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AIBU?

You don't have a right to park outside your house!

274 replies

LendAnEar · 21/11/2019 08:19

Burgh! Why is it that people feel that they have some God given right to park outside their home and can demand where other people can/can't park?

I parked on the road yesterday afternoon, in front of another car, getting the perfect spot, just before the double yellows start. There was a bin on the road behind the other car, I assume to reserve a space Hmm. It's difficult to find a parking spot so I was happy I got a space.

As I get out of my car another car coming towards me slows with their window down. A woman proceeds to shout "Excuse me, you're not allowed to park there, you need to move. I'm expecting a delivery".

I was annoyed at the way she spoke to me, condecending and assuming because I look young, that I don't know where I can/can't park. I replied that I can park there as it's a public road and I'm not on the double yellows. Lady repeats that I can't park outside her house all day and that I need to move. She has a delivery coming. The house she's referring to has an empty drive!

I simply say tell the woman I'm parked legally and not moving before walking away. The thing is, if she had been polite from the start and not so entitled and asked nicely if I would move then I would have. I just hate that people think they have a right to tell other what they can or can't do Angry

Now I want to be REALLY petty and park there every time I'm in the area but then again now I'm worried something will 'accidentally happen to my car which isn't worth it 🤷🏼‍♀️

OP posts:
honeyloops · 21/11/2019 08:50

I'm with you. People who insist they have a right to park outside their house wind me up - I sometimes park on the opposite side of our road, outside our opposite neighbour's house, because there's 45 houses on this street and parking for maximum 22 cars, so you take a space when you can get it and otherwise park a 30 second walk away. They HATE it, and watch me out of the window as I park. And if I go to my car for something and they spot me through the window (they always have their living room curtains open into a HUGE 6ft tall window, all the lights on, so they can keep an eye on everyone) they will come and open the door and stand there in case I'm moving, so they can take the spot. Just makes me want to park there more!

Lifecraft · 21/11/2019 08:57

Why is it that people feel that they have some God given right to park outside their home and can demand where other people can/can't park

Ooo, ooo, I know this one. Because they are idiots. Do I win a prize?

EskewedBeef · 21/11/2019 09:05

I agree with you. I park on a residential street several times a week, and I'm frequently 'meaningfully watched' by people I assume are residents of the street. I've never been confronted though, which I'd prefer to the stop and stare routine.

AJPTaylor · 21/11/2019 09:08

Just wave if people are watching you. Boils their piss!

Goodnamesalltaken · 21/11/2019 09:09

I hate this. I live and work in the same controlled parking zone, sometimes I have to drive to work. I'm allowed to park in any bays included in the CPZ which happens to include a few mews. Twice now I have come back to my car with a stroppy note telling me I'm not allowed to park there. It is their parking space and is for residents only. Except all the spaces come under the same parking zone.

Pomley · 21/11/2019 09:11

I agree. However, when people have easily accessible, empty double driveways and then insist on parking on the road, even though one side of the street have all been refused drop kerbs so have to park on the road; it's annoying and selfish. But yes, legally no one has the right, and aside from seething inwardly as you park 10 minutes away and wander back in the dark, it is entitled to expect anyone else to move.

00100001 · 21/11/2019 09:11

I used to park outside a place every Weds for 2 hours at 8pm-10pm
They put cones out to stop people parking there... I got out, moved the cones to the pavement and parked in "their" space.

00100001 · 21/11/2019 09:14

OP - the disabled space "ownership" is the next level up of entitlement to a particular space in the road.

normally an older blue badge holder will ask for a disabled bay to painted outside their home, which the council obligingly put in. And then you should see how f-ing cross some of these people get when other LEGITIMATE blue badge holders use "their" bay...

Sparklingbrook · 21/11/2019 09:16

It's nice to park outside your house but you just have to suck it up if you can't. I can see how if there's half the amount of spaces to residents it's annoying when people park all day for work or something and you get back with your shopping and have to park 1/2 a mile away.

An elderly lady by the school my two used to attend had to put cones outside her house, because her husband who was severely disabled got picked up each morning by a mini bus to go to a day care place. She would be out there in her slippers at 8am heaving the cones about. Sad So you can't always assume the saving of spaces with cones/bins is because people are arseholes.

formerbabe · 21/11/2019 09:17

Yanbu.

Woman down my road puts her wheelie bin in the road to reserve the space outside her house despite having a driveway to park in and it being a quiet road with plenty of space to park.

Ignorant bitch

Crackerofdoom · 21/11/2019 09:18

We used to have a neighbour who would go nuts if he couldn't park outside of his house. Each house was only wide enough for 1 car in front and no off-road parking.

However, he and his wife both had cars and so she would park in front of someone else's and that was fine.

I went into labour unexpectedly having parked outside his house as it was the only space there when I got home from work. DH heard him in the shop a couple of days later ranting about some bitch (me) who had left their car in "his" parking space.

I am sorry to say, it stayed there for the whole 6 weeks I was unable to drive.Blush

formerbabe · 21/11/2019 09:20

OP - the disabled space "ownership" is the next level up of entitlement to a particular space in the road

normally an older blue badge holder will ask for a disabled bay to painted outside their home, which the council obligingly put in. And then you should see how f-ing cross some of these people get when other LEGITIMATE blue badge holders use "their" bay...

Some of these disabled bays may actually be informal disabled bays so not actually enforceable by law but are more of a courtesy thing.

BackInTime · 21/11/2019 09:20

Some of the homes on our street have a driveway and some do not. What really is annoying is people who have a driveway but insist on parking both their cars on the street just to stop people parking outside their house or to save spaces visitors. I try not to join in and get annoyed by parking wars but it's really infuriating sometimes.

schafernaker · 21/11/2019 09:21

Ahh I love it when this happens! I parks opposite my aunts house recently and had the owner of the house start banging on the window telling me I couldn’t park there. I pointed out there is no signage and as I pay my road tax I’m sure I can. She informed me she would be calling the police. I smiled and told her that would be fine. Oddly the police didn’t come, and I enjoyed a prolonged visit to my aunts house. She then started swearing at me and threatening to slash my tyres if I were to park there again. I did report her to the police ant they visited her and warned her about her behaviour 👍🏻

Win win

LGY1 · 21/11/2019 09:21

We have very limited parking at work, so when it’s not my week for parking I park in the housing estate over the road. It’s mainly industrial estates around, so obviously zero parking there!
There is one house that has their front door open all day, in all weathers and pop up like Meerkats as soon as you hover anywhere near the front of their house.
When I had just started I parked in front of their house and the son come flying out telling me to move.
I did - they are the type of people that would damage your car.
Because I’m not brave enough to stand up to them (or want to pay for respray job after all the keying) I park further down the road, however I do pause outside their house every morning just long enough for the Meerkats to pop up...then drive on.
Fun game! Grin

formerbabe · 21/11/2019 09:21

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

MadMadMad · 21/11/2019 09:23

To the previous poster complaining about people parking on the road when they have a driveway, we would never usually do this but just occasionally when we have a visitor coming we will move one of our cars out to the road if we see a space so that they can then use our drive. Otherwise by the time they arrive they may have to park quite a long distance away as all the roads round here are the same - think three and four bedroom houses with a mixture of no, one or two parking spaces on a drive and mostly three/four car households.

MrsToothyBitch · 21/11/2019 09:23

As long as you're not blocking anyone in (which it doesn't sound like you were at all), then people like this are incredibly entitled.

I've also seen the flipside to this though- parents live next to a GP surgery. We've got no objections to people dropping off, collecting or doing a 3 point turn but some people seem to think they can park there (on a dropped curb, too) and get really pissy when told to move. Someone's threatened to deck my 85yo dad & someone informed my mum that they "used to be a member of the medical profession" as if it made a difference!

Fizzypoo · 21/11/2019 09:23

If the council put a disabled space outside someones house because they have requested it, whether or not anyone else with a blue badge can park there legally, morally I see it to be wrong for another person to park there. It's pretty shitty behaviour.

I luckily have loads of room outside my house to park. If I didn't and had to struggle with heavy bags and garden shit I wouldn't be happy. I know I wouldn't own the space, but jheeze I would seethe in the rain doing multiple trips.

Pomley · 21/11/2019 09:23

OP - the disabled space "ownership" is the next level up of entitlement to a particular space in the road. normally an older blue badge holder will ask for a disabled bay to painted outside their home, which the council obligingly put in. And then you should see how f-ing cross some of these people get when other LEGITIMATE blue badge holders use "their" bay...

Presumably though the space isn't any wider than the rest of the road (therefore not necessarily more suitable for getting wheelchairs etc out) than anywhere else in the road; and unless they are visiting houses either side of the house with the space, it isn't that the distance to their destination is reduced. I think in this case it can be fairly selfish.

Skinnychip · 21/11/2019 09:26

I parked outside someone's house once as it was the only convenient space available. I checked the parking restrictions and that I had plenty of room without blocking a drive. The man came out and shouted at me that I couldn't park there, and threatened to call the police. When I came back, a van, that had been on his drive, was now parked a few inches away from my car, blocking me in. And the saddo git who must have been looking out the window awaiting my return man was waiting on his drive to watch me get out. I had to inch backwards and forwards, turning each time, about 25 times to eventually get out but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of asking to move.(which I'm sure he would have refused anyway) I was shaking and sweating like a bitch but got out thankfully without incident.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 21/11/2019 09:27

Just wave if people are watching you. Boils their piss!

For heaven's sake!

We're coming up to Christmas, the Season of Goodwill - can't you just be content with mulling their piss?

Grin

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Kahlua4me · 21/11/2019 09:30

We have a neighbour like that who will park her car outside her house regardless of any cars parked on the other side of the road. Several times I have been unable to get out because the gap is too small.

Yeahyeahyeahyeeeeah · 21/11/2019 09:33

I had this the other day. Parked to pick kids up. Woman turns up and pulls down her window.

W: I live there
Me: Oh
W: are you going to move?
Me: well no I'm parked on the road
W: I live there
Me: OK but I'm picking my kids up
W: Fine 'takes pick of my car'
Me: I've lived on this road for 16 years, I get it, but sorry I'm parking

Not sure she realised I was her neighbour.

00100001 · 21/11/2019 09:33

@Pomley
"Presumably though the space isn't any wider than the rest of the road (therefore not necessarily more suitable for getting wheelchairs etc out) than anywhere else in the road; and unless they are visiting houses either side of the house with the space, it isn't that the distance to their destination is reduced. I think in this case it can be fairly selfish."

Well, not really. What if they are visiting the neighbours in a double yellow line area?what if that person is "more" disabled than the residents. Why should the resident have exclusive use of that space? If they can park next to it who can say who is more inconvenienced?

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