Neighbours and on road parking

[parkingwarqueen]

Please tell me how to deal with this.

We live on a road of some terraced and some semi-detached houses with on road parking on both sides.
My neighbours all believe that the space outside of their house is their space to park and no one else’s. We’re constantly patronised and demanded to move our cars from “their space”. I know very well that it is not anyone’s and we can park where we like but it’s stressing us out. We’re constantly criticised for having two cars and for parking where we can rather than leaving the space clear for the person who lives in the house nearest to the space. It is often full on the road and obviously if possible, we’d always prefer to park outside our own house but that isn’t always possible and therefore park where we can. I’m almost certain a lot of the attitude is due to our age, we’re far younger than everyone on the road and have only lived here less than a year, while my partners mum who visits a lot is never criticised for where she parks.
I don’t want to cause trouble so in the past I’ve argued but still moved my car. AIBU to say that’s enough and no to them?

Just don't engage. Don't answer the door. And consider a dashcam just in case.

Just say something like 'Yeah, it's a problem on this road isn't it but I'm sure we'll muddle through ok' or something similarly non confrontational. Don't move your car any more.

Definitely stop moving your car and stand up to them. If neighbourly relations go south then that’s their fault for being bullying, entitled wankers.

Also, how lazy do you have to be to complain about having to walk a few metres to your doorstep?! Tell them to do one.

Yanbu but I can understand people moaning if you taking up 2 places means they can't take one.

We have one car, our nrighbours 3 and we often have to park on the next street which is annoying. No.biggie in the scheme of things but we do comment that you'd think they'd be a bit more neighbourly by parking at least one of their three cars further away.

They are about 20 years older than us.

I think YABU for blaming it on an age thing but YANBU for parking in a free space.

Say, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't realise you owned the road." and shut the door.

The fact you are moving your car when they ask, makes it worth their while coming back to ask you the next time, and the next.
It is frustrating (and will be more so if the previous occupiers either didn't drive or didn't have two cars), but if there are no parking restrictions, there's nothing really they can do.
Must be annoying for the neighbours though if your house is taking up 3 spaces and it means they can't park near their house - you can see their frustration, surely?

I wouldn’t usually consider it an age thing Fuzzy, but when they demand we move our car it’s often using “girl” “boy” “little” and other patronising terms.

I will definitely stop moving my car.

I can fit two cars in the width of my house, so it’s not really stopping anyone else from parking otherwise I could see their point. The main complainer is the owner of a 3.5t van.

We lived on a similar street as a kid. We had 3 cars in the household. We could understand people's frustration but rules of the jungle I guess.

The plot was not much more that a long car wide

Do you try to keep both cars outside your house?

When we lived in a terrace, our NDN had three cars, and they tried to keep them all nearby, which meant that I (with two smalls and a baby, not to mention being pregnant) rarely managed to keep our one car anywhere near our house. I never said a word, just seethed quietly as I knew I didn't have a leg to stand on legally.

Same neighbours had loud, whiny dogs, but that's another thread entirely.

Do not engage with them. Just ignore.
Get front and rear dashcams as they will escalate. That's what happens with people who think they own the road...

"Oh I'm so sorry! If you could bring me a copy of your property deeds showing me where your property boundaries are, I promise I'll never park on your property again."

Close door.

They call you little girl?

That's all shades of weird.

Just say, 'unfortunately, someone's taken one of the spaces outside our house, as they're entitled to, so we've had to park elsewhere'.

If the other person pushes it, then say that we don't feel it is reasonable to ask the people parked outside our place to move their car, so we won't be moving ours. Sorry not sorry.

Yes, it's annoying, but it's equally annoying for you, and you're getting over it, so so can they.

I have nothing practical to help you except sympathy.

The nightmare of a woman (who for all intents outwardly came across as a ‘nice’ person) turned into a completely irrational muppet when it came to HER bit of tarmac to the extent we ended up selling our house over it.

Never mind parking in front of her house if that was the free area (that would result in hours of jumping music through the walls) but if I even dared overhang her hedge by 1 inch she would park in such an aggressive manner. I couldn’t get a piece of paper between my car and hers let alone open my boot, and she’d get another of her friends to drive round and block me in the same from the other side. I couldn’t get my pram in or out of my boot.

I asked her really, really politely one day ‘please could you just leave enough room when you park that I can open my boot’. She said it was nothing to do with how she parked but because I was a fat cow. (I’m a size 10, and I still can’t work out how my dress size would impact me being able to open my boot anyway).

She was vile. And unreasonable. And at times unhinged. So we moved to a detached house with a drive and I never ever regret a single second of it (or the massive mortgage).

oh really? Ok when I go out again will park in a free space.
Close the door.
If they knock again, blimey not had a chance to go out yet.
Knock again. Head tilt and ask if everything is ok, they seem to be a bit forgetful. You will move car when you go out.

What exactly do they say when they refer to you as little boy/girl?

They are throwing their weight around with absolutely no grounds to do so. Ask them to show you the deeds which prove they own the pavement and section of road in front of their houses.

When it comes to parking people absolutely lose all perspective. Stop moving your cars, if you have to fall out with them then do so- stand up for yourselves.