Driveways without dropped kerbs

[Peppapigsandwich]

If someone is using their garden as a driveway but doesn’t have a dropped kerb, do you park there or do you treat it as a real driveway and find somewhere else?
If you have a driveway without a dropped kerb do you get blocked in often?
Im in the middle of a debate over this and curious to what others do or would do if ever in that situation?

People used to do this in the street near our primary school. Pave over the garden and claim it’s a drive but be too tight to apply for a dropped kerb. Then regularly yell at the parents (or anyone) who parked perfectly legally in front of their patio or paving. Thickos.

No it's not clearly a driveway.

I have a driveway that does have a dropped kerb but doesn't have tarmac all the way across the kerb, half is grass. It's obvious that it's a driveway, there's sometimes two cars on the driveway, but people still park across the bit with grass. Parking across the thing that someone obviously uses as a driveway just causes a bit of a nuisance because people parking don't know my situation - I could be disabled and need to get close to my door, a nurse who needs to get out of the driveway for night shifts, someone who's just passed their driving test and needs extra room to reverse etc.

No dropped kerb, you can park there. I'd avoid it if there were other places to park just to be nice but legally its not a driveway.

But since it's illegal for you to drive over the non dropped bit as it's not reinforced for you to do so, there is no problem for someone to park next to the non dropped bit, and they are fully legally entitled to do so. You need to access your drive via the dropped kerb only. It's obviously not fine for someone to park over the dropped bit which you use for access.

If you're having a go at people parking over the non dropped bit, you're being a bit of an entitled pratt tbh. But I'm sure that's not what you mean and you are just accessing it via the legal access route of the dropped kerb.

I wouldn't purposely park in a way that would block someone in/out. If their car is parked up (and no dropped kerb) I wouldn't park to block them in.

There are a few streets around ours where people have all basically turned their back yard into drives. None have dropped kerbs but they all have those blocks that you put against the kerb to drive up and signs asking people to keep it clear. Fortunately it's a street where you would only drive down to access the back of your house and has a dead end so no general traffic IYKWIM. But there is hell on if someone does block one of the 'drive ways'.

TBH, I'm in favour of having as few cars as possible parked on the street so I'd rather people did use their land as driveways, whether official or not.

Maybe I wasn’t clear. Because of where the dropped kerb is, if people park on the open part of the drive then their car comes right up to the edge of the dropped kerb, effectively blocking us in. It’s a seriously twattish thing to do. It’s usually only a problem at school pick up hours (as people aren’t that stupid/ selfish at other times) but that isn’t very helpful on the days when I can’t walk to pick up my own children.

If your dropped kerb isn't big enough for you to get out then you need to suck up the cost no matter how expensive to extend it. You can't just call people names because you think they should keep the undropped part free or shout at them when they are parking legally.

If there was no car there and I didn't know the house I wouldn't assume it's used as a drive and would probably park there.

I have a paved front garden that occasionally has a car parked on it, but isn't routinely used as a drive. People park across it often, but that's OK, I can get it off by moving the car that is on the drive anyway.

For others, if there's a car on it, I wouldn't block it.

I wouldn't park in front of one because I can't be bothered to deal with people who have decided they have a driveway when they don't, and that therefore they can have a go at people who park perfectly legally.

If no dropped curb it's not a driveway. They're also most likely damaging the curb stones and path driving over it which means the local authority will have to pay for repairs.

You also need permission for a drive/dropped curb (and actually pay first it) to make sure it's safe

We have a 'patio with inspirations' 😆 but purely because we live next to a school on a junction and the car got hit twice by parents.
Don't care if folk park in front of it as one.. its not got a drop curb and two because they are only there for a bit to pick up kids.
I think I asked someone to budge up a bit once in the last decade.
The vast majority of the street have the same on their front gardens.. it gives the parents room!

We have a large paved area at the front of the house, big enough for 2 or 3 cars. It's clearly 'meant' to be a driveway. There's a big gate across it too.

But, there's no dropped kerb so a) we don't park on it and b) we don't care if people 'block' the entrance to our house because they're entitled to park there.

(Although, truthfully it does wind me up when I can't get parked in front of my house but I have to suck it up because I can't afford to pay for a dropped kerb right now.)

When we come to sell we'll probably install a dropped kerb because there is effectively loads of off-street parking with this house and it would be a big selling point.

I'd park there if there was no car on the drive, but I wouldn't block them in unless there was absolutely nowhere else to park at all, and I was in a hurry for a medical appointment or similar.

But you have paid for or got permission to drive up the curb and across the path. It's not a driveway and you're not entitled to use it as such

I wouldn't park across one if it was blocking in a car already in the garden.

I would avoid parking across one if there were other free spaces nearby in case the owner is an arsehole who comes and shouts at me even though I'm doing nothing illegal.

But if there's no car in the garden and nowhere else free nearby then I'd definitely park there and hope for the best re arsehole owners.

People do this on our road as our council will not approve any more dropped curbs. The council recently sent us plans to put double yellows and general bays onto the road, and anyone without a dropped curb has had a bay put into of their house, which is open to anyone to use. Lots of unhappiness but there is nothing they can do about it.

We have a drive without dropped kerb. We were going to pay for one but 50% of our road are the same as us so havent bothered. Mostly people dont park over our drive but if they do there isnt anything we can do about it. Only once it has happened and it was neighbours visitors who knocked and asked. We live in a large cul de sac type estate built in 1950s so the houses were not constructed with drives at the time. There is some road parking if needed

If we put house up for sale it couldnt be sold with off road parking but the photos would show that it has a drive. This was told to me by an estate agent. He thought it wasnt that big a deal.

Cautionary tale. There was an MN thread recently from someone who had bought a house (in London I think) advertised as ´off road parking' - kerb was low but not dropped, vendor was vague and solicitor didn't pursue.

The required driveway width for a dropped kerb has increased since the neighbours had theirs done (predating this house sale) so the poster couldn't apply to have kerb dropped.

The council have now put marked parking bays along the road, including across the poster's frontage, so the house no longer has off road parking, which has knocked £10K+ off house value.

This stuff matters!

If I remember correctly another poster explained her council had installed concrete bollards on the pavements, to stop people driving over non-dropped kerbs.

I very rarely get blocked in tbh. Delivery vans might pull up for a few seconds but that's it.
We're a two car family so if I wasn't using it as a drive I'd be on the road taking two spaces so for that reason people are courteous.

No dropped kerb then there is no issue parking anywhere. Right upto the drop perfectly fine.

My council has started to install bollards even if there is a car on the patio 😂 I love it. I also love parking wardens slapping tickets on people parked on the verges. Makes my heart happy. 😊

My house doesn’t have a dropped kerb but there is no path in front of it and it doesn’t have a standard kerb. Everyone has the same bricks in front of their houses even on driveways that have been there since the houses were built so legal I assume. We extended our driveway widthways to be able to get 2 cars on the drive. No one blocks us in apart from people visiting us. We don’t drive over any council owned land to get on the drive.

If you don't have a dropped curb, then the council can cement in bollards on the pavement to stop you from parking there. I have seen it happen to someone.