It's our drive!!

We had 'Neighbours Drinks' earlier this week and our neighbour apologised for her brother so we will leave it at that.

We did share the cost of retarmacing the drive a few years ago and I wouldn't consider lockable bollards, planters or anything like that, there isn't the room.

AreWeThereYet

Happens to us all the time - but people we don't even know usually. Plus our drive is used as a turning point despite the fact there is a turning circle ten yards away. People have to pass the turning circle to get to our drive!

I get peeved too. When I've complained I've been told to 'get over myself, it's just a drive' but you can bet your bottom dollar id the same people had strangers driving or wandering on their drive they'd be livid.

I bet those people wouldn't offer to help pay if your drive needed resurfacing or something!!
I'd be thinking lockable bollards!

I would leave it this time. You say you like them and have lived there a few years. If it happens again either knock and ask them to move as you wish to go out or start parking your car a little further up, so giving them no room to park. Once you have 'words' with neighbours you tend to be stuck with it.

Make it clear that you do not want anyone parking on your drive. What if you had a fire and a fire engine needed access, or an ambulance needed access. Your drive is your property and no-one should park on it unless you say they can.

You will find that once they have done it they will take it as you won't mind if they do it again.

And if this guy had had some kind of accident on YOUR drive would he expect YOU to fork out compensation? Why not - he's cheeky enough to use your drive.

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

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

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.

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

RosiesMaw

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

How thoughtless and lacking in compassion.

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.

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.

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.

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 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!

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

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.

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.

Put your bins across 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).

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.

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

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

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

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