Someone’s parked in our allocated space

[Flowerpowerr1]

Not sure what to do as it doesn’t happen often but when it does it’s so inconvenient!
We live in a small flat with 7 parking spaces (one for each household) we have two cars so we park one in our allocated numbered space and one we have to park down the road.
Nobody usually parks in anyone’s spaces because there have been warnings at the start from the landlord stating nobody is allowed to park in anybody’s space.
last night my husband took the car that’s usually parked in the parking space to work and he doesn’t get home till after 12am ish when he returned he found a car parked in our space, this never usually happens regardless how long it’s empty nobody normally parks there.
So he had to park down the main road where our other car was, this meant I had to rush my child to walk him down to the main road to get him in school on time, it’s also a busy road and hard to get out off so it was a massive inconvenience! The car is still there now at nearly 11am I don’t know who it belongs to and I need to do a big food shop which I can’t do when my car is parked far away 🫣 I just can’t believe how inconsiderate some people are!

Get a lipstick, and write in big letters across all windows & windscreen: PRIVATE PARKING. MOVE YOUR CAR. After they've had to do that clean up job, they are unlikely to re-offend.

Just park is a good thought, there was a thread the other day where one had been rented out near Wimbledon and it wasn't even a personal space.

A very sticky large label on the windscreen. One that is hard to scratch off.

Is there a barrier or other access control for the car park?

You can get a sign from Amazon for £15 saying illegally parked cars will be clamped

Bloody hell, who rattled your cage!

Then it would stay there longer. Stick a nail in it so they get a slow puncture and it hopefully goes down somewhere else very inconvenient for them.

Any luck yet?

It's not about being wimp or incapable. As a lone female OP could put herself in potential danger knocking on doors of people she doesn't know. Like it or not it's a consideration we all have to make.

Any luck with asking the neighbours? Otherwise it may be a cheeky resident nearby. If so it may be time to look into wheel clamping and fines (I think you have to put a sign up first).

At least in England wheel clamping is illegal. Charges are not though.

I’d certainly put a message on the local FB page, complete with photo. You can obscure the number plate but write it in with your request -does anyone know…etc. then I’d stick a note on the driver's side window with glue ( print stick) so they can’t accuse you of blocking their view but I would stick it so they couldn’t see the wrong mirror clearly. For those who question this, yes I would do it after it was done to a family member.

Exactly.
People seem unable to take that into consideration, in their rush to be a knobhead for the sake of it.

I wouldn’t stab the tyre but I’d be very tempted by the lipstick message idea.

😂

I used to be frequently blocked in by the same family. I'd knock and they said they'd come and move it in a moment, not to get my knickers in a twist etc etc. Half an hour or so later they'd come out and move. I always ended up knocking half an hour before I wanted to go anywhere, which was a right pain as no line of sight from flat.

Big black sharpie "do not block me in. This message can be removed with nail varnish remover. I will do this every time you block me in". Very satisfying.

Someone did this to me once. We rented a parking space for a monthly fee, they didn't come automatically with the flat.
There weren't enough spaces for everyone, so the number on the space didn't necessarily correlate with the flat number.

My space was No. 3. So I went round to flat 3 and asked nicely if they had parked their car there. They had, they moved it. Job done.

Write a large note on A4 paper telling them not to park there again as it's an allocated space. Then sellotape it to the windscreen. Put another one the same on the driver's window to shame them.

I assume you have phoned the police to make sure it's not stolen?

As it's in a private parking space there's not much they can do if it's not..

But you can put your own 7 day notice on saying if it's not moved in 7 days it will be towed.

Sadly this is at your expense and you are not allowed to simply move it to the highway

This happened to me once, similar setup to you with a small number of spaces. The parking space is right outside my window so I waited there until they returned and said why have you parked in a private space, he mumbled something and apologised then drove off. He was from a HMO opposite our flats and they always park on double yellows causing a nuisance but to be fair, they've not tried their luck since.

I hope you find the owner

If all else fails report to police as an abandoned car!

Note for the car:

"These spaces are reserved to the flat number painted in the spot. Please do not park here again. This has been reported to the landlord." Add a "Thanks!" if you're feeling polite.

Note for the door:

"Car Registration No. XX70 XXX has been parked in space X since last night, which is allocated to flat X. If you know whose car this is, please arrange for it to be moved, so we can park in our allocated space." Again, add "Thanks!" if you want to be a little less blunt.

Write a message on the windscreen in greasy lip balm. They won't do it again.

Mumsnet goes mental about things like this. Here's what you do. You leave a note and continue with your life. You don't call the police, you don't sound your horn until the owner arrives, you don't pick up dog faeces. Clutching your pearls is up to you.