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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

217 replies

crazygoat · 03/10/2016 14:38

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!!!!

OP posts:
CrazyNameCrazyGuy · 03/10/2016 15:31

I'd much prefer to be able to park outside my own house in the winter. When it's bucketing down with rain or I have to defrost the car it's just easier if the car is as close as possible. I'm also a bit forgetful so usually have to pop back into the house to grab something or other. Again, much more convenient than legging it back up the street in the pissing rain!

I don't, however, see it as my inalienable right to park outside my house.

ladylanky · 03/10/2016 15:32

People tend to be weirdest about parking the more space there is in my experience. When I lived in the land of the driveways and wide roads where there was never a problem parking close to your front door neighbours were always moaning about rogue cars parking in their line of vision. I now live in a narrow terrace with a primary school at one end and popular shops at the other. I never get parked at my house and no one ever complains.

user1475440127 · 03/10/2016 15:32

I was recently told to move my car by my neighbours 10 year old son. " Dad's got a camera up and you can't park there!". I explained that the road belongs to the Highways Agency and not the house adjacent.
Thing is, parking space is very limited where I live and I try to park fairly close to an existing parked car to free up some space for others.

BombadierFritz · 03/10/2016 15:32

if thats how the street organise themselves, and its not just one person, I dont understand why you would not want to stay on good terms by not parking outside someone elses house longer than you had to? sure, theres no space you park where you can, then you move it back once a space is free.

HardcoreLadyType · 03/10/2016 15:33

We lived for a while in a close where everyone did this. The weird thing was they all had driveways, so could easily have used those to park in, if they had wanted their "pers-y" space.

Notso · 03/10/2016 15:33

FIL hates it when other people park outside our house. He doesn't even live here! I don't understand it at all.

wasonthelist · 03/10/2016 15:35

new neighbours on our other side who own a chuffing enormous Audi Q7, which is actually longer than the width of their house,

Q7 is shade over 5 metres (about 16 and half feet in old money) - long for a car, granted, but that's a narrow house.

limitedperiodonly · 03/10/2016 15:38

Someone once berated me for reversing into 'her' access road to garages and causing potential damage to the road surface. I was driving a Mini, not a 30-ton lorry. I was using the turning to do a 3-point turn so I could drive forwards. The road was so narrow, you couldn't turn any other way.

The alternative would have been to reverse 500m down a narrow, heavily-parked road and emerge arse-first onto a busy main road. I'm quite good at driving backwards and forwards but think the potential for hitting a car or a person in reverse was greater.

I can understand the woman's annoyance; it must have happened all the time, but her beef was with the developers who crammed so many houses onto such a small plot.

I just said I wouldn't do it again. But I did Wink

Mummyme1987 · 03/10/2016 15:40

Is it even legal to put cones out on a highway? Batshit indeed.

limitedperiodonly · 03/10/2016 15:41

Q7 is shade over 5 metres (about 16 and half feet in old money) - long for a car, granted, but that's a narrow house.

Grin Perhaps it's in Amsterdam. A Q7 would probably get a bit wet there.

lemonymelanie · 03/10/2016 15:42

It's a bit like this in our street - we've lived here now for nearly 20 years - when we moved in it worked fine - people only had one car and there were some elderly people without cars, so there was always space, and people didn't park in front of other neighbours houses who had cars.

Over the years, the dynamic and age group has changed. Younger people have moved in and most of us now are 2 car families, and it just can't work the way it did.

However, I don't like to park in front of other people's houses still. Particularly if they are older and maybe have lived there longer ( and remember the old system) , maybe they have some mobility problems. Also, I don't like to park in front of houses of families with young kids, babies - the closer they are to their front doors the easier it is - I remember those days.

So I kind of always end up round the corner ( by my own choice), and sometimes feel a bit like a parking martyr!!!

Youarenotprepared · 03/10/2016 15:44

They would be buggered here. The only bit of road "outside my house" is also outside next doors. It's one car length long between our two driveways. Usually they park there as they have 2 cars and we only have 1 but our visitors often park there as well.

It's nice to be outside your own house but as said it only works if no one ever has visitors and if someone random is in your space you park 2 streets away...

HerFaceIsaMapOfTheWorld · 03/10/2016 15:48

Lol your neighbours are weird

TroysMammy · 03/10/2016 15:55

So, you've moved into your new home and on the first day a neighbour said hello and gave you a run down of the rules and regulations of the street? Fuck that.

You pay car tax you can park where you blooming well like if there are no restrictions. Placing cones is illegal especially if they have been nicked from roadworks.

If they are that bothered perhaps they should complain to the Council who will probably put restrictions on parking and charge you all for the privilege.

You seem pretty sensible so I'd keep yourself to yourself and not get drawn into their petty rules.

wasonthelist · 03/10/2016 15:58

I explained that the road belongs to the Highways Agency and not the house adjacent.

more likely Local Authority

flagnogbagnog · 03/10/2016 16:00

My daughter has piano lessons with a lovely elderly lady and the first time I dropped her off a man came out of his house positively foaming at the mouth because I parked on the road. The crazy thing was he had an empty driveway! He asked me to move and I did. I've always regretted it because I was only going to be there a maximum of 2 minutes. The piano teacher said he is obsessed about 'his' parking space and has reported her business to the council etc to try and get her shut down! That's how far some people will go to have the option of parking right outside their home even though there is plenty of other spaces just metres away.

SurlyValentine · 03/10/2016 16:01

new neighbours on our other side who own a chuffing enormous Audi Q7, which is actually longer than the width of their house,

Q7 is shade over 5 metres (about 16 and half feet in old money) - long for a car, granted, but that's a narrow house

Or maybe they just park like twats because their neighbours (next door but one to me) also have a massive 4x4 that they can't park either? Grin

The Q7 owners' house is up for sale at the moment (they're renting it) and Rightmove tells me that their front room is 3.66 metres wide, so that plus the hallway (maybe a metre or so wide?) is the total width of the house.

drspouse · 03/10/2016 16:02

We're in the "nice to park outside if you have the school run to do the next day" camp - so will move it (DH more so than me actually) if this applies/if we can. Same if we're planning a tip run etc.

Putting out cones (or recycling boxes man who wears shorts in December at no 19 I'm looking at you ) is illegal, blocking the public highway and that.

limitedperiodonly · 03/10/2016 16:02

So, you've moved into your new home and on the first day a neighbour said hello and gave you a run down of the rules and regulations of the street? Fuck that.

That happened to me on my first day in my first home TroysMammy. I was playing with putting my wedding presents in the kitchen cupboards when I heard the knock at the door. My brand new husband answered it. I thought it was someone welcoming us to the neighbourhood Shock

I thought: 'Where the fuck have I moved to?' and got a bit teary, which is not like me. It turned out all right in the end. The roses are coming up a treat Wink

SocksRock · 03/10/2016 16:04

My MIL gets cross about people parking outside our house, and she doesn't live here! Our neighbours have to park outside our house. Our house is double fronted, so there are two spaces outside ours. The other 4 houses in the terrace are tiny and barely have one space outside each. Double yellows at one end, bus stop at the other, double yellows opposite. We have a drive, no one else does. So we park both ours on our drive, next door neigbour parks outside ours and everyone else filters in behind pretty much in house order. Basically means no one is outside their house except the people at the other end to us. MIL gets very confusd and upset by the whole thing

LivinOnAChair · 03/10/2016 16:05

Aggggh parking!!

We've just moved into a new house that has parking outside, as well as our drives round the corner. I started parking outside my house (got a 7m old and SPD continuing on from pregnancy so find it uncomfortable to walk very far especially with a heavy boy in a car seat) my DP was swiftly cornered by the next door neighbor (she hasn't even said hello!) who told him that we should be parking on our drive and that spot was for visitors only!! Namely her mother in particular who comes daily, I'm sorry but I think actual residents come before visitors Angry it's not as if there aren't any other places to park on the street either eg across the road! Park where you want OP they don't own the road and neither do my dicky neighbors!

Catsick36 · 03/10/2016 16:06

No one has the right to park outside their own house unless they have a disabled bay. If they park across a dropped kerb, and there is a car on the drive they are causing an obstruction and committing a road traffic offence.

Park wherever is easiest for you.

Lweji · 03/10/2016 16:06

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.
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 think you answered your own question there.

I don't see your issue.
For one, they didn't complain to you or asked you to move the car.
Secondly, you didn't notice the spot in front of your house becoming free, but you noticed all the car changes your neighbours did and when?

Petronius16 · 03/10/2016 16:07

Not for the first time on these threads I realise how fortunate we are. Live at the end of a cul de sac which is a large rectangle, some have drives, some (including us) do not. There are designated parking areas but none allocated to any one house. 35 years ago there were no problems. Similar to lemon there are a lot more cars around now – a little while ago one house had five cars – and being able to park only 50 yards from our front door was considered a bonus. Everyone co-operates and no-one considers the space in front of their house is 'theirs' and we certainly aren't going to let a small matter of parking cause friction.

The only time I move my car a few yards to be close to our house is when I know I'll be needing to put heavy things in the boot (suitcases for holiday) or when I've parked one evening in such a position to be helpful and then next day, after everyone's gone to work, it becomes isolated and vulnerable.

Highways Agency/Council own the road in front of houses and starting up a cold engine to move it a few yards will damage engine.

If someone did start doing that I'd pull their leg, but then we've been here longer than anyone so can get away with it.

I think if we moved to a place like OP I'd be tempted to make a joke of it, 'do you mean to say the tradition here is to go to the expense and trouble of moving a car ten yards …'. But again I'm old and probably could get away with it!

Lweji · 03/10/2016 16:09

I explained that the road belongs to the Highways Agency and not the house adjacent.

more likely Local Authority

Isn't it the Queen? Wink Grin

or, ultimately, god?