Parking outside your home

Afraid it is not just a ' man ' thing as I get irate with my next door neighbours family/friends. He has a great long drive that can take two/three cars so what do they insist on doing? Park in front of our house! And they all own either vans or these big 4 X 4's. And the front of his house is empty! We came back from holiday to find not one, not two, but three of their vehicles parked from his drive past our house, so we then had to park outside our 90 year old neighbours house, meaning if her daughter had taken her out, she would have had to park even further up the street. It is just inconsiderate. I would love to say something, but don't want to fall out with them. It just makes me so annoyed as they are all young and fit and could park in his drive if they don't want to walk too far. Grrrrrrrrrrrr lol!

We are in a residential parking zone and residents pay an annual fee for our permit. It is still often difficult to find a parking space in our own road. I do think it is a man thing to get ratty about others parking in front of your house, and totally unreasonable, because unless there are parking restrictions, you have no right of "ownership" to that convenient spot outside your own home. Tell that to husbands everywhere, though, and watch them get grumpy!

You do not own the space in front of your house on a public road and there is nothing you can do about it. If you are disabled you may be able to get a parking space outside your house designated by the council.

I think that "residents only parking spaces" might need special permission on what is a public road.
In many places there are cars parked and you just have to be very careful. Where my daughter lives now she sometimes has to go onto a nearby road to park.

No problem with people paring on the road so long as they don't block the drive. WE live in a holiday resort that puts on big events several times a year and our road gets cars parked all along it. We're lucky enough to have a big drive that takes about 6 cars and on occasions when I've seen families crawling up and down with kids desperate because the event has already started, I'll go out and usher a couple of cars into our drive. Doesn't inconvenience us (as there's no way we could get out of our road in the car anyway!) and makes their day

We live in a terraced house with no drive as well, but we also don`t have a pavement outside, we step straight out of the door into the road. Our next door neighbour really does think he owns the road, as he`s tried several different methods of preventing anyone parking outside his house, this notably being the most outrageous, as I posted at the time.

I live in a terrace house with no drive. I totally understand that I don't own the road so can't stop people parking outside my house BUT what drives me insane is when people park inconsiderately so that they put 2 cars in a space big enough for 3

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Wars have been started for less!

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.

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.

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. . . .

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

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.

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!

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.

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 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.

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.