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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to want to park in front of my own house?

103 replies

LewsDad · 18/01/2011 15:46

I live on the right hand side of a one-way street with no driveways or garages. Most of my neighbours have more than one car, so parking is at a premium. However, rather than park on the narrow (but unused) pavement outside their own houses, the two neighbours opposite insist on leaving their cars outside mine. Because they are apparently also terrible at parking, they invariably add insult to injury by taking up more than one space each. I am therefore often forced to park on the other side of the road, in the 30-yard-long space that exists there.

I can see absolutely no benefit to them parking in front of my house instead of their own.

The people next door have raised this issue with them many times in the past, and I have made my feelings known in a less focused, more sweary and stompy way, but they appear not to care.

Because I have a toddler (with car seat on the right hand side), a pregnant wife and usually lots of heavy shopping, this annoys me somewhat.

Last night, having been unable to park near my house all weekend due to non-residents taking up all the spaces, and having at one point been forced to extract my son from the car directly into the middle of the busy road, I arrived home from work to yet again find my neighbour's car outside my house, with three quarters of a parking space behind it and half a space in front. I was so incensed that this time when I parked in front of his house, I made sure I got right in the way of his front door into the bargain.

This morning, I found a note on my windscreen asking me not to park outside his fucking door.

Am I being unreasonable to want to punch him in the face?

OP posts:

LadyBiscuit · 18/01/2011 17:39

Do you reckon BIWI? I figured that because it has a valid tax disc, it belongs to someone who uses it in the summer.

But I will give the council a call - the worst they can do is tell me to stop being such a NIMBY I guess.

Thanks

ThistleDoNicely · 18/01/2011 17:41

You can't park on the pavement - no matter if it is used or not - legally unless it is marked for such use (which by your description it wont be). And on a public road anyone has the right to park there so you are in the wrong by deliberately breaking the law in order to get your own back and block your neighbour's front door.

However, I understand your frustration. I'm in the same situation and often have to park round the corner - not fun when pregnant, suffering from crippling sciatica and trying to unload shopping. But without a private driveway there's nothing you can do about it. Perhaps start leaving notes on his windscreen about his bad parking.

MrSpoc · 18/01/2011 17:43

Hi LadyBiscuit if the camper has a valid tax disc then there will be nothing the council will do. it will only be classed as abandoned once the tax has ran out.

BecauseImWorthIt · 18/01/2011 17:44

It could have been stolen, LB! Just because it has a valid tax disc doesn't mean anything.

MrSpoc · 18/01/2011 17:45

As BecauseImWorthIt said, if the camper has been stolen then that is a different story altogether.

Changeisagoodthing · 18/01/2011 17:46

I had a car that had no tyres on left outside my house. It had a valid tax disc. No idea who owned it- no one in our road. I reported it but it coukdnt be moved but they did turn up day after tax expired and take it away.

hairyfairylights · 18/01/2011 17:58

Yabu, but there is sod all you can do about it, so best not let it bother you if you can!

tyler80 · 18/01/2011 18:01

I know someone who had a fairly new Range Rover stolen (burglary and they took the keys). Took the police 6 weeks to find it because it had been parked up on a side street 4 miles away.

So can be worth reporting these things, even if they only tell you it's not reported stolen and do nothing else.

Original poster

LewsDad · 18/01/2011 18:19

I didn't think I'd need to point out that I'm not actually going to punch my neighbour, but apparently there are a lot of sandal enthusiasts here. So:

I am not actually going to punch my neighbour. It was only a figure of speech.

However, I might mentally slap the next person who tells me I'm not allowed to park on a pavement, or accuses me of blocking all the light to windows I haven't parked in front of in the hulking great 4x4 I don't own, in the same way that I like to trip people who say "Bacon" when I ask them the time.

OP posts:

ivykaty44 · 18/01/2011 18:21

oh...no fight then

Original poster

LewsDad · 18/01/2011 18:26

No, I'm more of a letter-writer.

OP posts:

JamieLeeCurtis · 18/01/2011 18:30

the pen is mightier than the sword. The gob is mightier than the sword or the pen (or something). Do what Blu said. You neighbour is being all passive-aggressive, so take the moral high ground

ivykaty44 · 18/01/2011 18:31

Oh then I am off to watch a dvd, I think we have rocky 2 somewhere

FudgeGirl · 18/01/2011 18:41

Sometimes I wonder if AIBU to be able to want to get on my own freaking drive.

We have people park right up against the dropped kerb so it makes it incredibly difficult to get off (main road, v poor visbility) which is annoying but not much you can do - and then we've had people actually park over it and our neighbour's dropped kerb.

I mean, actually on the fucking dropped bit.

Best solution for inconsiderate parking is a chalk marker, like they use at some car dealerships.

You can write a nice old message on their windscreen without damaging it and everyone else can see it, better than a note.

The chalk pen REALLY is mightier than the sword.

IsItMeOr · 18/01/2011 18:46

I'm not sure why you're getting so snitty with us, as you did post in AIBU, and declared "I made sure I got right in the way of his front door".

Not really surprising you got responses suggesting you take the high road and actually talk to the neighbour...

traceybath · 18/01/2011 18:52

Friend lives on a very lovely street but with ltd parking - her neighbour took to putting a cone out in front of her house to protect 'her' space - it went down like the proverbial

Seriously though it is annoying and inconsiderate of your neighbours though.

Swedes1 · 18/01/2011 18:55

I think it's illegal to obstruct a pavement unless there is a council by-law expressly confirming the right to park there. I think it's contravention code 62.

Perhaps he's just a law-abiding citizen and you're inciting a crime?

hifi · 18/01/2011 18:58

bil left his old banger outside our house for over a year,its a private rd so doesnt need taxing. i got so sick of asking him to move it that eventually i reported it as an abandoned vehicle.
i phoned him when they put the sticker on saying it was going to be removed and he took it that afternoon.

Swedes1 · 18/01/2011 19:01

Wouldn't it be easier to swap houses? Saves fighting over parking spaces.

LillianGish · 18/01/2011 19:01

I agree with those posters who say if parking is that important to you then get a house with a drive. My MIL wastes her life worrying and fretting about this - to the extent of coming home early from a day out to try and bag a space near her house. You have no right to park outside your house - just accept it. Unless you are disabled I can't see why you'd get your knickers in a twist about something like this.

JamieLeeCurtis · 18/01/2011 19:07

LewsDad - just to clarify - are you saying they park outside your house, even though there is no car in front of theirs? (but also, how could you know this? Maybe a car was there earlier in the day and it moved)

Original poster

LewsDad · 18/01/2011 19:17

JamieLeeCurtis: That's exactly right (and I've stated only known facts, not assumptions :) )

OP posts:

Original poster

LewsDad · 18/01/2011 19:21

Oh, IsItMeOr - I'm only getting snitty with people who read a question and then answer a different one. Does that make me unreasonable, too?

OP posts:

onceamai · 18/01/2011 19:30

I'm usually grateful to be able to park in my own road and I think we pay about 200 pa for the residents' parking permit. London!

Blu · 18/01/2011 19:49

Thank you, Chipping! Boring but sensible advice is my strength

I do like swapping houses - he will no doubt then immediately start parking outside his old house....RESULT!

Or perhaps not...

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