Parking

Ahh the on-going parking arguments! As has been said IF they are parking on the road with no restrictions then it doesn't matter if they are outside your house or not.

I live in an area where a lot of the houses were built pre-cars! Then came the car...and most people could park their car without upsetting their neighbours.......then came the time where most families had two cars.......it became a problem....arguments galore. Now, as you say OP, some families have in excess of 3 or more!!!!

I understand your frustration, but IF your problem is not that you can't park your car/s only that someone parks outside your house, I fear there is little point in getting your blood pressure raised and damaging your health over this issue. Actually even IF you can't park outside your house there is little you can actually do. Sad, but true!

Its a sign of the times I'm afraid. Just to make you feel better (maybe) a friend of mine in Edinburgh, had a parking permit but as she lived in tenement buildings there were never enough parking spaces for the amount of permits issued. She often found she couldn't park and so had to park round the corner.........but she didn't have a permit to park round the corner........I can't count the amount of parking fines she amassed over time! I counted myself lucky then if the only problem I had was neighbours parking outside my house.......

Totally understand though

Moving to the middle of nowhere might not sort the problem.
I live rurally in a detached house with a large gravelled area all around the house and a 200ft 'driveway' that's about 3 cars wide.
And yet we still have Parking problems!
About 100mt away across the main road there's a Catholic church with a massive car park. Easily parks 100 cars (not marked spaces). The church is about a mile from the main village so only a handful of houses actually nearby.
Our parking problems occur when there's a big funeral, which can happen at least once a month.
Prior to the funeral, you have the wake whereby everyone (and their mother's aunty's third cousin twice removed) comes to offer condolences to the family of the deceased. There simply isn't enough room for everyone to park in the massive car park so they spill out onto the road and started to park up our driveway.
We first realised it was a serious problem shortly after moving in. Generally about 6pm in the evening, we'd have a procession of cars coming up the drive and driving around our house to turn around, driving back down the drive and parking either side of the drive leaving a space in the middle. (That's why I know it's 3 cars wide!)
When we went out to protest, no-one could see the problem and it was always 'but we're just here for the wake?' as if that made it ok.
One evening, some numpty started trying to pull up one of the fence posts that run along side the drive to open up the field for parking (!!!) until my husband yelled at him to stop. I also pointed out to the idiot that a large amorous bull lived in that field and he might take a shine to his car.
We've had to lock the metal farm gates at the entrance to stop this happening but it's a pain having to lock and unlock them. We're having new walls built at the entranceway and will probably fit electronic gates, so that will hopefully solve the problem.

My daughter has a man down her road who flies into a rage if anyone parks outside his bungalow. I almost wish I drove, just so I could park there.

Our new neighbour had a problem with a resident from further along the road parking outside his house where he liked to park so he 'aquired' a large traffic cone and left that in the parking space. Funnily, it worked!

No point in getting stressed or falling out with someone about this. It might be good manners to park more considerately but, as others have pointed out, they are probably not breaking the law.

Luckily we don't have parking problems because of road markings, residents' parking permits and parking bays. But then, that's part of the reason we bought in this area.

People will notice the change in your attitude towards them but won't notice their behaviour that made you change.

People have been subconscious taught to feed their ego so much that some don't know the different between being independent and selfish.

This is a "Self,Self,Self" world and weather we like it or not we will live in it.

I remember my OH parking at Milton Keynes railway station in one of the little cul-de-sac parking areas. Came back to find someone had parked over the entrance blocking in all 8 cars. The police refused to do anything about it and OH had to get a taxi home and back the next day.

The roads outside our houses are public ones(normally); that means anyone can park there provided that they are not creating any hazard. We do not have any right to park directly outside our homes.

That means many streets have more cars than spaces to park them but it is a problem each of us must face up to and park where we can accordingly, even if that means parking elsewhere.

They only have 5 cars?! My next door neighbour, an elderly Pakistani lady (practically no English) with huge extended family including 6 children and about 20 grandchildren, plus other cousins, aunts, uncle,s in-laws etc. who have all the family celebrations at her house. So there is a birthday party practically every weekend and also lots of family visiting every day beside that. With all the family there (they all seem to have enormous cars) even though we live on a corner plot, so have loads of road space, we struggle to find a parking space. Also, they dump dead cars, (usually with no MOT) at the side of our house and they sit there for months. If I ask them, they deny owning the cars. Nobody will do anything about the dumped cars. I have tried the local police, council and DVLA. I have to wait until the road tax runs out. Strangely, they often renew it (how do they manage that without an MOT?!) (By the way I believe multiple occupancy doesn't apply to a house if they are all family, only if they are all paying separate rent.)

It is territorial and a right old pain. Do remember it turning into fisticuffs outside this old suburban road back in the day when people couldn't park where they wanted to. All zones now, so no more fighting. And we've all split up!

I can park 4 cars on my drive, so can my neighbour. They continually park their second car in front of my house. Why?

We have new neighbours(moved in three weeks ago). They have two cars, a garage and a drive which can easily accommodate 3/4 cars. For the first week she parked her car outside our house. (her drive was empty). She was unloading from the back of her car (passenger side) and walked across our garden to do so, several times. I planted rose bushes right at the edge of the grass so that she couldn't do this. I think they took the hint as they now park in the drive!

We have a similiar problem in our road, so I now park outside my house rather than in the drive. Then when we have visitors they can use my drive. Annoying but I was advised by my community policeman that even if people park over the drive way entrance it's not against the law!

Inishowen l have every sympathy with you over footballers. Many years ago we had that problem as at the side of our house is an open grass area. All the local kids would congregate and play football on it although it wasn't meant for it and totally unsuitable. The ball was always banging against the house or over the fence so we complained to the parents and the council who put up trees and a no ball games sign. This caused a lot of bad feeling which has taken years to die down. I'm much older now and l couldn't go through all that bad feeling again so we'll probably put up and shut up. Just getting my rant out on here has helped and as many have said, they're doing nothing wrong. I already sound like the woman who's always moaning. I'm just more considerate of other people's feelings than some are.

YES......if you have a dropped kerb outside of your house you are covered if someone parks across it. It's expensive to pay for; But well worth it as you can ask the police to intervene if folk park across it.

We live in a terrace of 7 houses on a main road. The road has mixed housing - some detached and semi-detached, and another terrace of similar length. The opposite side of the road is double-yellow lined and indeed, some of our side is too, though not outside our terrace. When there were three of us with cars living here we had a rule within our family that if one of us was parked on the terrace, the other two would park elsewhere, even if there were spaces free on the terrace. We just felt it was being considerate to others living on the terrace who also needed to park. Most other residents had a similar respectful approach.
However, time has passed, and houses change hands. Our next door neighbours have two private cars and two works vehicles and, when their daughter visits over Christmas there is her car as well. I've known all five vehicles to be parked on the terrace at the same time. Not acceptable IMO, very selfish. Thing is, in all other respects they are a lovely family, really kind and generous and we get on very well with them, so I would never dream of mentioning the parking thing. It is really too trivial in the great big scheme of things, but annoying just the same, especially when you get home from the shops with 3 or 4 heavy bags and you have to park around the corner and drag them home, often in the rain

I have a marked driveway and a garage, at the rear, my next door neighbour has neither. She parks her large Range Rover within 2 inches of the white markings although there is space for two cars behind her. Our road is narrow as it was originally the road to a farm, so trying to reverse into my space is a nightmare. I only park at the front if I am going out more than once in the day.

These houses were built in the 60's and did have banks of garages, which were knocked down 20 years ago and sold to build a large house on. Mind you most people used them for storage.

It may be very annoying but you only own your house, not the road it's on. I have neighbours opposite who now have 5 cars and although their drive accommodates 2 of them the other 3 are parked in various parts of the road and as soon as they know somebody is going on holiday they immediately park on their drive!

If its a public highway outside of your front door, there is absolutely nothing you can do about it, and it is not worth getting into a row about it. I know how frustrating this can be...as I have a neighbour with 3-4 cars. We have resident permits to park on the road, it really annoys me when there is no space when one of their brood who doesn't live there parks and doesn't move for 2 days at least! But as I say its not worth the aggro. The only way "I get her back" is that she always parks in the same place at the end of the row, because she has no idea how to reverse(!), so when my husband or I see "her space" free we always park in it just to annoy her...maybe for a whole week sometimes...there is nothing she can do about it! Oh the sheer pleasure! (little things eh!).

We have a similar problem with one of our neighbours. They have a drive of their own but don't always use it, parking outside our house and leaving us to park at the end of our long road, or in another road.

Nothing can be done - none of us owns the space outside our houses. But I do think it is inconsiderate - and rather annoying.

I'm afraid it is a public highway, so unless there are road markings or they are blocking your access, there is nothing you can do legally. What amazes me is that people with garages don't seem to use them for their cars. My car is always in the garage unless I am going out. In our street, we all have double garages and I think I am the only one who actually puts the car in it. We have a very large shared driveway which has never been a problem with the neighbours next door. The problem comes when other neighbours with cars on their drives use our drive for deliveries. E.g. A great big John Lewis van was there the other day delivering furniture to the house across the road. The Tesco man does the same all because they cannot get into the driveways because cars are parked there. Because the drive is so large, we have also had people parking their cars on it when just visiting the neighbours. I have got into the habit now of, on catching them parking, " can I help you, are you lost?" A woman said she was just going to a party up the road and would only be a few hours. I told her this was a private driveway and she should park where she is going. She got in, slammed the door and shot off. I know it seems petty but it's all unnecessary wear on the tarmac and she had parked right in front of our dining room window. One of the reasons we liked the house when we bought it is that there was space at the front and people would not watch us eating our dinner.

My ex neighbour used to park right against my gate up on the pavement. If I turned sideways I could just about wriggle out with a lot of difficulty as I have to use a walking stick. I was totally ignored for the six months that they lived there & was so very pleased when they moved on.

You will probably get the reply that "I pay road tax". If he's across your drive and won't move, the police will move him, ON your drive or on a public road - you're on your own!

Well, this sort of thing happened in our small cul de sac a coupe of years back.

Our neighbours fell out with each other over parking which led to a hell of row, and they still don't speak now.

One of them decided to extend his driveway to accommodate two cars, but it still didn't solve the problem because the kerb had to be dropped which reduced the on road parking even further.

So, bad feeling still exists which is a shame. Not sure what the answer is for you, apart from creating more space on your driveway if possible.

You can do that on line yourself Barrowlass all you need is the reg number.