Parking outside your home

I don't have a husband so I do the moaning! When I divorced I moved to a house on an estate. The man opposite has plenty of drive area to park but insists on parking opposite my drive. The time it really gets to me is that as I reverse onto the drive the other road users can't get by and I have to accommodate them because of my bloody neighbour. Rant over

What is it with folk and the road outside their house? I can understand it if access is difficult or car parking at a premium but when there is plenty of space to be utilized even if you have to walk a few paces more then I really do not understand that at all. It must be a territorial thing.
We are fortunate enough to live in an area where there we all have at least one garage as well as off street parking for at least one car so you can imagine where my eyebrows soared to when we had a phone call from our neighbour opposite asking us to get our gardener to move his car as he has visitors coming soon. Our friend who helps us with our garden was not impressed! We, too, have family visiting as well as friends calling in so the next few days might be interesting to say the least!

NanaandGrampy do you think your neighbour might actually be running a ' House of multiple occupation' or HMO? If so he has certain regulations with which to comply and may even need a licence in some areas. Just asking! HMRC will probably be interested if there is more than one tenant.

Just asking!

The most important aspect of this is ensuring that emergency services can get unimpeded access.

I've not long moved from a road where parking was a real problem. Our garages were in a block out of view of the houses.
I frequently found cars parked in front of my garage ( on the small drive) because people knew I no longer had a car. I thought about letting the space but it was too much hassle when relatives and friends needed it, so I just put a notice up. In fact, other neighbours who did use their garages had to put up "Do not block"notices too.
As for parking on pavements - Oh Boy! I get so cross when I see parents with push chairs and young children in tow having to step out into the road. Not to mention elderly people! It's an offence to park on pavements where my daughter lives and you get a ticket.
It's like bullying with cars when multi car households take advantage.
I've got quite hot under the collar there - for me. Time for a cuppa.

I have a rear garage, plus a driveway at the front and access over a grass verge. If I am going out a couple of times in a day I leave my car at the front. I reverse onto the access on the verge to make it easier to get out. I have a new neighbour who parks right up to the T on the marked line. It is a narrow lane and I do find it difficult to reverse on with her large car in the way. If I hit her she will probably expect me to pay for the repair. She has a reasonable amount of room. I think she likes to get out on my concreted access and not walk over the grass.

We had a very difficult neighbour fifteen or so years ago, who on occasion attacked people physically for parking outside her house. I eventually called the police for advice after yet another set to with her over parking. A weary sounding traffic policeman told me if it is a public road, you can park where you like, in front of whose house you like, even over a drive. It's not illegal( it wasn't then, this is a while ago) to park over a drive, just courtesy not to. I think he had a bad day as he said " to be honest, if she was my neighbour, I would park over her bloody drive or in front of her house every day". He didn't advise me to do that, though it was tempting as she was was so belligerent. She moved, eventually, thank goodness. It's very difficult to park in some places when visiting these days though.

When my Partner and I first moved into our home many years ago, we had no off road parking, and the road itself was a no parking zone. The nearest that I could park was on the opposite side of the road several yards along. It was outside a house. The owners had their own parking plot to the side, so I was not taking up space that the owner used.
Within a very short space of time, the woman who lived there came out and told me in no uncertain terms that I could not park there. I explained the situation, and also said that I was not obstructing her or anyone else, and that I was not breaking any law as I was parked legally. She became very angry and said that I had to move.
A few days later, I was met by a parking attendent who advised me to move my car .
I was stunned that he should suggest this when I was not breaking any law or causing any problems. He told me that he knew this woman from a club that they belonged to, and that she was a "nasty piece of work". I was so angry with him for telling me to move , and I wondered if he was doing it for a quiet life !!!!! He should have approached her but it was obvious that he had no intention of doing so.
I then started getting threatening letters on my windshield, which I gave to the Police who advised me to keep a log.
Lastly, this woman, whilst out in her car, saw me on the main road outside our home.
She stopped her car in the middle of the road causing a backlog of traffic to yell abuse at me. It was truly scary.
Thankfully, I managed to sort out a parking place thanks to a very kind person, but for a long time I was looking over my shoulder, just in case.

We both get annoyed when people park in the private space by our apartment THAT WE HAVE PAID FOR - but don't get how anyone can get annoyed at parking in front of your house in a public space, and not blocking your entrance.

Twice we arrived there in the middle of the night, to find someone in our space- and had to go and pay for a car-park around the corner. Grrr.

We have a fairly long drive easily enough for 4 cars. We also live in a cul de sac and the ' turning curve ' is outside ours. My oh has claimed this as 'ours' and parks there - to my embarrassment.

I really can't get wound up about that. It isn't your road and presumably you have legs that work? If they were parked in your drive that's different!

Roads are public spaces, aren't they? We should all be considerate of others and definitely not block people's driveways, park in the slots they paid for etc but otherwise, let's all be a bit chilled about this.

Angela - I am surprised he has not been taken to task over this- if he has plenty of space on your drive !?!

Anyone can park on a public road whether it's outside your house or not.
Parking on pavements is awful-if you've ever tried dealing with a wheelchair-or pushchair-you know how dangerous it is.
Nothing gets enforced these days.
You do have to show consideration for others. . . .

If somebody comes out and yells at you, I would move the car, even though it was legal to park there.....the reason?They could well scratch or otherwise damage it, and you have no proof they did it.
I think a lot of people become territorial about their road!
We have no problems with this, and people do park on our quiet little road on Sunday, as we are next to the church, but they never obstruct the drive.

Oh that drives me mad, not my OH. We live in a cul-de-sac and lady next door has purchased her first decent car, there is enough room for all of us to park one car near our property but she doesn't like parking her new car near hers as there are trees and bushes so she gets home earlier to park in another neighbours spot just so she doesn't park near bushes. It annoys me but OH says she can park anywhere as there's no allocated parking.

Wars have been started for less!

I live about 8 miles from Heathrow and one Christmas I went out for lunch and when I returned there was a 4x4 fairly new car parked in my allocated car park space. I cannot prove that this person went on holiday for a month leaving the car there but it was the best watched car for miles around. I noted when I was going to work early one morning that it had vanished and never returned.

No problem unless they are blocking my drive, and then I go mad!!

Parking on pavements is a different matter, such a selfish thing to do, some drivers think more of protecting their cars than the safety of pedestrians, and it is so dangerous for people using pushchairs and wheelchairs!
What a selfish materialistic society we have evolved into.

Our neighbours have paved their front garden and widened the access to their drive which means that the only curb parking available is outside our house. It doesn't bother us so long as our driveway is clear but their visitors park up on the pavement which I don't like for the same reasons others have mentioned. However, I do get really cross when it has happened on bin day and ours hasn't been collected either because they couldn't see it, or felt it was too difficult to get to!

I have an end of terrace house with an entrance down the side just big enough for my Yaris. Just occasionally over the last 16 years, some fool has blocked my entrance/exit and several times I have reported this to the local police who have come along and booked the offending vehicle. Sometimes I have just left a message under the wiper. The road is too narrow to allow parking on both sides, though there are no yellow lines. It is an offence to block an entrance if there's a dropped kerb which there is.

I was told it is an offence to block someone in, eg if you are on your drive. However if you are out and cannot get back in that is not an offence. Something to do with fire regulations apparently.

You are absolutely right BBevan. I used to run a residents association many years ago and we had the police come along to a meeting to explain just that. We used to live quite close to a station and often got our driveways blocked by commuters who did not want to pay to park.

Before we moved south we lived on a small private road and there was a row of three old cottages opposite fronting onto the road with no drives or parking space. We had a double drive so had no problem but one of the tenants of these three cottages proved to be a real pain, parking his large car wherever he liked, including in front of one neighbour's garage blocking access and egress.

Several people had run-ins with this man who had a shouting match in the road with one neighbour and said he paid his road fund tax so could park where he liked. Of course he had not taken into account that this was a private road and as such each householder owned the road to the middle in front of their house so he was technically trespassing.

He caused so much trouble and upset and we were glad to move away from it. He did move shortly after us and a very quiet girl with no car moved into the cottage. (There was a regular bus service on the main road at the end of the cul-de-sac).

Our neighbour ( like us) has space to park 4 or 5 cars easily on their drive.They regularly have visitors that park on the road outside our house( so they can see their car, we do not have a hedge , our front garden is open plan, our neighbour has a hedge along the front of the garden.It drives hubby mad as we it makes reversing off our drive difficult as it blocks our view of oncoming traffic.We asked why they don't ask their visitors to park on their drive as they only have their own car parked on it.Could not believe their reply....their visitors don't like reversing into the road....so why do they think it's alright for them to make it extra difficult for us.