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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

having been confronted for parking on street (no dropped kerb)

99 replies

Clawdius · 03/12/2013 12:29

Workmen are digging up gas pipes on my road. There was basically no parking available on my end of a very long road. I went up the other end and found a parking space (just). There is no dropped kerb but house owner has front wall removed and front garden paved. There is no alteration to the footpath in front of the house.

A guy came out and said would I be long because he wanted to bring his car into his 'drive'. I said I was parking there as there was no dropped kerb but I would move temporarily for him to move his car in. This wasn't taken up. He then asked where I lived and I told him other end of street. I'm sorry I even bothered with this information. He then said could I move forward. There was a legit dropped kerb where he asked me to move to. He went inside his house. He had a dressing gown on so maybe that is why he didn't come out onto the street.

A car then moved from the other side of the road. Despite knowing he was an ar**hole for using an ordinary kerb as a drive, I moved over across the road where space had been vacated. This house also has a wall removed and a beautifully paved front garden (no car on it at the moment). It has an unaltered footpath in front, so no dropped kerb again.
I parked legitimately on the road in front of this paved garden.

This has happened before. I'm now expecting some git to say I prevented them accessing their 'drive'.

AIBU to think it is really strange the way these people are operating by confronting people who are parking legitimately. I live on a very long road with loads of this paved gardens being used as legit drives. I have been confronted before even though I was not parked in front of a dropped kerb and not blocking a car parked in the front garden.

OP posts:

GreatFuckability · 20/09/2016 17:00

I know this is a zombie thread....but you learn a new thing every day. my 'driveway' that apparently isn't a driveway, has been used as such since at least 1980!

BalloonSlayer · 20/09/2016 17:02

We have a paved front garden with space for 2 cars side by side but only one half of the kerb is dropped. You can see from the pavings and from next doors house that there was originally some planting on one side of the garden which was removed long before we bought the house to make more sensible use of space and that is why only one side of the kerb is dropped. We have never got around to getting it dropped.

There is quite a lot of road parking on our road so no parking issues at all. Once only someone parked across the non-dropped bit in front of our house, which blocked my car in. I could have got it out if DH moved his but not otherwise.

I appreciate that it was perfectly legal for this person to park like that. I said nothing. Nevertheless I think they were being a complete and utter ARSE. Clearly only doing it to prove a point. I imagine them as being like the "you don't want to do that" character on Harry Enfield.

Next time I will send DH out with the wheelie bin. The damage that man can do blundering along with one of them 'ole things has to be seen to be believed.

InTheseFlipFlops · 20/09/2016 17:10

Reading down the replies i think "ohh someones put what i was going to" then i realised it was me!!

I think if you block a car in over a non legit drive, your a bit of a dick. But if you park there blocking what is basically their garden, how are you meant to know if its a drive or garden?

Greatfuckability next time the council do some work down your road they may give you a discount to give you a dropped kerb.

GreatFuckability · 20/09/2016 17:14

good to know flipflops! I rarely actually park on the drive to be honest because it's a pain to fit my car on without scraping it to pieces.

needsahalo · 20/09/2016 17:18

in my road, it was the case for many years that we parked in our front gardens/drives without a dropped kerb. We're not arseholes. It was a logical thing to do to keep cars off the road.

Eventually, the local council offered to drop kerbs across a wide area for very little money and no need for any kind of planning permission so it's now dropped. I don't remember anyone thinking it was OK to block me in during that time, or indeed, I don't remember anyone parking across it because it was obvious what we were doing. Far better cars are off the road than blocking emergency service access, don't you think?

YABU for calling us arseholes, that's for sure.

YelloDraw · 20/09/2016 17:23

No dropped kerb = no drive

They can do one.

Champagneformyrealfriends · 20/09/2016 17:27

We once went to a party at a friends house and when it ended a couple had parked outside an illegal drive-the bloke came out all guns blazing shouting at them. DB was there and is fairly senior in our local highways dept-it was pretty funny really. The guy didn't have a leg to stand on.

Andrewofgg · 20/09/2016 17:29

We once got a new neighbour who did the same thing iwanttobelola. We have a drive, with dropped kerb and all, so no excuse for interfering, which was a pity, but plenty of other neightbours moved them when theyw anted the space!

2kids2dogsnosense · 20/09/2016 17:40

pist
was once told it is NOT illegal to block someone's drive so they can't get IN (and no dropped kerb=not a drive), but illegal to block them so they can't get OUT

I thought it was the other way round?

GoLightlyHollie · 20/09/2016 18:05

Legally you're not supposed to cross a non dropped kerb. It cost me £3k to drop mine but I wouldn't have dreamed of parking on my drive without doing so, annoying as it was to have to fork out so much money to the council.

Charley50 · 20/09/2016 18:29

Lozzy - what planet are you on? In a regular road you don't own the pavement outside your house, so anyone can park on it.

Justjoseph · 20/09/2016 18:58

Honestly it a stupid argument to say I've park on my ' drive' so there is one less car on the road...your illegal drive holds one car, the non dropped curb holds one car...

Or are you thinking you get two reserved spaces, the illegal drive plus you can park over it?

Whichever way you have stopped everyone else from parking because you are so special that you do not need to follow the rules.
It makes it dangerous for pedestrians and other road users.

WhateverWillBe · 20/09/2016 19:02

Of course technically and legally op, you did nothing wrong. No dropped kerb = no violations.

It was pretty clear that they're using their front garden to park in though so I think you were a bit of a cunt to park there and block it tbh.

slightlypeevedwombat · 20/09/2016 19:12

It's only common courtesy not to park in front of someone's house, dropped curb or no dropped curb. If you had a problem with workmen obstructing your usual parking space, you should have taken it up with them. It's just rude to park in front of someone else's property without their permission, whether the law says you can or can't

bollocks

Lozzy93 · 20/09/2016 21:12

Hence me writing 'should have'.

Lozzy93 · 20/09/2016 21:19

Whether you value my opinion as 'bollocks' or not, I am simply stating what I believe to be basic manners and common courtesy towards another human being, something which is unfortunately dying off in this day and age.

slightlypeevedwombat · 20/09/2016 21:35

no, the road is a public place, and if my vehicle is legally on the road I can park it in a legal place.

if no one parks in front of anyone's house then we won't be able to park anywhere

slightlypeevedwombat · 20/09/2016 21:36

if I go to visit a friend in a residential area then where should I park if I cannot park outside someone's house?

kiwiquest · 20/09/2016 21:41

If there is no drop kerb there is not a lawful access. You can drive across the footway (where there is a lawful access) this is called a crossover. Most residential or lightly trafficked direct accesses are crossovers. If there is no lawful access you are not permitted to drive across the footway.
Even if the council take no enforcement (which they could at any time) the issue is likely to arise if you ever sell the property as technically the house has no lawful off street parking.

BusyBeez99 · 20/09/2016 21:49

I heard somehow (can't remember how, as its not something that would ever affect us!) that its £5000 to get the council to change to a dropped kerb if you want one. I suspect that's why so many people don't have one!

It cost me £550

Lozzy93 · 20/09/2016 21:58

Maybe park in front of the house that you are visiting and stop being an arse?

LaPampa · 20/09/2016 22:21

One of my charming neighbours parks his dustbins in the road to save his space when he takes his car out. I am always tempted to move them but scared of what might happen if I do. Meanwhile we can only occasionally get a space even near to our house and we have 2 kids.

2kids2dogsnosense · 20/09/2016 23:09

8laPampa*

Ooooh! Yes!!! Do move them. We need another dustbin thread.

(Sits back in excited anticipation . . . )

slightlypeevedwombat · 21/09/2016 06:50

Maybe park in front of the house that you are visiting and stop being an arse?

hahahaha - arse for parking in a legal place

sure I'll do this, and if there is no space in front of where I am visiting I'll give up and go home...

you don't own the street in front of your house you know

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