Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

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:

babybythesea · 08/04/2013 22:45

"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."

No, all fair points.
Round us though a lot of the residents (like my parents) have been there 30+ years, when people didn't live quite so far away that they needed to drive to the station as the first leg of their journey. The station was used by local people to commute into work, and they walked to it or used one of the quick local buses. Now, it is common for people to use our local station who don't come from nearby but have driven to get to the town as a convenient place to 'park and ride'.
And not everyone can afford a drive. Especially where Mum and Dad are which is now prime 'commuter belt' - they couldn't afford their house now so it's just as well they own it outright! Incidentally, they do have a drive. But if they hadn't had, it would have been because when they bought the place they wouldn't have foreseen that in 40 years time they might need one.....

ComposHat · 08/04/2013 23:37

I live in a place with free parking on the edge of the city centre. Sometimes I can find a place near the flat sometimes I can't. I have no divine right to park there more than anyone else. First come first served as far as I am concerned.

Wellthen · 08/04/2013 23:54

Surely working residents leave before the commuters arrive? So if I leave for work at 7 and someone arrives at 8 they can take my space. I will return home by half 5 by which time they have left for home. Where's the problem?

If they dont work, well then their car isnt going anywhere (at that time of day) so there's no place to fill.

Certainly if you happen to leave the house at 7 and return at 9 it would be annoying, or if you do shift work. But by and large the residents and non-residents work around each other don't they? Sometimes you have a space, sometimes you don't. I speak as someone who has lived in a town where spaces were continually filled with not commuters but tourists, at all times of day and all times of year. You just get used to it. I agree you should try to park in front of different houses so as not to end up continually pissing off the same person.

ArbitraryUsername · 09/04/2013 00:03

I really don't think it's reasonable to get annoyed at people parking in the street, regardless whether it's outside your house or not. If you live near a station, the local shops, the park you should expect it. If you really feel that you need to park next to your house, you have to live in a house a house with off-road parking. If you choose not to do so (and there is generally* some element to choice, even if it is just that the house without designated was the least worst compromise for you) unfortunately you have to accept that other people will park outside your house.

I used to live in a city where you felt lucky if you managed to park in the same postcode as your flat, never mind in the same street. It was annoying, but it was just the way things were. I made my choices; I accepted the annoying consequences.

*There are obviously some situations in which people have no choice (e.g. people forced to accept whatever the housing association offer them or have no where to live). But in those situations people generally aren't going to be worrying about petty shit like parking outside their front for.

ArbitraryUsername · 09/04/2013 00:09

Even in the case of people who've lived somewhere for 40 years there's still choice involved. Things change and you have to live with it or move away. They choose not to move miles away (where they could afford another house) or to a much smaller property (which would presumably be cheaper) or both and not have the parking problem. Staying and putting up with the parking issues is obviously less of a compromise for them than the alternatives.

You can't avoid the fact that loads of stuff changes in 40 years.

abbyfromoz · 09/04/2013 00:35

Why don't you catch a bus to the station?

DontSHOUTTTTTT · 09/04/2013 00:40

YANBU at all. They don't own the road. Park where you like as long as it is legal and considerate.

cumfy · 09/04/2013 01:14

YANBU

Effective utilisation of resources n'all that.

Imagine the chaos nationwide if it was somehow made illegal.

MidniteScribbler · 09/04/2013 01:33

Even in the case of people who've lived somewhere for 40 years there's still choice involved.

Or you could say that the person who has to drive to a train station should pack up and move. They obviously chose to live somewhere that would mean they still have to drive and park to get to work, so they should be the ones to move. It works both ways.

sonofzod · 09/04/2013 02:07

if this was my street and someone was always parking outside my house causing myself parking issues I would be finding myself giving the offender car some punctured tyres or a nice key alongside the side of the car..

I don't own the road that's true but how would the OP like someone repeatingly parking outside there house all the time..

if you continue to do this don't complain if you find your car gets damaged by 'vandals'

thermalsinapril · 09/04/2013 02:11

"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."

Doesn't it even occur to you that many people live in a terraced house with no driveway because they can't afford somewhere larger?

thermalsinapril · 09/04/2013 02:14

But in those situations people generally aren't going to be worrying about petty shit like parking outside their front for.

Why not? They're poor so they're not entitled to have the same concerns as someone with money?

ArbitraryUsername · 09/04/2013 02:18

It doesn't work both ways because the road outside their houses is public property. People are allowed to park on it, and the OP isn't doing anything wrong. It doesn't matter that some people might not like commuters parking in their street. They live near the train station; it's pretty much inevitable. I bet the OP isn't the only commuter parking in the street.

Damaging someone else's car because you don't like where they parked completely legally is really quite pathetic. And, unlike the parking, would be illegal.

Honestly, the amount of angst over parking is just ridiculous. Yes, be annoyed if people block your driveway or garage. Get even more annoyed if they park in your driveway. Get annoyed if they park on the pavement. Get annoyed if they park on double yellow lines or too close to the corner. Get annoyed if they park in a disabled bay without a blue badge. Get annoyed if they've parked incredibly badly and made the road difficult to drive down. But don't get arsey because people park in places they are perfectly entitled to.

ArbitraryUsername · 09/04/2013 02:20

Well no. More that people who really have no choice over where they live tend to have bigger problems to worry about that occupy their attention to the extent that they don't notice the petty shit.

ArbitraryUsername · 09/04/2013 02:25

It's also a bit silly making this an issue of whether poor people are allowed to do anything. Cars are bloody expensive. Back when I was really poor (and quite worried about finding anywhere to live) I didn't worry about parking because I didn't have a car.

In many places you need to have a lot more money to afford the victorian terraces with difficult parking than to live in a 1930s house with a driveway. Or an ex-local authority house with a driveway.

nooka · 09/04/2013 02:40

My parents lived in a house close to both a station and a park. For thirty odd years parking wasn't really a problem, sometimes a bit tricky at the weekend with people visiting the park, but they could usually park within a couple of minutes walk of their house. Then the next closest stations upped their car parking costs and suddenly parking became very very difficult. My mum was a teacher so left relatively early and returned home early too. She was lucky to be able to park on the same street, which with shopping or books to mark was a big problem (esp as she they lived on quite a steep hill and she has arthritis so walking is quite painful). A year or so later and the whole area became residents parking only.

Of course commuters can park where they like so long as it is legal, but just because parking is a big deal now doesn't mean it always was and all residents took that into account when they bought their homes.

ArbitraryUsername · 09/04/2013 02:59

No but they do take it into account when they decide to stay in their homes. All sorts of stuff can change. The park might have been sold off and turned into a Tesco, the car park of which became the preferred hang out of diggers on a the third Thursday of every month, for example. Not moving is generally a choice (albeit sometimes the alternatives are loopy awful). And there are resident parking schemes. That is also a choice you and your neighbours can collectively make.

The OP is not being unreasonable here. She would be unreasonable if she were complaining that the residents of the street she found convenient to park in decided to take advantage of any permitted parking arrangements their local authority would put in place (as your parents' neighbours obviously did).

ArbitraryUsername · 09/04/2013 02:59

Not 'loopy awful'. Totally awful.

janji · 09/04/2013 04:12

You pay road tax and although some people seem to feel they have a right to park outside their home despite legally there being no parking restrictions, they should get off their high horse and petition for residents only parking if they are that concerned. I frequently have commuters parking outside my home but accept they have as much right to do so as I do.

dexter73 · 09/04/2013 07:19

Why don't you catch a bus to the station?
The first bus of the day arrives 25 minutes after my dh has left. The last bus of the day leaves 30 minutes before he gets back to the station. Also it takes 40-45 minutes on the bus and only 20 to drive.

chrome100 · 09/04/2013 07:52

YANBU. I live on a street near a University which is in use all hours of the day. As a result I can never park outside my house. It really doesn't bother me. If I have to walk a few streets to get to my car, so what? No big deal.

OddBoots · 09/04/2013 07:56

My (carless) Grandma has someone regularly parking on her drive, the someone is a friend of a friend and the arrangement works well for them as the car owner has a free space close to town and my Grandma has someone regularly popping in on her. Her situation is almost ideal but it's one of those things that would be hard to actively arrange.

A few years ago a complication of my spina bifida made me need a wheelchair, I was lucky that surgery has helped and I can get about on my legs now but at the time I had to drive the school run, I did wonder about leafleting houses near the school to see if I could pay to use someone's drive so I could park close enough to avoid the pavements blocked by parked cars. I think renting out drives is becoming more of a 'thing' now.

Hulababy · 09/04/2013 07:56

Sonofzod- I'd most definitely complain if someone IlLEGALLY damaged my car because I was LEGALLY parked.
And you'd find the police would be on my side too.

noclue2000 · 09/04/2013 07:57

you might be legally right, but it pisses me off when people do it on our road!
we live on a dead end, although we have front gardens, we are not allowed to get dropped curbs.
from 6.45 people try to park in our street, they park shockingly, its a tight turn into the road, and they block both sides.
anything bigger than a car can not get down.
no amount of ticketing will stop them.
we are a 15 min walk away from the station, so the council say we dont need permits.
drives me bonkers.

DeskPlanner · 09/04/2013 08:00

I agree with the others, this op has been done before.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5