AIBU to be fuming at this CF and my lack of rights?! (Parking thread)

[jessebuni]

OK so I come home from taking the kids to school and when I arrive home someone is parked in my space. Not just anyone but the little black car that had 3 students in it I had seen driving in on my way out. Now normally student park in our residents only visitors bay which is annoying enough but this time they have parked in my privately owned and numbered parking space. So I cannot use it!

The council won’t do anything the police won’t do anything and even the college won’t do anything!

I honestly can’t believe the lack of rights people have on their own properties! This car is going to be in my space for at least 6 hours!

Why can’t there be some new system where people can call and report vehicles to be towed from their property at a smallish fee and then the owners of said cars have to pay the remaining fee to retrieve their cars?

Take their windscreen wipers off and leave a message telling them to come and collect them from you and pay for their day's parking. Then remind them that this is a private parking space

Have you read the full thread @Sonotkylie ? It's all resolved peacefully - no need to promote criminal damage.

I was still absolutely livid and gobsmacked that he got a friend to knock the door for him

You know some people have crippling anxiety issues, OP? Maybe he was late for a meeting, parked in the first empty spot he saw, then was absolutely doubled over with anxiety and had to get his friends to knock for him?

Call me pathetic, tell me to go on an assertiveness course, but it could have happened.

To see grown adults taking the piss out of youngsters and threatening to key their car is disgusting behaviour. This was all blown well out of proportion for the sake of attention on an anonymous thread.

Every millennial I know, including my kids, and my nieces and nephews are not 'terrified of confrontation,' and will happily stick up for themselves

Most millenials I am aware of have no problem confronting others, you're right. But they have huge difficulty in being confronted. It's a one way street for many.

Hm...totally not relevant to the parking situation but I’m a millennial (I’m assuming going by the dates posted by a PP since I’m mid to late twenties)

That figures Diana as Dd is one of the oldest in her year.

You know some people have crippling anxiety issues, OP? Maybe he was late for a meeting, parked in the first empty spot he saw, then was absolutely doubled over with anxiety and had to get his friends to knock for him?

I highly doubt someone with crippling anxiety would park in someone's private parking space risking confrontation, it's akin to parking in someone's driveway. And there is no good reason to do it other than a medical emergency.

Haha. I've loved this thread. 😂

For what it's worth I had a similar situation at my old house, only we were a street up from local shops, and in the end my neighbour and I would tag team blocking people with our cars and sit in the living room with tea watching the owners look confused and struggle to get out of the bumper to bumper space.

It's amazing how long someone will rather stand by their offending car, or attempt to move, than just knock on the bloody door...

Good thread! Resolved nicely.

Well done OP for standing your ground. Good outcome. If they’re old enough to drive and have a car, then they’re old enough to take responsibility for themselves.

“ I was still absolutely livid and gobsmacked that he got a friend to knock the door for him”

I can imagine my 17 year old getting into a real state over knocking your door, partly over realising he’d screwed up by parking in your place (likely wouldn’t have noticed!). And yes, his mates would probably have laugh at him, but help out by knocking for him.

So don’t be livid. You knew you weren’t going to rip his ears off for rashers, but he didn’t!

Slightly off topic, you’d be in Lower 6th Form (Year 12) if you were born between 1st September 2000 and 31st August 2001.

Dd was born in 2001 & is in Year 11. A year older born in 2000 & she'd be Lower 6th

Mine was born 2001 and is 5th year in Scotland. Lower 6th equivalent.

My DS is 17 and suffers from social anxiety and selected mutism, he would leave his car to rust before knocking on someones door and it would take us to notice he didn't have it and ask him about it before we'd find out where it was. However as a consequence he is also very compliant and wouldn't park where he knew he shouldn't and so not get in the situation in the first place.

It's possible that the driver was under peer pressure from his passengers to park there and therefore why the friends were the ones who came to the door.

Also in Scotland my 2000 born is in 6th year and 2001 born is in 5th year. Neither would say boo to a goose.

Hopefully a lesson has been learned.

I'm amazed that a 17-18 year old has a licence! Yes I know that you can pass your test at 17, but to see them driving to school is still a bit shocking to me.

I used to notice a Student at the local College park on a local street - big, new Audi! At 17! He also used to park it right over the pavement almost up against the front-garden fence- literally, you couldn't walk past it, let alone take a pushchair past - and he must have been a very new driver (so should have parking restrictions at the forefront of his mind)

Dd was born in 2001, birthday next month and we’ve just booked her an intensive driving course. She’s hoping to have her licence within a month of her birthday. a friend of hers had 5 days of lessons just after her birthday recently and then passed.

The only reason I’d be okay with this is in case of exams. Colleges/unis make it insanely hard to get a parking permit and if they missed their bus ( yes stupid but it happens) then they may have had no choice but to drive and park wherever they can to get to their exam.annoying and shouldn’t happen but I know a few people who’ve parked on double yellows to get to an exam in time.

Any other reason and they can fuck off.

No, they can fuck off either way. Colleges make it hard to get a permit because they have not got enough spaces (this is not America where land is cheap and colleges have "student parking lots") and give preference to their staff (and to BB students) and so they should. Students with exams are old enough to take responsibility for getting their on time in any and every event.

Little black car?
I used to drive a metro and came out of my house one morning to find it had been lifted into the middle of the road by a group of drunken chaps....
Any male friends who could just lift it onto the grass?

My millenium baby was 18 yesterday

No excuses for students or any other CFs. Plenty of legal parking options for non lazy, non tight people. I.e. further away or in a car park.

I do think it’s truly disgusting that you have no recourse to any official body such as the police, council, anyone really. You can’t do anything when this shit happens. It happens to my db all the time. He has a flat with a single parking space. Why people think it’s ok to take it, I can’t imagine. It’s very clearly labelled on the ground and on the wall. Still the CFs come.

If there’s an excuse it should be for emergency reasons only. For exams? Not a chance it’s ridiculous that has even been suggested. You would hope that at their age they would know how to manage time to get to the exam and as new driver be more than aware to read signs.

Interestng to see if they park there again, further forward in the space so that you cant block them in without blocking the road.

Park in front of it and block them in

Haha don’t you love it when people pile in with suggestions several hours after the issue has been resolved.