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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Row over no dropped kerb

163 replies

pingu2209 · 07/05/2011 14:45

My friend lives in a very busy and narrow street full of Victorian terraced houses with terrible parking issues. Many of the houses have had their front garden walls removed and paved over their garden so that they can park their car.

Some of these houses have paid the council to drop the kerb outside so they can park, but many of the houses have not. You can legally park across someone's house (and therefore car parking space) where the kerb is not dropped.

There are constant rows between my friend and her neighbours when she parks infront of 2 or 3 houses where the kerb is not dropped. When she does it, it is because she has no choice as there is no where else to park on the street.

The owners of these houses have become really nasty about it and she is worried her car/house will be damaged during the night. Her view is they should apply for a dropped kerb and pay for it to be done. Of course, they may well have already applied and the council have turned them down as there are so many dropped kerbs already? Who knows.

Is she being unreasonable?

OP posts:
FattyAcid · 08/05/2011 08:35

Yourfriend may not be breaking the law but is acting in an inflammatory manner to her neighbours so no suprise they have a negative reaction to her.the cost of dropping a kerb is unreasonably high IMe.

purepurple · 08/05/2011 08:36

Just tell your friend to park in the next street.

foxinsocks · 08/05/2011 08:38

She isn't being unreasonable at all. And all this talk of 'do they park outside your house' - no one house owner owns the road nor owns the right to a 'parking space' allocated to them right outside their house (unless a disabled spot). Surely if you make an unauthorised driveway and don't get a dropped curve, you must expect that people will view it as a parking space? If a car wasn't in the driveway, the absence of a dropped curve would lead me to not even consider that a car parked there.

Round here, in an area with huge pressure on parking spaces, either you have a dropped curve (or yellow lines that prohibit parking) outside your house otherwise that space is fair game and even the council have made that clear!

And yes nikki, I remember your thread too!

foxinsocks · 08/05/2011 08:44

But yes, I agree, if she lives somewhere where she knows her neighbours, best thing to do is speak to them about it. Parking then running into her house and shutting the curtains is probably not going to solve the problem Grin

Mishy1234 · 08/05/2011 08:47

What if you friend's neighbours need to use their car in an emergency or have an early flight to catch or need to leave early for work?

Yes, she can legally park where she's blocking them in, but it's only going to cause bad feeling if she does. If you live in an area where parking is at a premium, then you have to accept that you may need to park several streets away (or more). Just one of those things I'm afraid.

WereOffToSeeTheWizard · 08/05/2011 09:05

You your friend if we're still pretending are b v u.
It is a typical aibu.
Aibu ?
Yes
No I'm not.
You're being awkward and selfish and I bet your neighbours hate you.

wotnochocs · 08/05/2011 09:21

'What if you friend's neighbours need to use their car in an emergency or have an early flight to catch or need to leave early for work?
You have the legal right to use reasonable force to move a car causing an obstruction and this includes breaking the window to release the handbrake
I think if teh council used contactors which were reasonably priced, then the whole situation wouldn't arise.

southmum · 08/05/2011 09:27

Hope you your friend has a shitty car OP because if hers is nicer than one of the people she blocks in or out dont be surprised if they just decide to ram her car out of the way.

This happened to DPs brother

TheCoalitionNeedsYou · 08/05/2011 09:28

She is parking legally. You don't own the road outside your house. She is not being unreasonable. The end.

FourFingeredKitkat · 08/05/2011 09:45

So long as your friend doesn't actually block in an already stationed car when she parking outside one of these houses without the dropped kerb, then I don't see the problem. As others have said, paving your front garden doesn't give you any rights to reserve the parking space outside your home. If you want/need to do this, then you have no option but to pay for a dropped kerb IMHO.

So, with that proviso, NBU

lockets · 08/05/2011 10:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GwendolineMaryLacey · 08/05/2011 10:08

The friend is perfectly justified in parking there. Paving over your front garden doesn't give you parking rights. Neighbourly relations and morals are a different matter but technically your friend is doing nothing wrong.

So, how come posters are warning your friend to watch out for her car being keyed or her wing mirrors broken, as if that is acceptable behaviour? If she parks there (where she is legally entitled) then it's her fault if her car gets damaged?

A dropped kerb is different, although a house across the road has a dropped kerb and a paved garden and we all park over it. In the 8 years we've lived here, there has never ever been a car on it, no one has ever said anything or left any notes so presumably they don't use it and don't mind. It is the last resort space though Wink

LaWeasel · 08/05/2011 10:09

Your friend is being a pedant.

She can keep doing it if she likes, but everyone will hate her and think she's being a complete twat.

HeadfirstForHalos · 08/05/2011 10:15

She is parking legally, but it sounds like she has anger issues with the parking in her street in general, and pissing off the neighbours is not helpful.

SIBU

TiggyD · 08/05/2011 10:18

She is parking legally but being a pain in the arse.

YABU.

Sorry, she is being unreasonable.

olderandwider · 08/05/2011 14:04

As I see it, the neighbours with off street parking haven't paid for a dropped kerb but act as if they have, and at the same time expect to be able to deprive their neighbours of an on street parking space. Talk about wanting to have your cake... with a touch of I'm All Right Jack.

I think your friend is totally within her rights to park if the kerb is not dropped. As an aside, the council may want to review its policy of allowing people to pave over their front gardens. Bad for the environment, looks nasty, and doesn't actually create any more parking spaces (unless these are huge front gardens, but from OP's description they don't sound like it.)
Where I live the council puts bollards on pavements to block people accessing their "drives" if there is no dropped kerb.

DontGoCurly · 08/05/2011 14:08

Who cares whether it's legal or not? That's irrelevant. She's being selfish and unbelievably unreasonable. I'm suprised her car hasn't been keyed.

Bath, cold streets? Er ? So what?

She rents, tell her to get over it or move. silly cow.

PaperView · 08/05/2011 14:37

The neighbours do not have drives if there is no drop kerb. It's just a garden.

The neighbours are breaking the law by crossing the footway (can't find a proper highway code link but this page has lots of relevant information.

Your "friend" is being an arse too. SHe knew the parking when she moved there. She can either contact the council herself to find out for sure rather than rely on "the word", or she can contact her landlord/letting agent to ask.

GwendolineMaryLacey · 08/05/2011 14:38

It's not irrelevant at all, it's entirely relevant. She has as much right to park there as they do. Whether it's a good idea or not is up for debate.

And again, keying her car is a suitable response is it? FFS. And I thought it was just kids going round doing stuff like that Hmm

PaperView · 08/05/2011 14:45

Highways act 1990 section 184

DontGoCurly · 08/05/2011 14:49

That's exactly what is up for debate.

I've seen loads of converted gardens where people just use a plank of wood instead of dropping the kerb or lash on a bit of cement to buffer the drop.

Fair play to them I say. The law is an ass on this one. She's just bitter because she can't convert her garden and so she is passively aggressively begrudging everyone else who did and parking in front of their driveways.

The 'law' is just a scam for councils to make money. The laws of altruism override the law of the land here imo. You do no harm to anyone else, that's the way a decent person operates in life.

You don't just go around like a petty little pedant saying....they broke the law so i'm going to block them in. Selfish, unreasonable cow.

kw1986 · 08/05/2011 14:57

Yeah she can legally park there, but she is clearly being a dick as she knows she's either parking someone in their drive or blocking them from getting their car back in.

So you're friend is the one BU.

screamingskull · 08/05/2011 15:22

why is it her friend that is the one who is being a selfish cow or a dick or should expect to have her car scored?

Honestly though i believe that unless a car is parked in the space at the time then the space is fair game to be taken, as long as no dropped curb there ,and if you can't get on to your drive when you come home from work then bloody tough luck.

If everyone lives on the street what makes one person more superior than the other just because they have paved the garden

thesurgeonsmate · 08/05/2011 15:25

Probably the first time I've ventured an opinion, but it seems quite an easy one - SIBU.

TheCoalitionNeedsYou · 08/05/2011 16:22

So, the argument that those who think the OP is unreasonable are using is that because some people pay the council to reserve a piece of public property for their own use, that people who DON'T pay the council to reserve a piece of public property for their own use should still be allowed to reserve public property for their own use?

I you don't have an official dropped kerb, you don't have a driveway.

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