New neighbours...am I overreacting?

[3sugarsplease]

Last week we had new neighbours move next door to us. We live in a semi detached house and our house and the new neighbours house are the only homes at the end of the drive - with a little courtyard where we have two car parking spaces each.

On the day they moved in. 5 cars descended outside our house blocking our car in aswell as a removal man. No one came to our door introduced themselves, said hello - nothing. It was only when we needed to leave the house that I had to ask them to move their car so we could leave. Upon our return our car parking space has turned into their own private rubbish heap - broken chairs, ripped up carpet, electric cables etc. Our other space keeps being occupied my another one of their cars. I don't feel comfortable parking down the drive on the road as its busy street and I can't get our 14 week old DS out of the car in his seat.

It's day 5 now and the constant banging is driving me bonkers (granted I'm sleep deprived) but they are drilling up until 9pm at night. It's hard getting DS down for naps and when he goes down at 7 he's woken up but the drilling/banging.

It's now 5 days in... AIBU to pop round for a polite word?

It might be worth paying to check the deeds on both yours and their house. It's less than a fiver for each.

We have a rental property next to us and the letting agent tells every tenant that the turning point is infact a car parking space for their house! By using it as such means we can't use our drive particularly easily, so I printed off the deeds and keep them ready for each new tenant.

The noise late at night is wrong but during the day I think you need to suck up, I do appreciate the annoyance we had an extension built next door to us when my little one was 4 weeks old.

I think they key question here is are the parking spaces "yours", as in on the deeds of the house, or just used by convention.

If they're not legally yours, and it's public or general residents parking, then you can't really ask them not to use them, or do anything if they do.

So get a copy of the deeds, as pp said.

Do you have a residents association who would back you up?

Otherwise I'd give them a little longer. 5 days isn't very long to get things sorted.

Exactly, having a baby is irrelevant. Immaterial of the baby, the new neighbours are totally unreasonable to park in your space! My husband doesn't even like our children walking across our neighbour's drive to our front door and I understand why - it's about respecting each other's space.

Good luck having a word. I can't help thinking that anyone who parks in a neighbour's space isn't quite going to get it.

Line in the sand - now!

Our neighbours when they moved in, disturbed us from day one with violent sounding arguments and screaming. We did nothing, assuming the stress of a house move etc.... By the time we did complain, to the council (their landlords) later the police, we were told if we'd picked up the phone one day one they'd probably never have got a secure tenancy and be evicted by now. Our lives have been hell for two years with these idiots next door. I wish I'd acted swiftly.

Different you might think if owner occupiers but still - you won't regret drawing a huge line in the sand right now. In retrospect, I can see a lot of our neighbours' behaviours were them trying to establish some kind of weird dominancy over the street - which would never have worked as we've all been here years and are nice people and get on. But I suspect a lot of the tittish behaviours at the start with such people are because they are selfish, egotistical people saying "This is how we are going to be - if we want to block your drive - we will." And it's time to wrestle control back before they take further liberties. ;o)

Our's are now much quieter because they know that now if they start rowing - two police cars turn up on their drive within five minutes. If I'd done that one day one, they'd already have moved out, though.

I'd have been over there the second they blocked my car in and put their shit in my parking space. 'Hi, I'm OP, your neighbour. One of your cars is in my spot. It needs to be moved.'

They've just moved in, so I totally understand diy up until 9pm. Most people want to make the changes they need quickly to help them settle in.

We moved house last year into a cul-de-sac and our removal van was parked across a neighbours drive, so we did knock on the door to say hello, say sorry and explain we'd ask men to move if it was a problem. I would certainly have a polite word about the parking, explaining which space you believe is yours. Most people would be upset they might have offended new neighbours, so fingers crossed this will be enough to resolve the matter.

I'm with expat on this. Either myself or DH would have been round like a shot.

One of your cars is in my spot. It needs to be moved.'

The OP needs to check if it is 'their spot' though.

Letting agents etc say all sorts. Doesn't make it true.

Agree Op needs to check. Would be v surprised if a semi detached house had 4 parking spaces and the next door one none though.

Sparkling it may not be that all 4 spaces are allocated to one house, but that none are specifically allocated to either house.

The o/p needs to check that her use/ownership of the spaces are legally allocated. Otherwise anyone can use them and she has no right to ask them to move.

Usually roads with allocated parking have residents associations as the road is private.

O/p are the spaces on the road or off road on the landlords owned property?

From 1st post "with a little courtyard where we have two car parking spaces each", seems pretty clear.

In my last house (flat) the person who bought the flat above basically knocked down all the walls and rebuilt them - the noise was horrendous, but after a polite chat he agreed to stop at 11pm each night. I thought that was a fair time, but didn't have a baby. 9pm is quite early if they're trying to do stuff after work and probably don't get home until after 6. I'd definitely be on the parking thing though.

However the car spaces are allocated, they are car spaces, not rubbish storage spaces.

Peasin- I used to live in a little courtyard where we had "a car parking space each".

However, it was just the residents convention, we all used the space outside our house, never anyone else's. However there was no rule, or anything in the deeds to enforce this- it was specified as "residents parking only".

So any resident could park outside my house, in "my space". Rude, perhaps, but they weren't doing anything wrong.

Compared to a block of flats I lived in where in the deeds it was drawn on the plan which car space was mine in the courtyard. That one I could get the car removed for being on my property.

Exactly customer. I think its clear to anyone that 4 spaces allocated between 2 houses are 2 per house. No need to get so formal yet, go over and just politely mention they way its always been is these 2 are for your house's use, the other theirs, but given you are often popping out random times of day with baby/on errands you need to know that yours are always free for when you need them so would appreciate them not parking cars or keeping rubbish on your space. Only if they argued back would I get official/quote deeds etc..

OP, it is worth looking up on your local authority website what the 'permitted hours' for works are.

We've just started a renovation project and I just checked this, to make sure our builder stays within them, and to let our neighbours know ahead of the project start that the work would be within permitted hours. (One of our neighbours is a stickler for rules).

Usually permitted hours are something like 8am - 6pm during the week and 9am - 1pm on Saturday. Outside of that noisy work like drilling is not allowed.

if I were you I'd check that before I went around, and point it out, politely but assertively in your first converstaion. They should have looked up this stuff themselves and approached you. to give them the benefit of the doubt people can get very lost in their own worries when moving or renovating, so I'd start off firm but nice and swiftly escalate (e.g. complain to the council about noisy work outside permitted hours) unless they shape up quickly.

What peas said... Would be fuming if I were OP. Neighbours sound lazy, rude and selfish.

Jesus Christ. Only on Mumsnet. What sort of sheltered world do some of you live in?

These people have made some fairly minor irritations, which could easily be the result of simply not knowing the parking spaces are allocated. And I think a bit of DIY banging in the evening for a few days after moving in isn't the end of the world.

I can't believe the OP is getting advice telling her she should move house or that she might end up having to get the police involved. Over reaction or what?

May be an odd question but is it actually them doing the work? I had a builder in for weeks and wasn't actually living there - neighbour politely mentioned one day when I popped in that the noise had reached unacceptable levels that day. I should have considered it but didn't. I was glad they mentioned it, hopefully your new neighbours will accept being told also. Don't let it fester, though, as others have said.

DIY until 9pm isnt unreasonable unfortunatley, legally the council curfew for noise is prob about 11pm. When people work full time the only time they can do DIY is 6-9pm. If they were home all day doing it for 12 hours that would be worse.

Parking however - assume ignorance and twatiness. Inform them!

Noise until 9 is fine. You have to do DIY around work hours when you are at work, after all.

DH and I did our whole house on week nights between the hours of 7 and 10pm. Neighbours didn't mind.

The OP didn't say a bit of banging in the evening though.

She mentioned constant banging and not being able to get her DS down for naps as well as the drilling until 9pm. Which would suggest it isn't just a bit of DIY work in the evening but going on all day.

It would be perfectly reasonable in that situation to ask them to stop at 7 so the baby could sleep. And not particularly considerate of them to refuse.

Drilling - not after 6pm. I think that's totally fair, and they should want to keep you happy.

DH and I haven't even left the office at 6pm!