Lived here for 12+ years, neighbours both sides been here longer. Had a few minor issues with our attached neighbour with regards to noise but never anything we've actually complained to them about as I'm
sure we're noisy at times too and I hate confrontation of any kind.
Non attached neighbours (NAN) drive is alongside ours. She has a single drive and we have a double drive with double drop kerb. Opposite is a road junction with flats either side, which means often, cars or vans are parked fully or partly on the wide pavement opposite our homes. There is also a car that parks right up to her drop kerb on the other side of her drive, and a brick pillar at the end of our shared drive which makes getting off the drives tricky sometimes as visibility can be poor.
Tonight, a visitor to NAN was parked part way across our drive. This is a fairly frequent occurrence as her DD comes to pick up and drop of her DGD a few times a week and this visitor also comes a couple of times too.
Being completely honest, it's not a massive inconvenience, still it is annoying as not only would we have to knock to get one of the cars out, it sets our ring doorbell off when they pull up and get out of the car and they also will reverse onto our drive to turn around if one of our cars aren't there which sets it off again. I WFH full time so have noticed this more and maybe have let it build like little annoyances do once you notice them.
So I went and knocked the door and politely asked them if they could move the car forward a few feet so they weren't blocking the drive again. Well, NAN and the visitor both came out asking how dare I knock the door and say this, can't I be neighbourly and then NAN just went on about a 20 minute rant in her house/garden (windows open obvs in this heat) about me. I then saw her go into attached neighbours as they were outside at the time too (they used to work together).
The drip feed is, that the visitor from this evening is actually a carer. She drops off and collects NAN's disabled DC to visit a few times a week and so is parked up for around 30-45 mins on pick up then drop off and needs access from our dropped kerb to get the wheelchair up the ramp into the vehicle.
I now feel bad because although we aren't friendly as such, we've always said hello, had a 5 min chat if out on the front together, given Christmas cards and if we've had a bbq, I send the DC round with a plate of food for her.
Should I go round tomorrow and apologise? I'm a total wuss at confrontational conversations, but I can't stand a bad atmosphere and really wish I'd just left it. At no point did I expect her to get really angry- I just thought if I let them know they were encroaching on our drive, they might be more mindful next time. I always try to never inconvenience the neighbours (park on our own drive, no loud music, DC no screaming in the garden or kicking balls up the fence etc) and now a rash decision means I've shut all the windows and am dreading going outside to the car or in the back garden.