It's my drive

No, I do not tend to worry about such things. It hardly matters in the grand scheme. ..

I think that wretched "Imogen" got into my head, and as Lynnie1 says, it hardly matters in the grand scheme. At least my neighbours, who are parking on our drive at the moment, have a skip that I can use. Yesterday was great, I even persuaded DH to have a bit of a clear out. But of course that means today we have to sort out his study. These little things always lead to bigger things IYSWIM. . Thanks for all the suggestions, but can't see a way to block our drive that would be beneficial to us, without being a pain also. But, hey ho, the sun is shining. Lovely day to one and all.

lynnie1 I know it doesn't matter really except in my pocket! We have already paid out about £500 in materials to repair the road and don't want to have to do it again next year. If we don't repair it the postman will not deliver and it doesn't do the car suspension any good, which means car repairs.

Can you park your own car toward the end of the drive to block intruders and if the headlight glare disturbs you, maybe window shutters indoors ?

I have lived on a main road and my shutters were fabulous allowing total blackout when required and adequate concealed snooping when I felt there was something an old nosey parker like me might enjoy.

In my last house, my driveway was one of only a few in a street of terraced cottages. I always welcomed my neighbours parking to drop off shopping and children for a short time, they always checked it was ok. What I really objected to was the odd builders truck parking there, and then disappearing, leaving me to knock on doors up and down the street, it was even worse if I was returning from shopping to find a vehicle there and no sign of the owner. On summer fete day in the village all and sundry tried to treat my drive as a public car park and we had to resort to a barricade.

Until his partner threw him out, our next door neighbour parked outside our house for eight years even though there was space for him to park elsewhere without upsetting anyone. As long as the vehicle is taxed, insured etc. there is nothing you can do.

Lynnie1, While I agree it does not matter in the grand scheme of things, it's about the way we treat one another.

I have the same problem, it's really annoying as we have a shallow concrete ramp to our drive and it's starting to crumble from all the vans that come down our lane following their satnavs wrongly, and don't want to turn around in the muddy layby at the very bottom of our dead-end. It drives me mad, especially when their lights flash in our windows and we think we have visitors.

If I am in the front gardening when it happens, the hedge hides me from sight at first, so when they drive in, I race to their windows, tap on it and ask if they need help, are they lost... Those offenders tend not to repeat. However, I started over the course of time to remember the license numbers, and became aware that three of the offenders actually live in our lane, and all have their own drives - so why don't they use them to turn in? I don't understand what they are doing, apart from one of them who lives just diagonally from us. He has a lovely wide drive, but keeps the gate shut all the time during the day and parks outside so as not to have to keep opening his own gate - so he uses our drive to turn around if he needs to go out again during the day, not his. I let him off because he is very arthriticky and well into his 80s, but the other two, male and female, are far younger and I have to console myself with the thought that they are crap at reversing.

Same problem here but my main worry is about damage to the underlying services - water, sewage, gas, whatever else is down there. We couldn't afford repairs which might be caused by heavy delivery vans and lorries turning, sometimes very large. We have 3 adjoining parking spaces, one of the reasons we bought the house. We live in the countryside, near the sea, and parking is a valuable asset in this narrow hill with no pavements.

Clever husband had a good idea - we now park diagonally across the spaces, blocking access. We move the car for visitors and don't mind helping neighbours out, they always ask and we might need them to help us one day.

Chains, plant troughs, boulders - all would work but would reduce the spaces to 2, and we often need all 3 for family visitors.

We've had brick pillars (gateposts but without gate) knocked down 3 times, once taking three feet of wall with it, 3 planters smashed, one wheelie bin dragged down the road and a recycling box broken. Not a suitable opening for a gate but it would be nice to get a barrier that would go up, as in a car park! Though I expect that would get broken too.

NanaandGrampy here is a link that you might find useful:-

www.gov.uk/private-renting/houses-in-multiple-occupation

Auntie foo, buy a box of tin tacks and sprinkle them over your drive. Then hide behind your curtain and watch the fun.

Sorry Auntie Flo, not Auntie foo, blame auto correct!

Well yes Tigger , that's exactly it ...

It is not just the damage done to drives and annoyance, it can be a matter of life and death.

My uncle and aunt lived in a narrow road where most houses had no off road parking. My aunt had a serious medical condition that at times required DU to bundle her into the car and get her to hospital quickly. DU kept his car in his garage but often couldn't get it out because cars were parked in front of it. Fortunately the local police were helpful and after they had come round and put parking tickets on the ofenders a few times, the problem was more or less solved.

Yesterday someone "parked" in stepson and partners front door!! She reckoned her foot got stuck between the brake and accelerator (an automatic) The house is now unsafe and they have to find temporary accommodation until it is rebuilt!!

nonnasusie that must be a nightmare, I would want to move as I would be worrying in my sleep.

Nonnasusie, how awful, at least my moans are not dangerous, hope all goes well for your stepson and his partner, and that they find somewhere safe and warm to stay while the repairs and insurance are sorted out.

I think I may have previously posted about a particularly unpleasant neighbour who made life very difficult from the moment we moved in (at one point actually knocking on our door to tell us we weren't welcome in the village!)

On the day his daughter got married he told the guests to park in our drive (around 6 cars) making it impossible for me to get my car out of the garage. At the time my DH had his own JCB which was parked in a field at the rear of our property, when he arrived home he knocked on the neighbours door and told him to get the cars moved because he was going to start up his JCB and use it to move the cars himself!

If he had asked for permission we would have agreed but he was so arrogant that he assumed we would just put up with it.

Our neighbours have had some work done on their drive.they have two cars and quite a large motor home. The knocked on our door on Wednesday to ask if we would mind having the motor home parked in front of our house.we told them to put it on our drive but they wouldn't in case it inconvenienced us.
They moved it this morning and P has just been across with a beautiful bunch of mixed tulips from M&S to say thank you.What a varied lot people are.

Thanks hallgreenmiss useful link. So the house is a HMO but is not a large HMO which needs a licence as its not at least 3 stories high even though it has 6 tenants plus the landlord in a 4 bed house with only 2 bathrooms.

Might have to ring the council and see if there's anything that can be done about one house having 7 cars .... Probably not

What about one of those chains with spikes used to stop cars. They wouldn't do it twice!!!

Trisher, We'd probably get sent a bill for new tyres!

If it is a public road you do not have any rights to the space on the road outside your house.
There are often rules about not having caravans or possibly large motor homes in your front drives.

As for turning in someones drive I suspect you are probably allowed to pull onto the dropped kerb by the gateway to help you turn around but should probably not go into their gateway.
Sometimes if it's a very narrow road with other parked cars there is little alternative.

You do have the right to be able to drive out onto the road, though!