Was I wrong to call the police over neighbours blocking our drive?

[Lovedogs2]

I really need some advice as I’m getting so upset. My husband, myself and our two children live down a narrow public road, approximately a car and a half’s width wide and we’ve lived here for over 20yrs. We have a drive next to our house where we can park two cars. Both houses opposite us do not have parking and choose to park outside their homes. We do not have an issue with this at all, as long as they leave enough room for a “turning circle” for us to be able to get in and out when needed. A problem has now arisen, one of the neighbours opposite (whose mobility is poor) has now got carers calling twice a day, these carers and her family have been blocking our drive by parking across it. I mentioned this politely to her daughter who apologised but it kept happening. On three occasions in a month I was late to work as I couldn’t get out of my drive.
This elderly neighbour then had her car removed as she was physically unable to drive any longer. The carers continued to call and continued to block me in. This is where it gets complicated. My daughter, who’s 20 works two jobs, one of them is working late shifts in the local hospital a couple of times a week. Due to the parking issue, she has up until recently parked in a local village hall some 10minutes walk away, (as does my son). The walk home is often after 11pm and down an unlit road, so it can be scary. When the elderly neighbours car was taken away, my daughter, for two evenings a week parked outside our property, as the space was now free, she was there from approx 11pm - 8:20am the following morning when she left for work. This also helped me, as the carers were now unable to block me in as they couldn’t park opposite our drive but they were still able to park infront of my daughter. Anyhow, the daughter of the elderly lady approached my daughter one morning as she was leaving and told her quite rudely that she could not park infront of her own home and that she must park down on the main road. My daughter explained the situation about her working etc … my daughter parked outside our home one more time, then we received a rather shirty letter from the neighbour stating that our daughter couldn't park there, that she was stopping v the carers doing their jobs etc.. I responded politely but assertively, explaining the situation and that as soon as her mother has her car back, she can once again resuming parking outside her home and my daughter will once again park in the hall as her needs were greater. I explained that during the winter months when it’s dark and raining it would be reassuring for both me and her Dad if she could park outside her own home, after all she does live there. Next thing I know, the neighbour brought her car back, and just left it there as she couldn’t drive it to stop my daughter parking … this then started the whole cycle of us being blocked in again. The other neighbour, a young girl in her late 20’s befriended the elderly neighbour and decided to block us in from her side, I’m assuming only through spite. So last weekend,both myself and my husband were unable to get to work, as she’d gone away for the weekend there was no way of getting the vehicle or moved. When she returned, my husband was in the drive and politely asked her if she could move forward, she did but only after muttering u see her breath. Fast forward to last night, they had a visitor over who completely blocked me in and I needed to go to my mothers house (82yrs). I knocked politely on the front door, no answer. So I went to the back door. The driver answered the door, I asked if he could move his car, he asked why?? I said that he was blocking the drive and I needed to get out. He refused to move, I explained that what he was doing was illegal, he cannot block me in, he said it wasn’t and that he wasn’t moving and closed the door. Wasn’t sure what to do so I called the police and took photos of our problem. Police arrived and were lovely and could instantly see the problem and went to speak to our neighbour. I’m not sure what was said or done but my husband now says that I shouldn’t have called the police that I took it too far, I’m at my wits end and just want to sell up and move … any advice please!

Keep calling the police every single time they block you in.

Do not engage with their nonsense about you or anyone else legally parking on a public road.
THEYVE shown who they are - they cannot be reasoned with.

Hmmm I’d be interested to see their side of this. Why did the neighbour’s visitor say that his car wasn’t blocking your drive? I wonder if by blocking, you mean a sliver of a bumper was showing? If so then you are being massively unreasonable. Of course if they genuinely are blocking your drive then obviously YANBU and they are cunts of the highest order

Ok so my understanding is that you are a household with 4 cars and a driveway for 2 cars. Your son does not park at the house/on the street (but at the village hall) and your daughter used to/could still do this but you prefer her not to.

Your neighbours do not have a driveway and parking is limited.

Firstly, no one should be blocking your driveway. It’s illegal to do so.

Secondly you are not stopping carers doing their job. Like your son, they could park nearby and walk to the property.

Where I think you may not have helped the issue is in respect of your daughter’s parking. It’s not clear to me if she is parking across your drive (which is theoretically ok as you/she can move it as needed) or if she was parking where the neighbour used to park their car.

From your post it reads as if your daughter was parking outside the neighbours house when the car was taken away and the reverted to parking across your drive (but I may have got this wrong).

If she was using the spot the neighbour had been using I can see why that caused upset. Yes she’s technically free to park there, but knowing how tight parking is, that you appear to be a car heavy household and already have 2 dedicated spaces, plus are aware of the need for careers to visit then I can understand why other neighbours got pissed off and whilst not illegal, I’d say morally it’s a bit shitty.

If she was parking across the drive and never in the neighbours spot, whilst that is different as she’s not really taking a spot from anyone else, nor blocking you in, I can still imagine this causing tension given parking situation as a whole - but you can decide if that a hill your happy to die on or not and unlike the situation above I don’t think morally it’s unfair.

i think you were right to call the Police. Blocking your drive is not acceptable. I’d also contact the care provider and complain about carers blocking your drive (it’s possible that the neighbour have told them this is ok - so you need to make clear it isn’t.

But I would consider the position re: your daughter’s car (especially if she had been parking outside the neighbours house - which I think if correct was a bad move and would have escalated the situation).

Just as neighbours have bought properties without a drive, you have one with parking for 2 cars (in a household with 4) so I’d be considering how that looks to them and how your actions have contributed to this situation.

I hope Op comes back and clarifies exactly where everyone is parked - actually blocking her drive, or opposite (turning circle). It makes a big difference.

Why should the OP compromise the safety of her own car on a narrow road, especially with such unpleasant neighbours? They're totally in the wrong and the police will probably have told them so. Keep taking photos of their cars blocking the drive.

Your husband couldnt give a toss and not a man who deals with issues of life. Clearly your the one who did was right. I think your OH is definately the one not supporting what your doing!

And we can mark them out of 10. 🤔And put the scores on the very secret MN CF Parking Diagrams Thread , which is a thing of great beauty but only accessible to the chosen. Sorry if that feels excluding, but it is what it is.

Agree.

Also where her DD was parking. Was she parking where the neighbour used to?

Who knows, very confusing long tale. The post could have been written in a handful of sentences 🤷‍♀️ I suspect the cars are parked in the ‘turning circle’, but we’ll see if OP comes back with a clearer description. Until then, any advice is obsolete and a waste of time 🤷‍♀️

You were left with no choice but to call the police. Well done for asserting yourself in an appropriate manner. I am sorry you are having to deal with this. Your husband is unreasonable for making this situation more stressful and not being supportive.

Thank you all so much for your input .. I will draw a diagram (don’t like to post pictures of their cars) of our drive to make it clearer. My husband is, I suppose a bit of a people pleaser, and doesn’t like to upset the neighbours. I didn’t intentionally go out to call the police, but when the neighbour refused to move I felt I wasn’t left with much of a choice, it was either that or go back indoors and sit and wait. These two neighbours opposite seem to have formed a bit of an alliance, and clearly think that we are in the wrong! But it is making our life difficult, I have got a ring doorbell so everything is “on file”.

The way I read it is the carers are parking outside neighbours house this makes it very difficult for op to get off her drive. However what would op like the carers to do? They have a right to park on the road they aren't technically or actually blocking ops drive.
What is ops solution for neighboyrs carers and visitors where dp you think they should park op?