...to think that writing 'No Parking' in front of your property doesn't mean people can't park there?

[MackerelOfFact]

I live on a narrow road of terraced houses and maisonettes. All parking is on the street. Opposite ours is a row of sheds and shed-like 'garages', which back onto the road from the bottom of the gardens of the houses on the next road. None of the structures are brick, most are wood or corrugated metal, so I assume they have not required planning permission to erect. Although most of these 'garages' are large enough to drive a car in, I have only ever seen a car leaving any of them on one occasion.

Now, here's the thing. There are a lot of maisonettes on the road, ours included, and there just isn't the space on the road to park. Most of the garages have huge signs saying 'No Parking', 'Access required 24 hours a day' etc. There are no lines or parking restrictions. Two have dropped kerbs - fair enough, we definitely can't park there. And wherever possible, we will try not to park in front of the garages. But sometimes that is the only place to park, and despite the signs, it is surely still perfectly legal to park there.

So are we BU to park there if there is nowhere else to park?!

if it has a dropped Kerb then no you can't . If it doesn't then yes you can. I'd be inclined to ring the council also to see if anyone can just paint willy nilly on pavements

YABU to think its ok to park in front of someones garage. So what if you havent seen anybody coming or going in and out of the, you aren't looking out the window 24/7 are you?

Even if it is legal, you won't make yourself any friends. But if that doesn't bother you, then there is no reason why you should heed their request to leave them with access.

Worth checking with the council which do have legal access first though.

I appreciate that SantyClaws, but they're not really garages. They are sheds which have been converted into shed-garages because they back onto a road. They likely don't have planning permission, and the vast majority don't have dropped kerbs.

In fairness, every house on my street has at least one garage, and out of the 33 houses, I am only aware of one family that actually puts a car in their garage. The rest use them for storage, and yes, I have seen into their garages when the doors have been open. Plus I think that, if they were going to use the garage to put a car in, the owners would have got a dropped kerb put in front of them. So I think that Mackeral's assumption that the garages are never used for cars is probably spot on.

And anyway - as Shinyshoes says, it is legal to park across a drive/garage/whatever if there isn't a dropped kerb.

YANBU - it doesnt. Treating people the way you'd like to be treated is golden though. Can you not park a street away?

No dropped kerb, no parking restrictions IMO. If people want off street parking they can pay for the dropped kerb.

If people can't access their garages they will park on the street adding to the problem, surely?

Email the council and ask them to come and take a look. If they say you can park there, get it in writing.

If it has no dropped kerb, you can park there.
That's the council's position. Otherwise we could all paint 'No Parking' wherever we like, and none of us has jurisdiction over the road on front of our property whether it be shed or maisonette!

Hmmm in these circs I think YANBU and they are on a par with the people around here who put traffic cones outside to protect "their" parking spaces.

MackerelOfFact I appreciate that but YA still BU. What if you block in somebody who then has an emergency and needs their car at 3am, how are you going to feel then when they have to bang on everyones door to find out which selfish fucker blocked them in? My neighbours and I are extremely courteous regarding parking and I often park in my drive when its a bugger to get out of despite also having an allocated and convenient space to the front of the house, so that my neigbours 19yo ds can park there as they already have 2 cars

So if someone erects a shonky old corrugated iron shed on their property, fills it with old washing machines and things and then writes "no parking" on it, then everyone should heed this?

I'm not convinced.

And I see that these "garages" are at the end of the people's houses - and the people live on the next road which is where their front doors are?

YANBU the only person I know who uses a garage which is a good walk from their house is my dad. And he has a dropped kerb. And lives in the 1950s and always wears a hat. And is particular about putting his car in the garage and taking it out ceremonially when he wants to drive somewhere. And would be straight onto the council about corrugated iron structures with no parking written on them.

SantyClaws - from my observations, both where I live and elsewhere, most people don't use their garages for their cars - they are full of tutt instead.

And as I said, surely if someone was using their garage on a regular basis, they'd have had a dropped kerb put in - so the lack of a dropped kerb would indicate to me that the garage is not in use as a garage often, if at all.

People do get funny about their parking, so although YANBU, you might not be very popular.

A chap has moved in a few doors down from my parents house, where you have to drive up a verge to get into the driveways. As soon as he moved in he had his bit of kerb dropped by the council, but now instead of driving up it and into his drive, he parks his car on the road blocking the piece of dropped kerb, so that his next door neighbour who hasn't got the kerb dropped can't use his bit of dropped kerb. Mind boggling!

I probably haven't explained it that well, but the houses these garages belong to are a road away. You have to go to the end of our very long road, along the main road, then back down their very long road - which has its own on-street parking (and fewer/larger houses, so more space per property). It's at least a 5 minute walk. So people don't use them for their everyday parking, and the one car I have seen emerging was a classic car obviously kept in there for long-term storage. I guess they might have doors on the garden side too though, I don't know.

We always try and avoid parking there when possible out of courtesy, but space is very limited so it's sometimes not possible. The next road is their road, so I guess we could park there but it seems a bit mad.

At the end of people's gardens I meant, with the houses and front doors on the next road.

Why don't you walk around and look at their drives, If their drives have cars all over them then they are not BU and you can park with impunity

But anyway, I concede that it is perfectly legal but somewhat inconsiderate to park in front of the garages. Which is pretty much what I thought.

Even if the garages are not in use?

I think if you have a garage filled with crap it is inconsiderate to ask other people not to park in front of it.

Well yes, I agree. But clearly they must feel strongly enough about it to daub 'no parking' in foot-high red letters across their garages. (And yes, it's me that has to look at their shoddy handiwork through my living room window, not them!)

If they have legal access to the garages from this road does that prohibit parking though?

Dunno mackerel. If they are temporary type structures then maybe not. That sort of thing can get very complicated.

Hiya... mild thread hijack - what's a dropped kerb?

I guess so, Sardine. I figure the car is ok parked there for today anyway.

A dropped kerb is where the pavement is lower so you can drive over it. It's also illegal to park there.