Parking in front of your own house..... What's the deal with this????

[crazygoat]

Hello! We have just moved into a new house and there is no allocated parking. On our first day a neighbour popped into say hello an mentioned that each house likes to park in front of their own house, then quickly apologised for parking in front of ours! I did ask if it was allocated and she said no but it's what we like.

Fast forward a few days and we had got back from doing the weekly shop and the only place to park was in front of a neighbours house, seeing as we had to unload the car with shopping, toddler, buggy and everything else that a small human needs we parked in that space as it was free. We then didn't use the car for about 4 days but didn't think there would be a problem leaving it there as there were always other spaces free within about 15 steps of everyone's front door, anyway my partner has to use the car and in less than a minute after he has gone both my neighbours move their cars, one from in front of my house to in front of his and the other out if the space in front of the other neighbours house to in front of his. So all in all both cars have been moved about 5 meters!! I then heard then say to each other 'so glad we have got our spots back, think we should get some cones'

Why do people do this?? Me and my partner will park in the closest spot to our front door, whether that be in front of it or 30 meters down the road. we really don't care!!!! If there is a spot opposite my neighbours house I'm not going to park in another spot just to keep if free for them!!

AIBU??? If you are one of these people that likes to always park in front of your house can you please let me know why?? I can understand if you have a disability, you are entitled to have a space close to your house, I can even see that it would be nice if you have a car full of kids you want to keep safe but that doesn't entitle you to the space.

I wish my life was so simple that I could spend my days looking out my window to see if my parking space is free!!!!

[Cariadity]

We had a neighbour knock our door and ask us to move our car because he had 3 cars and would like to park them all outside his own house in fairness we had both our cars parked up the road and our drive empty which had annoyed him. We were waiting for logs to be delivered into the drive so it needed to be clear temporarily. He didn even give me chance to explain this!

[drspouse]

DH went out earlier having noticed another car had moved, because he said "they always park for days". I'm ashamed he noticed. Is it too late to save the marriage?

[Smellslikeoranges]

I'd like to park in front of my house. Cars park at 45 degree angle on our road so there is space for two cars outside our house. One space is taken by the left neighbour and the other space is taken by the right neighbour. I have to bugger off down the street. Annoying as each neighbour has space for 3 cars in front of their own homes. But I get squeezed out. It is irritating after a long day working, shopping needs to unloaded and child needs to sorted. First world problem.

[CarrieLouise25]

We have parking issues down this road too! There are some that literally HAVE to park outside their house. We had an irate lady bang on our door once and asked us to move our car, so she could get outside her house. Madness.

We also parked outside another house, and they came out saying 'Er, are you parking for long as partner is coming back any moment'.

We also (as we were reversing down) literally had a guy running out of his car (left engine on) to ask where we were going to park as HIS space was behind us and it looked like that's where we were headed.

We park wherever is free. However, there is very little down this road. We have 30 houses, and only one side available for parking, so we have 14 spaces ish.

BUT. Next door, the neighbour has her car, his company car, the daughter's car, the son's car, her mate's car (who is always round) and the daughter's boyfriends car who is permanently parked down here. 6 spaces out of 14 for one house. Now THAT pisses me off. But I know there's nothing I can do about it. It is annoying though when you have kids, baby, buggy, shopping etc.

[flowergrrl77]

I used to care (I moved, I have a drive now)

The reason I cared is because 2 of my children are disabled, lower mobility and higher care (used to have blue parking badges but no longer qualify (just)under newer rulings)

My eldest (autistic too) would get really cross and upset and anxious if our car was in the 'wrong place' also, if it was right by. I could fetch each child separately rather than drag them all at once. Youngest of my 3 (the other one with disabilities) would also often need carrying.

So yea, I moved the car whenever 'the space' became free. It just made my son so much less anxious.

Long term solution was ofc to move! I'd never go back to street parking again!

[glueandstick]

I'd park on my own drive if it wasn't for the hard of thinking who assume it's fine to block it.

[HellsBellsnBucketsofBlood]

My dad used to make comments about people parking in front of my house. I had to point out quite bluntly that I don't own the space, or need it (since I have a driveway and NO CAR), so therefore couldn't care less.

But he seemed to take it as some sort of slight that someone else would have the temerity to park legally on a public road...

People are odd though. We also had complaints from one neighbour that the cones left out by our buildings to ensure a space was free for the steel delivery lorry 'might be used by drunks' to damage his car (parked further up the road). He didn't like the response "well you can always talk to the (big beefy) builders about it if you like".

[JosephineMaynard]

I think one of the things that bothers me about my neighbours parking in front of my house is the concern that other people might think it's me or DH parking like an idiot.

It's one particular set of neighbours that do this. These neighbours have off road parking on their drive for 3 cars. I've just come back home to find one of their cars parked badly outside our house, taking up far more of the width of the road than necessary.
Their drive is empty.
And it's bin day. How the bin lorry is going to be able to get past them without driving on the pavement on the other side of the road (currently covered in wheelie bins) is beyond me.
The bin men are going to be cursing us for crappy unnecessary road parking because it's outside our house, not the house it belongs to.
Although maybe if the bin lorry scrapes their car, they'll start actually using their drive for their cars.....

[jamdonut]

I don't care if I'm not immediately outside my house, but it's annoying to have to park a long way away when some people manage to take up two or three 'spaces'.
When I moved to my house 13 years ago, at our end of the street we all parked on the side of the road our house is on. Then this real knob moved in opposite, who decided he wanted to park his huge van on his side of the road and immediately outside his house ( right opposite us), and ever since we have all had to park the other side, as he didn't move it for about 2 months!
We also have to put with the huge amount of visitors my next door neighbour has in a day and all their cars and vans taking up the road. It is very frustrating.

[ChocolateWombat]

You're right OP. It is good to get on with neighbours, but it is also daft to conform to nonsense ideas, because you are then endorsing and encouraging them and it ends up spreading across the street.

Yes, park outside your house when you can. (Who wouldn't TBH)
Yes, park as near as you can when you can't get outside your own house.
No, don't feel you have to move your car as soon as the space outside your own becomes free.
No, don't leave your car outside someone else's house for long,next extended periods of time, which prevents them parking outside for unloading for days or weeks on end.
Yes, to being polite to anyone who suggests daft parking and not parking outside their house,mbut also yes, to being firm and being clear it is not their private space and that when the space outside your own home isn't available, you will park where you please on the public road. Always worth pointing out that you aren't planning to leave the car there for days on end.

[crazygoat]

So I'm not the crazy one!!! Phew!

Someone asked why I didn't notice if the spot was free in front of my house for 4 days but noticed when they started moving the cars. In answer to that: Because I work full time so I'm out of the house 5 days a week and when I do get home I have far better things to do like play with my son, have a shower, cook dinner, relax, have a bath, catch up with my partner , have a glass of red wine, watch tv, basically anything other than than look out of my window waiting for the space to become free. I noticed that they where moving their cars because me and my son were waving Daddy off out the window and the neighbour was out of his door before my partner had turned the car around, being nosy I watched to see what he would do and then saw my other neighbour come out. We had the window open slightly so I could hear what they were sating.

I want to get on with me neighbours, they seem nice but I don't see why I should conform to this nonsense it's ridiculous. I will park as close to my house as possible, it's in front of it happy days, if not I will park in the next closest space. I will not then waste my time checking to see if the space outside my house is free

[Yokohamajojo]

I don't think we have many issues in our part of the streets as most of us have driveways. When we did our extension and our driveway was used for the skip I did try and be considerate and not park outside the neighbours that I know usually park there.

At the other end of the road though there is a guy who I believe buy and sell cars from his house and he took to parking cars everywhere and even removed the hedges so he could park. Someone must have complained as the council put up massive bollards instead of hedges.

A bit further down there is a residential house that also seem to have some sort of import/export business going and they have 2 massive vans which they park in front of neighbours houses, that would annoy me and I am not sure how that business can be allowed to operate from a seemingly residential house. They have built a massive office in their driveway

[HTD2013]

I can understand if i had to park in the next road because people with 2 cars kept parking in front of my house.... I would be livid. But if it's a few meters I don't see the problem..... It's a bit crazy.

My mother's next door neighbour used to actually HAVE cones.... And my mother once had a double glazing salesman come quote the house who parked in front of the neighbours house (he had forgotten the cones!) and the neighbour came round and started yelling at the poor salesman saying 'you've been there 6 months and I can't park there!!!!!'

My mother stopped speaking to him not long after.

[laurenandsophie]

My ILs have a neighbour with a long driveway that runs the entire length of their block but the mum just has to park directly in front of the house - which, being on a bend, means she is also parking in front of ILs' house. The spot is big enough for two cars but she parks towards my ILs' side so no one else can park there!! She does it on purpose and for some reason the ILs don't even notice it. When we visit (every several months as they're interstate) I get so irritated that I park there as often as possible. Very petty I know! She stands outside her house talking loudly on the phone trying to emphasise that she owns the spot and is waiting to reclaim it when it's free again. Ridiculous.

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

our neighbours don't want us parking outside our house

Had to move the car even though I'd only just had stitches out that day

Only on a parking thread do I have two shocks in contiguous posts

[curlilox]

I was booked into hospital for a planned c section and went out in the morning before I went in. I got back to find a car outside our house so parked down the road in the nearest available space. Had to leave car where it was (DH doesn't drive). Came back a few days later and the woman from the house where I had parked came round and had a rant about my car being outside her house for several days. I explained I had been in hospital and wasn't supposed to drive yet, but she didn't care. Had to move the car even though I'd only just had stitches out that day.

[Sweetpotatoaddict]

We have similar, except our neighbours don't want us parking outside our house as it means their visitors can't park on their side of the road outside their houses..... ( it's a narrow road, neither neighbour has a car). We have a toddler and a baby. Somehow their visitors needs trumps ours. Came to a climax when one of the visitors complained to me 6 days after giving birth.
Can't for the life of me work out their thought process, the only conclusion I can come to is selfish! We ignore them and continue to park on our side of the road, purely to keep our toddler as safe as possible, but if it wasn't for that we'd probably do as they want anything for a quiet life

[Seb2015]

The street that my son lives in is a nightmare to park. Once, when my daughter visited him she parked across the road. She was there a couple of hours. Later on, hours after she had left, the neighbour whose house she had parked in front of banged on my son's door and actually gripped him and threatened him if he ever let anyone park there again. Unfortunately the world is full of territorial crazies.

[embo1]

It irritates me when someone parks on the road outside my house! We live on a curve in the road, right opposite a T junction, very close to a large primary school. I have difficulty pulling out of our sloped drive at the best of times. I'd never ask them to move on though.

[Doingmybestmum]

When there is no space put a note in the window? "If a space comes free in front of our house do please feel free to let us know" and park where you like?

[Galdos]

We have Resident's Parking. For some reason, our 75m patch of road is its own parking zone, so if we park anywhere else we get ticketed. There's enough room for everyone (usually outside their own house) but if there are more than a couple of visitors' (or workmen's) vehicles it can mean parking round the corner and risking a ticket. This happens very very rarely, but I have had an £80 fine because of the shortage of space.

This odd factor probably explains why everyone in my stretch usually parks outside their own house, and everyone respects that. Otherwise I agree it is bonkers.

[thefairyfellersmasterstroke]

Reading threads like these I am always grateful that I share off-road parking with five other houses and the designated spaces are on the title deeds!

Had a bemusing experience once though when trying to park for a job interview. No parking in their street so I went around a corner or two and found a residential street with no restrictions and one space, so I took it. As I got out the car a woman came out of the house I'd parked in front of and told me I couldn't park there. I glanced around for a sign I may have missed then said I hadn't seen any yellow lines or anything. She said there were no restrictions but it was outside her house. I said if there were no restrictions that was OK and I was only going to be an hour or so. She walked down her empty driveway to tell me she'd phone the police if I didn't move my car. I said I hadn't parked illegally and she then said she needed it for an ambulance. I asked her if one was on its way, and I kind of thought that explained her coming out the second I'd parked, only she hadn't called for one. She said her elderly mother lived with her and she could be taken ill at any moment, and the space had to be kept free for the ambulance should she need one. She was still shouting about the police and me having no respect for the elderly as I walked down the street. Mad!

[citychick]

fluff
its an outside London thing
it's not !
our home is in greater london.
most people on our road, including us love to park outside our house. just to keep an eye on it. we pay for street parking but that could be anywhere within a designated area. so it's quite common to park where you can and then move it closer to your house when a place becomes available.

we also have a builder's cafe on the street corner so we all compete with builders van , skip lorries and even the odd hearse!
we have friends in central london and they are al just as territorial!

a neighbour of ours used to put down bollards outside his house. its all a bit ridiculous and so much time is spent competing for a prime parking space.
street parking and 2 car households don't help either.
uanbu at all op

[Collaborate]

There are just 3 rules that anyone needs to be aware of:

1. Park as close to your property as you can/want, without blocking someone's driveway. It doesn't matter whose house you park in front of.
   

2.Accept that rule applies to everyone.

1. Don't ever curtain twitch and move your car a few feet closer unless you want to look like a complete tool. Or doormat if you've been told by a neighbour to do that.

[TeaQueen75]

I live on a street with similar parking 'rules' as OP. It's a small street with 12 houses and space for 11 cars. We have two cars and so are already hated! I park outside my neighbours house which is rented out each year to students and they very rarely have a car. They are very narrow terraced houses, less than a cars length wide so technically it is also outside my house, My new neighbours mum apparently complained and said they were buying a car for their daughter soon so I would have to move mine. I fully understand that if she gets a car there won't be enough spaces on the street for everyone, and that no one owns the road and no one has an allocated space. That being said, we are the only residents on the street with a child and if I see that spot become free I always move the car to 'my spot'. I don't think I am entitled and I would never put cones out or ask anyone to move. Its just luck on the day when you get home. I also don't park in my neighbours 'spots' if I can help it. Most of the cars on the street are visitors or people watching the rugby at the grounds near our house. So I don't thing YABU. It's dog eat dog out there. Park where is available. That's it!