Spat at by neighbour

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The back story is tat we have 3 cars and 1 space on the drive. Next door have a drive for 3 cars. The are elderly so don’t drive. The only cars are when their grown up children visit. 3 have to park one of our cars outside their house, not blocking the drive at all, all legal and above board. They have a massive problem about us parking outside their house. So yesterday, one of the sons parked behind my car that was outside their house (even though the drive was free) fair enough that’s not a problem. I was walking my dog as he parked up. He got out of his car and my dog stopped to see who it was. I didn’t make any contact with the son at. I said “ come on let’s go home” to my dog and he came behind us and spat at us. I didn’t react at all, I carried on as normal making out I didn’t know what he’d just done. Now I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s made me feel so humiliated and small. I was too scared to confront him.

Spitting is an offence. Report to the police.

Sorry, it should’ve said that we have 3 cars. One is a works car.

I did think about that but wasn’t sure.

It’s assault and yes you can report it to the police.

Nasty man!

I will do that now. Thank you.

Are you sure he spat at you and not at the ground? That will be the first thing the police ask.

If you're not sure, I would think hard about escalating a neighbour conflict with someone like that. Your cars are clearly annoying them, though.

Report it and start parking somewhere else

It didn’t go on us, so technically yes it went on the ground but he still spat at us because we were there.

If he was behind are you sure you could tell the police he spat at you rather than just spitting? Were any words exchanged? Spitting is a horrible thing to do and as PP say it's an assault. However in a word against word situation where there doesn't seem to have been a row beforehand and he was standing behind you it might be difficult to prove.

I'm not discouraging you from reporting but just managing expectations.

You have no evidence of him spitting at you nor did you see it if it was behind you, all that you can say is that you hurd a spitting sound, which could have been him spitting at the ground.
The question I have is how big is your work vehicle and are you obstructing the access to or view of the road from their drive when you park in front of their house

So he could argue he wasn't spitting at you and you are mistaken. I'm not saying that to disparage what sounds like a horrible experience, I'm being realistic. If you escalate this with the police you'll have to declare it as a neighbour dispute if you ever decided to sell up, so you need to decide whether it's worth the aggro.

Can't you park your car elsewhere if you know it aggravates them? Even if it's legally parked, it's annoying when the view from your house is always someone else's vehicle.

Is it a big work vehicle, like a van?

The work vehicle is just a car. The car I park outside their home is a tiny fiat which is covered by trees so it doesn’t obscure any views.

I think you need to be very sure here op. Lots of people spit. Unfortunately, and spitting routinely on the ground is very different to spitting at someone.

so are you sure he spat at you?

Spitting at someone is assault, I would report it. You give the police the information you have and it’s up to them what they do about it. You don’t need to over analyse this man’s intentions, you know he spat at you and that’s enough.

But does she know he spat at her?

What a waste of police resources!
How do you know he spat at you?
If your dog was heading in his direction, why did you ignore him?
He probably thought you were rude.

She can't say for sure he spat AT her though, or not just near her. Calling the police when things are already strained with the neighbours is a risk I don't know I'd want to take without concrete evidence.

Spitting is only assault if it hits your face. I had this and that's what the police said. The legal definition of assault covers threatening behaviour but you'd be lucky to get anything done on this. Can't you just park somewhere else?

That’s horrible but difficult to prove. I would get a ring doorbell and also tbh I wouldn’t park there again unless you’re prepared to put up with their behaviour about it.

I mean spitting is awful, and nobody should have to put up with this behaviour I would report it however, slightly off subject........

And we have this near where we live - it's a fairly new estate and a mixture of flats, terraces, semi's and detached.

The flats and terraces have an allocated space or some
Have 2 per property, semi's have parking for 2 generally and the detached houses have a garage and a single/ double driveway - some of the larger ones have a double garage and it winds us all up as there is cars and works vans everywhere all over the street and over Christmas it's been absolutely ridiculous. I know my neighbour who co-ordinates the wattsapp group and neighbourhood watch has taken photos and emailed them to various letting agents as it's really dangerous people can barely get off their drives!! There's already been one collision someone trying to get off their drive owing to cars parked everywhere.

But ultimately the question has to be asked:-

Why, if you have 3 vehicles do you choose to live somewhere where there is only parking for one car????
I never understand that one????