I live on a development of 7 houses. Everyone has a double-driveway and garage, except me. I have a single driveway and own the strip of land outside the house which has room for two more cars.
We only have one car and it's not taken long for one of my neighbours to realise and start parking routinely on the land directly in front of the house (they have two cars and a camper van). They've never asked, but other neighbours have said that the previous owners were very relaxed about it.
Normally this doesn't cause an issue, but they've disappeared off on holiday using a taxi and left their car outside my house. I've got builders coming this week and they won't have anywhere to park their van, and visitors yesterday ended up on the main road. Guaranteed parking spaces are literally one of the top 3 reasons I used when buying the house.
How do I make it clear that this needs to stop? Quite happy with occasional parking, but I think leaving a car there overnight is pretty unreasonable. If someone asks, I'm very unlikely to say no. Just don't want it to become custom-and-practice that my land is used as the visitor parking spaces for the development.
I hate conflict, I really do. I've tried marking my territory by parking badly outside my own house, but there is sufficient room that you can always get a second car in. :-(
Am I being unreasonable? I don't use all 4 bedrooms in the house but that doesn't mean that someone else can help themselves to them.
Last edited by: Fursty Ferret on Tue 9 Aug 22 at 09:47
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I imagine they probably don't realise that you own the piece of land. I think the only way to stop it is to simply tell them, anything else could be misconstrued.
I know I'm unusual but we have really friendly relationships with our immediate neighbours but even think it would be difficult, so I can't suggest how you raise i with them.
Last edited by: smokie on Tue 9 Aug 22 at 09:59
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It's a bit hard to know the layout without a picture, but can you put a fence of some description or one of those low ropes with small fence posts? Is it a grassed area?
Can you talk to them? What are they like?
I think you might have to go blanket no you can't park there , it's often the case that one persons understanding of reasonable is quite different to another's.
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The neighbours say the previous owner was relaxed. They all knows it's yours.
Obviously your neighbour is best approached in a calm manner, but he is in the wrong. Unless he is a delusional narcissist, he knows that. To leave the car there without permission is bad manners. To leave it and clear off on holiday, presumably when he has space on his own property, is an act of aggression. You are not being unreasonable.
Have you a car with a tow hook? Drag it out of the way.
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tinyurl.com/mt9j5hhu
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 9 Aug 22 at 10:50
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We have a very similar situation here. We all own the element of the small lane directly outside our homes and down through our wood to the un-adopted road some 20-30 meters below.
The new neighbours (London kids of the deceased vicious dog owner) have enough space to park 4 cars next to each other and no front garden and we have space for 2 x 2 but with a front garden.
Despite all the space their friends regularly park half on the lane and half on the wood opposite our house. The lane is wide enough for 1 vehicle only.
A further annoyance is that utilities and waste run only a few inches below the soil in the wood and can very easily be damaged leading to extortionate repair bills.
I have politely asked them to not to park there because of the potential damage to the underground infrastructure but have been ignored so thought about resorting to these:
www.amazon.co.uk/Professional-Triangle-Puncture-Anti-Theft-Emergency/dp/B092J3XQZV
But in the end some well placed tree trunk cut offs, about a foot tall and a couple of boulders painted white seem to have done the job.
Last edited by: zippy on Tue 9 Aug 22 at 11:36
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If you don't tell them how you feel (calmly and politely) they will never know. It may be an inconvenience for visitors, builders, deliveries etc.
If courtesy fails there will be little choice but to either accept what is happening or raise the stakes. Let them know with more vigour. Put a sign up. Warn they are trespassing. Solicitors letter. Clamping firm. Get council or police involved.
I assume it is your land on the title deeds - I hope that good sense prevails and that there will be no need to escalate.
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Could the builder park on their drive? If so, do it and politely point out they had no option.
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You have my sympathies. We live in a 1980’s cul de sac where originally all the houses had garages and a drive for at least one car, in most cases two or three. However over the years several garages have been (legally) converted to living space and now some houses have up to four resident cars. The limited street parking, including the turning space, is under pressure.
The informal layout of the close also is awkward, for example our neighbour’s drive and ours are at right angles to each other with only a few feet of gap. Their visitors often park sticking out if their drive, in effect across ours.
Luckily most of us get along and we share spaces between us for example when going on holiday. This has had the added bonus that, having used our drive, the immediate neighbour now appreciates that our access is tighter than it looks and their parking across our drive is now rare.
However it will just take a couple of selfish parkers to move in to cause issues.
We already have one old dear who regards the road space outside her garden as hers and objects to others parking there even though she has a drive.
I always think there is some basic territorial instinct in play when it comes to property boundaries, parking and the like. It’s easy for things to get heated.
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Our cul-de-sac is a street of semis. The front gardens are small just in front of the kitchen. In front of the front door and garage there's a space about 3x5 metres, plenty of space to park sideways. My daughter uses that space for her Micra. The driveway between is long enough to park my car and a small car in tandem if needed. But I line all the bins behind my car and don't need to worry about needing more parking space. The guy next door lines up all the bins along the side of the house so I park really tight to the house and wifey has to disembark before I finish parking so he can open his doors fully. Wifey gets irritated but it doesn't bother me at all, he does it his way, I do it mine and he often uses the front space anyway. It's all neighbourly, we're good friends.
The family opposite had the garage converted into a reception room and they have two large cars so space for two only. Every few weeks we get a text saying 'come over, bbq' etc. so I know there'll be a get-together/sleepover with a few people. The Micra goes in the garage, my car goes in the front space, the bins go along the side of the house and two of his guests can park on the driveway. More neighbourliness on my part although his wife wears miniskirts. Ulterior motives and all that.
Then there's the guy two houses down, mid seventies, probably ex-military. When I drive past, he doesn't wave or anything, he almost bows to me, eyes closed, nodding down, solemn-faced. His entire driveway has been enclosed on all four sides by black, victorian-like cast-iron railings with a mini lawn inside. Very odd, no opening gates so even he can't park on his own drive, he has to use the garage. And of course, two large signs, one saying 'no parking' and one saying 'no turning in front of this property'. Quite territorial behaviour on a street that offers plenty of space to park but maybe it's a remnant from the police state and Checkpoint Charlie situations he was used to.
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Definitely my land on the deeds and title plan. It’s not that it causes any particular inconvenience for 99% of the time, it’s just that I’d like to be asked first in case I need it myself, as it saves the embarrassment of going over and asking them to shift their car.
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The parking discussion with neighbours - smokie
