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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Its a parking one

58 replies

DeathStare · 06/06/2026 17:22

I live on a street with victorian terraced houses. It's not a main road and is very narrow, so parking is often a nightmare. There is no other parking nearby (we're off a main road with double yellow lines)

My neighbour (next door but one) has started parking one car on their paved front garden. It has no lowered kerb, no white line, nothing official saying nobody can park in front of it.

I came home earlier - with toddler and shopping - and there was no other parking space that would fit my car. So I parked outside their house blocking their car in.

They just came and asked me to move it so they can get the car out - which is fair enough and exactly what i expected. So I went straight out to move the car (with the toddler).

I pulled my car backwards so they could get out, then pulled forward into the same space to park there again. The neighbour pulled up next to me and said I'd have to move it again when he comes back so that he can park there again and basically told me to park somewhere else.

I said no. Im happy to move it if they need to get out but im not leaving a perfectly legal parking space (and then driving round the local area trying to find another one, in the rain with a toddler) when its not an official driveway and Im not moving it again so they can park there again.

Neighbour was really not happy and I half expect him to come and demand i move it when he gets back. AIBU?

OP posts:
SnappyQuoter · 06/06/2026 17:56

DeathStare · 06/06/2026 17:54

I said that. He said that the council had told him he was fine to park there.

If that were true, then they’d have approved a dropped kerb and he could pay to have that installed.

So nope, they didn’t say they. Tell him that once his dropped kerb is installed, you won’t park in front of it. But until then, it is just on street parking like the rest of the road.

stichguru · 06/06/2026 17:56

Your parking was perfectly legal yes. He does not have the right to just stop other people parking in front of his garden if there is no dropped curb. He also doesn't have the right to get you to keep coming out to move your legally parked car to let him drive in an out of an entrance that isn't an entrance.

However, be careful you don't uphold your right to park there and actually make it harder for yourself to park. If he gets wind of the fact you are not going to move your car for him (which you don't legally need to do), he may just start taking the spot you legally park in outside his garden, whenever he can.

This could means that his car sits legally parked for days outside his house (when he has no-where to go) and you have to come and go, parking in different random spaces further away. If you'd not objected to him using his garden, all that time he might have parked on his garden, enabling you to use the space undisturbed.

DeathStare · 06/06/2026 17:54

Coconutter24 · 06/06/2026 17:50

His parking wasn’t illegal, his actions to get to the parking spot were

I said that. He said that the council had told him he was fine to park there.

OP posts:
Coconutter24 · 06/06/2026 17:50

suburburban · 06/06/2026 17:32

His parking was illegal and he has a cheek

His parking wasn’t illegal, his actions to get to the parking spot were

suburburban · 06/06/2026 17:32

His parking was illegal and he has a cheek

Heartbroken38 · 06/06/2026 17:26

You are in the right. If it's not a dropped kerb then you can park there.

SnappyQuoter · 06/06/2026 17:25

If parking is such an issue, he likely wouldn’t be approved for the dropped kerb. If he wants a driveway then he needs to try and do it properly but he cannot demand that you move so he can access his garden.

I’d tell him that I’ll park elsewhere once the council approve his driveway and he has paid for a dropped kerb, but I won’t be moving for his garden.

Arlanymor · 06/06/2026 17:24

He needs to get a dropped kerb. That’s it really isn’t it?

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