having been confronted for parking on street (no dropped kerb)

[Clawdius]

Workmen are digging up gas pipes on my road. There was basically no parking available on my end of a very long road. I went up the other end and found a parking space (just). There is no dropped kerb but house owner has front wall removed and front garden paved. There is no alteration to the footpath in front of the house.

A guy came out and said would I be long because he wanted to bring his car into his 'drive'. I said I was parking there as there was no dropped kerb but I would move temporarily for him to move his car in. This wasn't taken up. He then asked where I lived and I told him other end of street. I'm sorry I even bothered with this information. He then said could I move forward. There was a legit dropped kerb where he asked me to move to. He went inside his house. He had a dressing gown on so maybe that is why he didn't come out onto the street.

A car then moved from the other side of the road. Despite knowing he was an ar**hole for using an ordinary kerb as a drive, I moved over across the road where space had been vacated. This house also has a wall removed and a beautifully paved front garden (no car on it at the moment). It has an unaltered footpath in front, so no dropped kerb again.
I parked legitimately on the road in front of this paved garden.

This has happened before. I'm now expecting some git to say I prevented them accessing their 'drive'.

AIBU to think it is really strange the way these people are operating by confronting people who are parking legitimately. I live on a very long road with loads of this paved gardens being used as legit drives. I have been confronted before even though I was not parked in front of a dropped kerb and not blocking a car parked in the front garden.

[FryOneFatManic]

I thought that no dropped kerb = no drive, whatever the chap has done to his garden.

[CocktailQueen]

YANBU, he sounds like an arse who spends his life watching out for people parking in front of his house and moving his car unnecessarily

NO dropped kerb - no drive!

[pist]

Not sure if it is true, but was once told it is NOT illegal to block someone's drive so they can't get IN (and no dropped kerb=not a drive), but illegal to block them so they can't get OUT (thinking major disruption to life if car is trapped)
... but maybe not great for neighbourly relations

[SashaOfSiberia]

There is no dropped kerb, so legally I think, there is no drive and so whilst they might give you an earful you aren't going to get in any trouble for it.

One of my old neighbours had no dropped kerb, but used to park on her drive. She then had the audacity (!) to leave notes on peoples windscreens accusing them of being every name under the sun, and selfish bastards who have prevented a mother from collecting her children because she couldn't get her car out. When it was pointed out to her how this didn't make sense she'd go mental.

I think she was just too stupid to understand the concept or to arrogant to believe she had to follow it. My other neighbour got tired of this woman haranguing visitors and reported her to the council.

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

A friend of mine did the paved front garden but no dropped curb thing and came home one day to find the council had been and installed concrete bollards to prevent use of the front garden as a parking space.

The only problem was that her DH's van was parked there at the time and was trapped!

[Clawdius]

I moved 'cos I didn't want anything to happen to my car. I hope the people in the house I'm parked in front of don't do anything to it. I had a car full of shopping and had to make two trips to unload. If I accosted people parking in front of my house, I think I'd be the one doing the damage to neighbourly relations.

Is this common or do I have people with exceptionally hard necks in my street?

[HECTheHeraldAngelsSing]

My parents put a car parking bit on their garden without a dropped kerb and the council told them to pack it in. Not only was it not a drive, but they were not allowed (according to the council) to drive over an undropped kerb to park their car on their paved bit.

I don't know how enforceable that is, whether it was just their council or whether it's a thing, but it certainly caused them some hassle. The council said they'd hold them accountable for any damage that was caused to the kerb.

I don't know quite what damage would be caused. But there you go.

[TheToysAreALIVEITellThee]

If I see a drive I don't cover it, dropped kerb or not

Not worth having my car keyed

[Clawdius]

But there is no dropped kerb, there is no drive. Just a paved garden with a normal footpath in front of it.

[lackingimagination]

I personally wouldn't park across someone's drive (if it was obviously a driveway rather than a garden) dropped curb or not.

[CosyTeaBags]

OP sadly I think this is common, it's definitely not just your street.

On the street where my friend used to live, they had no front garden, no drive, just front gate opened right onto the road. So there were no driveways to block.

Nevertheless, her neighbours used to ask her to move her car from 'their' space in front of their house all the time. If there was no other room on the street she would have to park in a car park a 5 min walk away - with 2 small children.

The neighbours didn't give a toss - they really believed that they, and only they, had the right to park on the road in front of their house.

Report your neighbours to the council - if it's a big street they won't know its you. Just tell the council that there are a number of 'driveways' across undropped kerbs. then hope the do the bollards thing like the poster's friend above

[LadyEnglefield]

HEC my exDH was told exactly the same thing but by a policeman.

[Killinascullion]

YABU.

If they didn't park on the front garden, they'd be taking up a parking space on the street so you wouldn't have room to park anyway.

I used to live in Bristol where everyone parks on streets, pavements or wherever they can. It's hazardous for everyone.

So grateful, I don't live there anymore.

[FryOneFatManic]

But if there's no dropped kerb, then it's not a drive. Legally you are not supposed to drive over a raised kerb, so legally, that garden is not a drive, whether the neighbours use it as one or not.

In fact, to get a dropped kerb you have to apply to your council, and they don't always grant it.

[Clawdius]

How far away from your house would you be willing to go along with the charade of these people having drives when this inconveniences you> Would you be willing to spend an extra 15 or 20 minutes ferrying your shopping back up to your house in multiple trips?

If this is the case, I could remove my double gates and use my front garden as a driveway. It is pebbled. Even I wouldn't regard myself as reasonable if I tried to pull this off and started having a go at people parking legitimately outside my house.

There were no other spaces left my very long road.

[500internalerror]

I heard somehow (can't remember how, as its not something that would ever affect us!) that its £5000 to get the council to change to a dropped kerb if you want one. I suspect that's why so many people don't have one!

Personally I'm not keen on people parking in front of my house as I'm always paranoid that they are on a recce to rob me.

[Beamur]

Parking issues turn normal people into unreasonable twats.
Luckily you don't have to park here usually. You can't legally park over a pavement without a dropped kerb, but it's pretty easy to get permission for. Most councils will issue permission either through planning or highways, but there is a cost and the dropped kerb has to be built to specific standards.
Either report the fact there are several places where there are no dropped kerbs or avoid the nutters!

[Beamur]

Maybe i should say the process to apply isn't hard, whether you get permission will depend on the situation.

[Clawdius]

I was avoiding the nutters. I parked legitimately on a public street (where I live) minding my own business.

[WorrySighWorrySigh]

The thing is that without a dropped curb you are simply driving on the pavement every time you drive over it to access the bit of paved front garden.

Driving on the pavement is an offence - my researches suggest up to £1000 fine.

[MinnieMooMoo]

We have two drives from the previous owners who used to park their caravan, one drive has a dropped kerb, the other doesn't.

A little common courtesy goes a long way eh? If I didn't park on my drive I'd be taking up space on the road.

[greenfolder]

They are being nuts but that is what parking does to people. A colleague of mine had a mini and reckoned she could just about get it in the front garden. She got the council round to have a look. The surveyor said no due to proximity of pedestrian crossing and then wrote to all to her neighbours threatening action if they drove over the pavements.

[GideonKipper]

We had a drive put in our garden but we don't have a dropped kerb. About 20m along there is a dropped kerb but no driveways in the gardens of the two houses it's in front of - the dropped kerb is half in front of one house and half in front of the other iyswim.

Even though we have no dropped kerb we've never had anyone park up in front of our drive and walk off. I don't park blocking driveways and it seems other people round here are the same.

If it's £5000 to replace the kerb then it will always be a raised kerb!

[iwanttobelola]

Killinascullion but if you can't park in front of their 'drive' then that is a parking space lost .. we have neighbours who place cones out to 'reserve' their space , the rest of the neighbours have great fun playing hide and seek with the cones or replacing them with toy ones (well it amuses us)

[lackingimagination]

I think a lot of it comes down to common courtesy (I have previously said I wouldn't park blocking a drive, dropped curb or not) but in this situation with a road closure and OP struggling to find a space on the whole road perhaps they weren't being unreasonable.