park in my driveway if she wanted to visit her mate, rather than ask her mate for a visitors permit for the road, or to park in the carpark at the back of her mate's block of flats (which is presumably also residents parking), and that I was being unreasonable to complain about it!

hollydays

I think you have to be very careful here-you may have overstepped the mark demanding the money.

Nicki

hollydays wrote: »

I think you have to be very careful here-you may have overstepped the mark demanding the money.

I'm interested to know in what way?

She was on my land (effectively in my garden) without permission, therefore trespassing. I was within my legal rights to stop her coming back onto the land to get her car (indefinitely), and also (according to both my local police and the local authority) to call a tow truck and have the car towed away. I could therefore have either deprived her of her car for a long period, or forced her to incur a significant amount of money reclaiming it from a private tow company. I gave her a clear choice of either compensating me for the inconvenience she had caused me, or enduring one of these two alternatives legally open to me. I can't think off the top of my head of any civil or criminal law I broke by doing this (I am a lawyer) though I haven't I must confess researched the position specifically. However if you are aware of anything (or think you might be) I'd appreciate knowing about it, and will take this on board in the future.

It does seem to me though that I need to take a very tough line on this (as we live in an area where parking is almost impossible) otherwise I will never be able to park my own car on my own land (a privilege for which I paid very heavily in the inflated purchase price of my house which I bought only a few months ago)

hollydays

While she no doubt got the cheaper option,in your original post you failed to mention (!!?) that you gave her the option to have her car towed away. Stopping her coming onto your property is one thing ,demanding she pay you £10 when you are not authorized to do this,is a different matter.Isn't this why private clampers were regulated.

There seems to be a problem,no doubt,but taking the law into your own hands?

In your post,you didn't ask her for the £10 for inconveniencing you,you said it was for what she would have paid,had she received a parking ticket.

Morally she was wrong,and needs to be taught a lesson, but..

Nicki

hollydays wrote: »

While she no doubt got the cheaper option,in your original post you failed to mention (!!?) that you gave her the option to have her car towed away. Stopping her coming onto your property is one thing ,demanding she pay you £10 when you are not authorized to do this,is a different matter.Isn't this why private clampers were regulated.

There seems to be a problem,no doubt,but taking the law into your own hands?

In your post,you didn't ask her for the £10 for inconveniencing you,you said it was for what she would paid,had she got a parking ticket.

But I can ask anyone for any amount of money to perform a service for them? I don't need to be authorised by anyone to do so. So I could say to you that I will do your ironing if you pay me £10, and that is all perfectly legal. I can also say that I will let you look around my house for £10. In this case I don't see why I am doing anything different, or taking the law into my own hands.

Yes, I did tell her she would have paid £40 for a parking ticket if she had parked illegally on the road, and that was what I first asked her for. The fact that I negotiated on the price though shows that I wasn't "demanding" a set fee. She did have choices - she could, as I say, have waited either until a tow truck came onto my land with my permission and took her car to another venue (then negotiated with them to release it), or she could have waited until I moved the car because I wanted to use it (hoping this was before a tow truck came), or she could pay me for my time and effort of moving my car which was blocking her in. I hadn't immobilised her car in any way (as clampers do), I was just refusing her permission to move across my land to get it, and refusing to move my own car off my own land to let her out.

I'll have a look and see if I can find the law regarding clampers and see if it applies but I doubt it, as this wasn't a car park or commercial premises, but my own front garden she was parked in.

hollydays

Clampers have to be regulated on private land too. Ironing isn't a regulated activity(shame ).Negociating is done between two people,not by one.

Nicki

This link is quite interesting http://www.nationalparkingcontrol.co.uk/ethics.asp

You do need a licence to clamp someone who parks on your land without permission, but not to "fine" them for doing so (which is effectively what I did, I suppose). The fine must be reasonable, but here they are suggesting that £90 would be enforceable so £10 is positively cheap by comparison! I might actually think about registering with this company as they can track people down via their number plates (which obviously I can't do as a private citizen) so I wouldn't have to block them in with the car and go to the effort of moving it again to let them out, could just slap a ticket on their windscreen. Still means I'd have to find somewhere else to park my car though which would be a pain.