My neighbour says we can't park

We have parking nightmares all over our local streets & I've hardened my heart now against territorial neighbours like yours. If challenged I just point out, as others have suggeste, that nobody owns the road & if I don't park the next person who comes along certainly will!

Unless it's a private road then anyone can park anywhere, the exception being permits granted by local authorities to residents in particular areas. The road is a public highway and nobody owns the road or pavement adjoining their property. Your property has a boundary line and beyond that, you own nothing.
Tell her she is out of order but I wouldn't spend all day trying to explain or placate. Some people have no sense.

Good heavens how unreasonable can you get, foolish lady. If it were me I would just point out it’s the Queen’s highway, not hers. Keep cool and carry on as the saying goes!

Unfortunately she does not have a legal right to park outside her house. I've been there, it's annoying but nothing you can do about it.

There are no rights other than to be able to park in the street if there are spaces available - your neighbour needs to be educated in this respect - and why on Earth bow down to her and inconvenience everyone else in the street as you won’t be the only one she verbally abuses. Let her report you to the council - and then somebody else will tell her that she has no designated space.

As far as I understand on street parking is for all to use, unless there are specified regulations and time limits which should be clearly indicated for everyone to see. I doubt the parking permit gives anyone the right to claim the space exactly outside their own home although many people like to think it is their right to have it as their own space. Even without parking permits many people don't like others parking on the road outside their house....seeing the space as " theirs". It seems this neighbour is one of those people. Perhaps you could verify the parking permit regulations with who has issued them. Then you will know for certain where you stand.

We had a neighbour like this lady, undoubtedly the wirkds worst driver who liked to keep ‘his’ space free simply to enable him to reverse out of his huge drive. He once write to me asking that my visitors did not park in ‘his space’ and once actually challenged a funeral director who was collecting mourners. Mind you he was happy for his visitors to park anywhere they wished (double standards!). We ignored his moans, it was sad as he was a comparatively youngish chap. So just ignore your neighbour

Excuse the typos in my message - new glasses!

Parking and neighbours can be a toxic mix. Used to hate it when the bloke from round the corner parked his bluddy huge white van outside our front garden - he didn’t want to look at it I suppose! And don’t get me started on caravanners who keep their motor homes or tourers on their paths.... I know they can do what they like - it’s their space and their van, but it’s dispiriting looking at the darn things 8 months of the year.

In the last area I lived in there ructions over perceived parking spaces. The police would attend and explain it to rowing neighbours, there was no such thing as ‘your’ parking space and people had to stop using bins and pieces of wood to try and reserve ‘their’ non existent parking space.

I liked what you said about remaining calm and ignoring her nonsense.

Wish I could be that calm. An extraordinarily aggressive man has move in next door who was angry at his lack of parking space. His favourite trick is to park across my driveway. He told me I shouldn't be driving if I couldn't get off my drive easily. To do it I would have to be able to bend the car round the concrete steps that stick out on the driveway.

I kept a log of his actions and our horrible conversations but it took him noticing me taking a photo of the van and the space he had left in front of it so that he could cause me trouble again.

Miraculously he stopped doing it. The thought of me reporting him to the company he works for might have done the trick.

I wish you the best with the angry woman.

Your neighbour obviously doesn't understand the permit system. We have permits in our road and no one owns the space outside their house. It's first come first served.
I would print of the council permit webpage and highlight the relevant bit, then post it through her door.

No rights as long as one is not blocking an exit. A neighbour of mine blocked my garage entrance/exit the police told him he was committing an offence !!1

We have residents' only parking on a first come first served basis but there are still some who believe they have their 'own' spaces. They don't, obviously. Our problem is that there aren't enough spaces for the residents who own, and drive, cars so when visitors park (which they shouldn't) then we have problems. There is no enforcement of the rules so disabled residents often have to circle until a car moves. Unfair?

You did the right thing. You are legally allowed to park anywhere on public highway that is not restricted or blocking a driveway So carry on as as before and just be polite when telling her it is not her parking space.

Haven’t read all the replies but I know for a fact that you have no right to the space outside your houses! Both the council and the police will support this. She is being unreasonable! There are a few exceptions....if you are disabled and have a designated space marked out for you by the council....or if you are in a residents only road for which you pay for a permit.....even then you don’t have a right to the space outside your house, but most people honour that. All you can do is be civil and if she threatens to escalate the argument....she will soon be put in her place! My daughter recently had a similar dispute with a neighbour.....the police said he had no case and they would charge him if he continued to be abusive and menacing to the girls!

Good idea to print out the council's regulations. I'd highlight the relevant paragraph(s), keep a copy in the glove compartment and hand it to her next time she confronts you.
Polite and charming, just suggest that she might find it helpful!

I live in a cul de sac and a young man from a street away parks permanently in the turning circle. He has a resident's permit and lives in a house with a triple garage which is empty! He lives with parents and two brothers and they all park on the road at the front of their house as they don't want to walk round the backto park- it's a Victorian house with a mews garaging. It makes it a nightmare for dust bin lorries ,oil deliveries and I suppose fire engines. I gather from his neighbours that he is the most considerate of the family.

Take no notice of her Nettynan. She may own the house but not the road as well. If she were to complain she would be set straight. Park where you need to.

In a small close it's unpleasant to have someone being annoying. What do you think of inviting her in for a coffee and a chat either alone or with another neighbour so she has the opportunity to feel more included?

She's bonkers.
Your council permit entitles you to park anywhere in the zone for which it is issued. Suggest she contacts the council for "clarification".
You never know what's going on in someone's life to make them behave weirdly.

I had a neighbour like that and it is impossible to change the mind of people who believe that they own the road in front of their house. He was so difficult about it that I was actually quite amused at his fury when builders parked a skip outside his house. They shouldn't have done that because skip permits are more specific but it served him right as he would actually bump people's cars.
You were in the right and as others have said the Council will tell her so if she contacts them.
Don't let her affect the way you live your life or upset you if she moans at you again. There is probably no harm in posting the rules through her door but she will probably think that the rules are wrong.

If your neighbours take it in turns to park outside her house late at night will she have a go at every one of them until she runs out of neighbours, as it were?
If she carries on like this she'll soon get put in her place by someone who isn't as nice as you, won't she?
An unhappy situation all round.

I have a neighbour like this she told my daughter with a hammer in her hand to move the monstrosity of a car from outside her house,she has a drive.she was herself landscaping her garden,my daughter recorded her.turns out it was a mobility car and she was claiming to be ill.she had a ambulance to her house twice a week until she got her benefits back.funny she has not said boo since,she had just moved to the area

There is no such thing as ‘My Space’ on public roads. Even reserved Blue Badge spaces outside someone’s home can be used by any blue badge holder. If she complains again explain that the space does not belong to her - it would be different if she had a drop-down kerb and parked her own car in her garden, but I imagine this is not the position here.