It's our drive!!

It is a shared drive at the bottom and only just 2 cars wide there. Ours widens out where they split - no room for planters.

Put up a gate!

There is no point in getting annoyed at this kind of thoughtless behaviour - you can't stop it by being irritated, and mentioning it to your neighbours is very likely to cause bad feeling.

I have a double drive at the front of my house, BUT the previous owners that put it in, only put a dropped kerb on half the drive?

To prevent folk driving on my grass to get to that space (friends/carers) I always park on that side. Problem is the house opposite appears to have 2 flat bed trucks, a large car with flat bed behind and another car! So if I go out, and it's not often, there's always one of the above (never the normal car) sort of parked across my space! One night I came home, the big yellow truck was there as usual, so I swung in ready to straighten up to find a large metal pole inches away from my windscreen, no markers on it, and a ladder the same! It really does annoy me, but can't afford another dropped kerb and the do legally have the right to park there as long as they aren't covering the dropped kerb! Grrrr ... not the sort of family you'd want to agitate either!

We started putting our bins across the bottom of the drive to narrow it. Nowhere to put a gate as one side is the neighbour's garden.

More recently we've had a series of fast food deliverers using our drive to deliver to next door. They then walk across the neighbour's lawn to get to their door.

I'm totally amazed that parking on someone else's drive seems to be so prevalent. These people must feel so entitled not to mention ill mannered and lacking consideration to even think of doing this. Have any of you phoned the police? I wonder what the legal position is on this, surely it's trespass?

We had a similar thing happened in our last house as there was a junior football club across the road from our street. And one day there was a big match being played and we’d gone out for the day and on our return there was a car parked on our driveway we couldn’t get our car onto the driveway so my husband blocked him in. When the owner arrived my husband asked him why he thought it was ok to park on someone else’s driveway his reply was no one needs a driveway. He was shocked when my husband’s colleagues arrived as my husband worked in the local police station

He should have asked as up to the curtilage it's private property.

OH got chatting to a lady in the U3A about parking being difficult near town and she kindly offered him to use her driveway as she doesn't have a car. We buy her chocolates or flowers as a thank you every month

If you are hesitant to confront your neighbours, & you have every right to do so, (what if you needed to exit your drive in a medical emergency for example) put a post either side of your driveway and put a chain across it to stop anyone accessing it. Pain in the rear but avoids confrontation

I would put up a sign : no parking on the drive unless specific permission from the owners at house nr. (your house). And yes, tell your neighbours you plan to stick to that rule, as you don't want familymembers of neighbours occupying your drive.

so are these the people with whom you share the drive ?
that's a bit different.
my parent many moons ago said, never buy a house with a shared drive.
being a child at the time i didn't appreciate how important this was.
i do now.
as they also used to say, you'll find out when you're older.
i am, and i did.
wish i could tell them how right they were.
(youth is wasted on the young).

Put your bins across your drive

so are these the people with whom you share the drive ?

We share the bottom of the drive which then splits into 2. Her brother had come onto our drive beyond where the shared part is.

I think I would have answered,”I am pleased that everyone is okay and that you enjoyed your brother’s visit. However, in future I would prefer that he doesn’t park on our drive especially as he would be allowed to park in the road after 6pm.

as they say on MN, i think we need a diagram !

I live by a school in a cul-de-sac which is also in walking distance of the local railway station. My drive is very narrow so I've never had anyone park on it but some of my neighbours with open frontages have had people park there. One neighbour asked a guy to move his car and he just walked away saying he'd only be a few minutes. She said if it happened again she would block them in and refuse to move her car saying she'd had a drink! The problem I have is that if I arrive home at school pick up time I often can't park. I can park across the openig to my drive, but only if there is enough space eitherside. Occasionally people have blocked my drive off completely then I may have to block a neighbour's drive but I would always tell them and say I'll move it if you need me to. I once had no-where to go and the person who was blocking my drive was queuing for the ice cream van parked in front of my next door neighbour's house. He wouldn't move, meanwhile I was blocking the whole road for everyone else!

I have had a few smiles thinking of things to do to stop inconsiderate / illegal parkers on my property. T in Cheek
Let the tyres down. Plant pots /bricks on the bonnet. A taxi bill under the wipers. If you need emergency vehicle access they can physically move a vehicle. If you have a disability ask the local council if they will paint a section of road to indicate that it is needed for disabled parking. I have seen several in my area

I have a very wide drive/forecourt with double yellow lines on the road. People often park on my drive right in front of a sign saying 'PRIVATE PROPERTY RESIDENT ONLY CONSTANT ACCESS REQUIRED.' I've tried cones etc. and they just move them. Now I go out and ask them where they live, when they ask why I want to know I say " I'll come and park on your drive when I need a parking space near your house" It REALLY makes me cross.

When my daughter lived in London somebody parked in her driveway when she was out with the children, she parked behind them and went out on foot with the children for the afternoon. When she returned their was a well known ( at the time) very irate comedienne on her doorstep.

Her first words were that she had been waiting for over half an hour and didn’t my daughter know who she was!! This means of course that she had parked in my daughters driveway for most of the afternoon.

My daughter told her that yes she did know who she was, she was someone parking illegally and as she had to change her youngest child’s nappy, she would have to wait until she had finished before she could get a neighbour to come and sit with the children so that she could move the car and drive around the one way system to get back into her own drive.

Hopefully this taught the ‘celebrity’ not to do it again.

Totally sympathise but I had the opposite problem once. We had had to call an ambulance for DH (TIA or stroke I think) and they had parked on the road instead of backing in to the drive because there wasn’t really space, but slightly overlapping the neighbours gateway.
My neighbour who is also one of my dearest friends shocked me by asking if the ambulance could move as her daughter was unable to get her car in!
I was speechless, they could have been in the middle of CPR for all she knew - or worse - and it wasn’t as if they were blocking anybody IN.
She is a dear friend and would probably be mortified if I ever mentioned it, but it was a bit of a shock.

RosiesMaw

I feel after that incident, I wouldn’t think of her as ‘a dear friend’.

How thoughtless and lacking in compassion.

And I hope the ambulance crew replied with a resounding "NO", RosiesMaw. The very cheek and entitlement of some people!

Do not feel awkward about it, it’s called manners and they should have asked you if it was OK. I read recently about a lady who parked on someone’s drive and used their unit to charge her electric car but couldn’t see anything wrong when challenged! Not sure if it’s lack of manners or simply ignorance.

I wouldn’t allow that very rude we have vehicles going in and out our drive few times day so that wouldn’t be happening . Our drive is for our family no one else would be parking there

Such a pity if you park inconsiderately and find your vehicle badly scratched the next day.