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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

re parking in front of other people's houses

107 replies

Blizzardlizzard62 · 08/04/2013 18:57

I have just moved to a new area and my commute to work involves driving to the station (too far to walk) then getting the train.

At first I was paying almost £100 per month to park in the station car park, but this is clearly ridiculously expensive in addition to petrol and my train season ticket which costs a couple of grand......

I have now discovered a residential street about 5 minutes' walk from the station where I can park for free, there are no parking restrictions and there are always spaces. However today as I was parking up a lady came out of one of the houses and gave me a pretty dirty look as she watched me park up. She didn't actually say anything though. It is pretty obvious I am heading into the city to work, as I was suited and booted so it would be obvious I was parking up for the station.

As I say there are no parking restrictions so I suppose I am legally entitled to park there, but is it unreasonable to park in front of other people's houses in this manner? I should add it is a row of terraced houses which don't have their own driveways so the residents park on the road too I imagine.

I do try and mix it up a bit so as not to always park in front of the same house.

OP posts:

toomuch2young · 08/04/2013 20:22

Yes perfectly legal, annoying though.
I live in a terrace 2 mins from a station and have this situation happen to me every day, so when I want to pop home on my lunch to see to my pets I have to park half a mile away, plus I have a disability which is incidental but just adds to the difficulty.
All night the road is clear and can park right outside my house which is lovely but mon - fri 8-6 ish it's inaccessible.
So yes i wish people would use the bloody car parks but is nothing I can do about it at all as it is their right to park there.
Haha though to all the people stating 'just get a house with a drive' tea because that is affordable to everyone

intheshed · 08/04/2013 20:28

Just don't do what someone did to me and leave your car there for 2 WEEKS!! They clearly went on holiday and were too tight to get a taxi to the station

Startail · 08/04/2013 20:30

If you buy a house by a station people will park outside your house, like wise if you live by a school.

There is shit all point in moaning.

Startail · 08/04/2013 20:34

If you live by a station write to the council for a large free car park, like wise if you live by a school.

Our school had enough room to build a car park. The council wouldn't let them. They said it encouraged people to drive to school.

Since it was a village school with a totally useless bus, we all already did.

MummytoKatie · 08/04/2013 20:37

I used to live very close to the centre of a major tourist town. I had a flat with a garage. Garage would be blocked more often than not in the mornings. (Which technically wasn't a problem as I cycled to work so only needed to get my bike out but it still used to shock me that people did it.)

Parking on the road is small fry IMO.

Hulababy · 08/04/2013 20:38

No restrictions, no blocking drives or parking up on pavement or blocking road - can't see any issue.

I would imagine most people bought there aware that the station was close by, so even if they do't like it they can hardly be surprised.

If they feel that strongly they can get together and apply to have the road restricted and residents permit parking only. It's happen round here. Trouble is now some of the residents are complaining that they have to pay for a permit too. Hmmm.

Dominodonkey · 08/04/2013 20:54

Of course YANBU.

The station can't have just sprung up and their drives didn't just evaporate. They have deliberately chosen to live there and can't complain when people park perfectly legally. If they don't like it they should have bought houses with a drive.

GentlyGentlyOhDear · 08/04/2013 20:59

Glad others have posted about this being a repeated thread as I was getting a bit concerned about the deja vu!

hedgefund · 08/04/2013 21:03

yanbu but i would be right pissed off if you did this outside my house. it's a bit of a cheek and personally i wouldn't do it all the time as i know how pissed off i would be!

RustyBear · 08/04/2013 21:07

zwischenzug - can't see anything wrong with a sign saying "please do not park on the pavement outside this house"...

MrsSchadenfreude · 08/04/2013 21:08

YANBU - this isn't Wolverton station, is it? I used to do this, and get shouted at by the residents. I was parked legally and considerately.

Fairydogmother · 08/04/2013 21:09

A friend of mine used to park in a residential street until her car was badly keyed

kinkyfuckery · 08/04/2013 21:11

Perfectly legal, but also perfectly fucking annoying.

happyhorse · 08/04/2013 21:14

I live near a station and commuters park in my street. It doesn't bother me at all and I don't blame them for wanting to park for free considering what the train fare costs. Ignore the woman and carry on parking where you can.

Twitterqueen · 08/04/2013 21:14

So I live 5 mins from a railway stn and my road is residential with - currently - no parking charges or restrictions.

I have absolutely no problem at all with people parking outside my house on a daily basis. In fact I kind of find it reassuring that the same people are parking there day after day.

They are aboslutely entitled and I have no right at all to object.
In their place I would do exactly the same.

However, I totally get completely OUTRAGED when they park across the white lines that indicate this is my driveway! People just don't seem to get that the white lines are there for a reason and it is sometimes bloody impossible to get into my driveway because of stupid, stupid parking.

So, if you can save money by parking foc outside my house, good on you. But DON'T park across my driveway!!

zwischenzug · 08/04/2013 21:52

RustyBear, yes fair point, although I might have misremembered it, it was definitely about not parking in front of the house though, without any mitigating reason (eg disabled resident), which is pretty cheeky. It's also a bit of road where there's loads of space to park anyway so not really sure what their issue was.

PollyEthelEileen · 08/04/2013 22:04

This could be my street.

It is a pain to have commuters take up all the parking on your street, especially if, like me, you don't have a drive.

We have discussed in our Neighbourhood Watch meetings about asking the council to put on parking restrictions. There are two or three different schemes available, but all are restrictive to residents as well as commuters, so I have personally been opposed.

The best thing we have come up with is for those houses with drives, to park their cars on the street, so that there are no spaces at prime commuter arrival time. This has worked really well. It means that if you come and go during the day, you can always find a space.

DH has just started commuting by train (different station) and I was horrified that he was parking on residential streets. He now uses the station car park :). When the weather picks up, hopefully he will walk.

maddening · 08/04/2013 22:07

Perfectly legal but often now if it becomes an issue for the street (resisdents unable to park due to commuters using it to save parking fees) and residents complain the council may look at residential parking zones.

Or by where my sister lived it had residents parking but only 10am - 12pm daily - to stop people leaving there cars there all day but allowing local people to use it.

maddening · 08/04/2013 22:11

Also - she is as entitled to feel annoyed by you parking there as you are to park there - don't do it knowing that you are inconveniencing residents and expect them to greet you with smiles.

Kiriwawa · 08/04/2013 22:17

I'm with TwitterQueen. Yes, it's vaguely annoying when I have friends with a car who visit but I can just tell them to block my car into my drive. What I get really irritated by is people blocking my drive. No, my car may not be there at the time but I do leave the house occasionally and I'd like to be able to come home again.

The other week I was coming home just as a bloke was parking in front of my drive. I went over to him and pointed out to him that it was my driveway. He said 'Well, do you ACTUALLY need it at the moment?'.

I'm ashamed to say that I pointed at my car which I'd stopped on double yellows to talk to him. I should have just have told him to piss off really.

BumBiscuits · 08/04/2013 22:18

I wonder about people who choose houses with on street parking then get the hump when someone dares to park on a public highway in front of their house.

My ex-neighbour used to jump up and down (yes really) when he arrived home after work and had to park, oh, 10 feet away from the exact front of his house.

I always meant to sneakily film him as it was very funny I may or may not have parked outside his house purely to see the jumping up and down

Chesntoots · 08/04/2013 22:23

Haven't we had this before??

abbyfromoz · 08/04/2013 22:27

Are you the car that is always parked outside my house?! I had to park 50 meters down the road with a toddler and about 20 bags of shopping!
I'm kidding i'm sure it's not you-
I don't think it is a problem so long as you are not taking up valuable parking places (eg you take the last park in the street) My street fills up with non resident cars to the extent we have had to park in another street before!

babybythesea · 08/04/2013 22:39

We had this a lot round us.

The issue was that the quiet residential road was starting to fill with cars, sometimes parked stupidly, all day. And when I say stupidly, I mean that people would park on both sides of the road, which made it just about wide enough for a car to pass down but if an ambulance or a fire engine needed to get through, they couldn't have done, or not without damaging quite a few of the cars.

And as a resident, anyone visiting you was screwed.

No, you don't own the road, but it was bloody annoying.

Now, they haven't gone for residents only parking. What they have done is put in place a system whereby you can't park on certain roads between 2 and 3 in the afternoon. Means residents can still park there, and put notes in the car or get the official permits, but city workers can't use it as easily.

Makes the roads a bit safer as well - you can actually get a clear view of any kids around etc instead of them all being screened by hundreds of cars.

carabos · 08/04/2013 22:42

I live in a road exactly as you describe OP. In our case, the issue isn't parking charges at the station 5 mins walk away, it's that you can only park there for two hours.

What makes me laugh is watching my lazyarse neighbours drive away to go and park even nearer the station, as the out of towners drive into their newly vacated spaces. They do the reverse at 6 pm .

We have the double-whammy of a primary school on the corner of the street... You can imagine the endless hours of parking fun we have .

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