To ask what you'd do? Warning - PARKING thread!!

[spg1983]

Some new neighbours moved in next door about 2 months ago. We both share a carport and have two parking spaces each which are one in front of the other, i.e. for both of us to get 2 cars in we have to drive through the carport and the 2nd one parks behind it. Both houses have 2 cars. So far so good.

We live on a new estate and apart from our drive, there is literally NOwhere else to park apart from doing something silly like parking on a roundabout!

The problem is that when the neighbours moved in they had some stuff which they put under the carport, leaning against their house, which severely reduced the space available for both cars. They started off by parking their car somewhere else and walking a few streets (i guess?) to get back home but recently they've started parking under the carport and not leaving us enough room to get through. DH and I both work full-time and our hours mean we always arrive home after the neighbours. I'm also 33w pregnant so there's no way I can squeeze in/out of a tight space at the moment - literally the only way to get out of our car if we can get it onto the drive is to jump in/out of the boot.

We asked the neighbour if they could try and stay on their side and explained why, they apologised and they said that they were just waiting to sell the furniture and then it'd get moved and in the meantime they'd try and park more fully under their "half" of the carport. However this was a month ago and nothing has changed. I'm having to leave my car at a friend's house and walk 3 streets back home each day and DH can park there but is having to get in/out via the boot of his car as both their cars go over our driveway. We've told them this but this time they got grumpy with us and asked us what to do with the furniture - we said store it somewhere else/get a shed but they didn't like those ideas...

WWYD? There's no way of us getting home first to "claim" the space as our work hours are totally inflexible. Are they even legally doing anything wrong?! Help! I want to be able to park on my driveway and if this carries on when baby's here I think I'll go mad :(

[DeepRedBetty]

By the centre do you mean the middle of the bit that is yours, or the middle of the whole carport? Please don't tell me you or DH are parked on a bit that is theirs? You need to keep that moral high ground!

[lljkk]

.

[spg1983]

I know :( thing is, I feel like us parking close to the middle is good in a way for giving them a taste of their own medicine but I can't help but feel that by doing so, we're losing the moral high ground.

Was quite funny though, jumping into our car this morning and driving straight away (while picking me up outside the carport, grr!) while they spent ages clearing the snow off their second car which they can't get under the carport because of the table!

[WhateverTrevor]

Thanks for the update and you're probably busy living your life, but can we have daily updates please? So happy you're winning.

[spg1983]

deepred we are parked 100% on our own land but as close to theirs as we can get without going over, whereas they are often blatantly on our side. DH measures it when he gets out of our car, he looks like a right idiot when he does that!

However in doing that, we are still stopping them getting in because of the fact they've limited their own space so although we've not done anything wrong, they may think that we're being out of order as it's pretty obvious that we've gone as far over as we can...

[DeepRedBetty]

no worries, keep it up, you're doing the right thing. Sorry I misunderstood your post at 17.42

[WhereYouLeftIt]

spg1983, seriously not trying to put ideas in your head; but how on earth have this table and chairs not been stolen by now ? Surely storing them in a carport is really insecure?

[spg1983]

You'd think so! Our estate has indeed seen its fair share of crime with thefts and vandalism - nothing more than average but certaint enough to make people lock doors/gates etc. think the problem is we are at the end of a cul-de-sac at the very back of the estate, no-one ever comes down here unless they actually need to and a lot of people don't even know this bit even exists.

[Shattereddreams]

Marking place. Got to know how this pans out.

[fruitstick]

Excellent work

[lljkk]

They are probably oblivious, OP, to the inconvenience you were put to and now to how you are now deliberately parking right up to the edge of your space, some people just are.

[Cosmosim]

Gosh. Leaving furniture unlocked like that in a carport. Anyone could just rock up and take it.

[spg1983]

Today's update - the snowy furniture is still there, in the same place as yesterday but they've squeezed their car in next to ours - it's really wonky though so I have no idea how they managed to get out of their driver's side door!

For some reason they've also moved their two wheelie bins out of the back of the carport to directly behind their car...at first I thought that was a bit silly as now they have to move the bins to get their car in and out but maybe they're planning to put the furniture where the bins used to be? Only thing is that that location is 100% exposed to the weather and not covered by carport at all. I think it's more likely that the wheelie bins in the new location block the view of the furniture so maybe they're protecting it? It's definitely not bin day and they've been there for a while - they must be moving them every time they drive in and out. How weird...

[KatoPotato]

Are your neighbours the Klopeks?

[TheSkiingGardener]

What nutty neighbours! Hope you get it sorted.

[HeadfirstForHalos]

Maybe you should tell them to skip the furniture, say that it must be a bit shit really as someone would have nicked any good stuff from there by now

[WhateverTrevor]

Bizarre. Could you link a camera up with a live feed so we can watch ourselves.
Saves you doing updates

[MissTapestry]

Shamelessly marking place to see what happens!

[BambieO]

Same as MissT!

[QOD]

I third the camera!!

And I'd have to draw a chalk line down the boundary

[spg1983]

Today's update - neighbour was parked at a really strange angle and had also decided to only move the wheelie bins a tiny bit out of the way when they were leaving so that they had to really swerve on the way out to get past them. I guess they were trying to save themselves the job of moving them, getting the car out and then moving them again.

Anyway, during this swerve, they didn't realise that they'd managed to drive their car onto a bit of black ice (which they'd have avoided if they'd just moved all their crap!) and ended up sliding sideways into our opposite neighbour's car...we saw all this as we all left our houses at the same time this morning. Unfortunately we were running a bit late and couldn't hang around to watch what happened next but the next-door neighbours did NOT look happy - it was the newer and more expensive of their two cars - oops!

:)

[DitaVonCheese]

Yikes!

[fruitstick]

Ha! I bet they'll blame you for not moving your car!

[spg1983]

They probably will. But my answer will be that we were parked 100% on our own land and therefore there's no way that we were blocking them in or out of their drives, nor did we make them park at a weird angle. But I will also comment on how I've noticed how hard they're making it for themselves with regard to parking - after all, every day they are having to negotiate around 2 parts of a table top, 2 table supports, a few chairs and 2 wheelie bins. Cannot believe that they have done this but am also happy that we have done absolutely nothing wrong - thank goodness!

[fruitstick]

Oh I didn't mean that they would have a point!

I really hope they are on Mumsnet and come across this thread.

Try offering them a Pombear, see what happens!