Neighbour blocked shared drive deliberately, AIBU or are they?

I think in future it’s probably best to try and be home when tradespeople come over to avoid situations like this.

I think I'd be tempted to suggest your DH goes round and asks them do they want to have good neighbourly relations or are they looking to start a problem?

Tell them if they block access to your garage, you will park in front of them.

Your neighbours sound batshit but to clear up the ring doorbell - it’s not actually illegal.

As long as you have as little of your neighbours property captured as reasonably possible, which for you is easy to justify due to how your properties are positioned, and you have a notice that you’re recording up and comply with subject access requests for footage within 30 days, it’s all perfectly legal.

So if you want to, get one and point it as far away from their property as possible. You just need to have a good reason to have one ie. to protect your property.

If I were you, I’d look at using the evidence you have, if you could take them to small claims and recover the cost of the waste removal charge you’ve lost. I’m petty like that. In your position I’d be absolutely furious.

This is the only reasonable course of action.

You would only need a ring doorbell at the front of the house, i.e. facing the driveway (to monitor their batshit parking!), so it wouldn't be angled towards their front door, rather the joint driveway..

I think your front doors are opposite each other in what I envisage is a sort of passageway towards your garages.

I’m really confused about why the removals people were not able to get panel fences which must be all of 10cm thick past the car. The only way that could happen is if the total distance between each of your front doors is less than 3 metres!

I'm invested in this thread and would like to know what will happen next. Op please update us after talking to them 👀

Park at your garage every time. If he is blocking access park on the drive so it is him that has to ask somebody to move a car.

Op has already drawn a diagram

What a nasty, spiteful man - and what a pointless way to live your life. Does it actually bring him joy? I always think the same about vandals vs thieves: obviously both of them are despicable, but at least the latter stand to benefit personally; whereas the former are just seeking to ruin things for everybody with no actual gain for them either.

Imagine having to inhabit the head of a person who, when asked nicely if he needed to access his car, as some decent, pleasant hard-working business people needed to pull up for a few minutes for loading, their first instinctive action is to take the trouble to move their car purely to prevent them from doing so. How did that actually help him in any way?

I'd be very tempted to leave the uncollected rubbish somewhere at the front (on your property) where it will be ugly for him to have to see it every day; maybe add some more as well. If he complains, remind him that this is precisely what he wanted, by going out of his way to prevent its removal... remember?!

I think writing them a letter is a good idea

explain that now the panels are lose in the storm tonight and if they damage anything you have witness to the fact you tried to clear them out of the way and it is not your responsibility. How would the like it if you blocked the drive when they were having a delivery, this isn't the type of stunt you'd pull.

I wouldn’t have bought with a shared drive but you are stuck with it unless you move and you need to declare any neighbour disputes.
I think you have been too soft eg they are parking blocking your garage so you park on road wtf. Tell them to move across each and every time.
Blocking drive. I’d go round and ask why they stopped your tradesman accessing it will cost £x to come back are they going to pay. Remind them it’s a shared access.

I have a shared driveway with my next door neighbour. I don't own the driveway, they do but I have unlimited access across it, so they cannot block me by parking on the shared part and getting to the parking space outside my garage. I would have thought the same applies in your situation, check your deeds. Perhaps because the driveway is assigned to their house, they think they can do what they wish. That's not the case but perhaps they don't understand what access across their property meant when they moved in.

We’ve had arguments over our neighbours’ drive (we have right of way) and our parking space (which they have no claim to) for over 20 years! Original neighbour built over his parking space, used ours when he needed room for his truck and told buyer she was fine to use ours too. We soon put paid to that so he had to come back and try to make space. She wouldn’t take hers park on ours from time to time, especially when she had guests, and told a friend of mine not to park there (despite him saying he was visiting me!).

Last year she ambushed my landlord and got him to split the bill for resurfacing the drive, and pay extra for our parking space there despite her and her other neighbour including their spaces in the original cost. Upshot is that our space looks more like it belongs to them so more fights with their guests.

If I win the lottery I’m buying this house, building another entrance and building a high wall around the boundary.

I was wondering that. Surely you have to declare any neighbour disputes.

I can feel my blood boiling on your behalf. What is wrong with people?

Last week a woman driver indicating left to pull out reversed instead almost hitting me and my dog.

As she opened the car door and I drew level I politely said we were behind you then as you reversed. She looked shocked and we carried on. A minute later she was running after me in the street shouting at the top of her voice how dare I speak to her like that and I was an F C. I'm afraid I burst out laughing.

Well Tish, perfect, love it
Go with this op and let us know how you get on

I wouldn’t move the rubbish back to your garden I’d put it at end of shared drive ‘waiting to be collected’ if they call round as they can’t get on drive say it’s there because they wouldn’t move car off shared drive to allow men to pick up at your garage and so it needs to be collected from the bottom.

Great - so you have photographic proof that he purposely blocked access to your garage where the rubbish was. I’d copy it, give it to a solicitor and get them to write a letter to the neighbours, saying you’ll be taking them to court to claim back the money you wasted on the rubbish collection from them, and yes, here’s proof that you a) went out and moved your car to block the shared driveway when politely asked by the rubbish man; and b) purposely parked it in such a way that the rubbish couldn’t be carried past it.

And FGS park your car in front of your garage! I’d paint a line between them or similar personally.

Theÿ say there's always one asrehole neighbour.

I don't know who it is down my road, because they all seem very pleasant.

😂

Don’t move it! I would send a letter reminding him of shared drive access and telling him X date is when you require access to the drive for removal of rubbish. And I would park my car outside my garage. Even better if you have a car (family member?!) you can leave there for a while…

Amazing, even better than my idea! Do it OP.

I've have a similar issue and just wanted to sympathise.

It started on the day I collected my keys back in 2017 (my first house) with my Mum and Dad and when we drove there the bloke next door was blocking the shared access to my driveway and garage with his massive great works van.

I asked him several times not to do it. I eventually checked with a solictor what the legal status of that piece of land is and it is 100% clear in the deeds and covenants that nobody is allowed to park there and block access. But anyway - there's nothing I can really do about it.

It was eating away inside me and making me so stressed and unhappy for years that I've just accepted it now. That sadly meant I had to get rid of my car but it has taken away all the stress.

Surely they can't be in the right about the ring doorbell as that would mean everybody in all streets with buildings both sides of the road would be infringing on them - it's impossible to have them installed so that they only show your door and nothing beyond that as the whole point of them is they face outwards, so obviously they will show the doors of the house/s directly opposite as well?