Using NDNs dropped curb

[Cleo2628]

Our NDN have a dropped curb but we do not. We’ve enquire but it will be near £1000 which we can’t afford. We moved here last June, and in some notes about the house the previous owner said that she used to neighbors dropped curb to get onto our drive, so we have done the same. Our neighbour had started doing very passive aggresics things eg. blocking my car in with his wheelie bin, parking very far back so we can barely get onto our drive, standing in his porch and watching us reverse off the drive etc. We don’t go onto his drive at all whilst using the dropped curb. I don’t want to annoy anyone but we just use the dropped curb, over the pavement and straight onto our drive. AIBU?

Really wouldn't bother me if you were my neighbour. You aren't driving on my property. You're just using the dropped kerb, which although I may have paid for, I wouldn't actually own just like I don't own the pavement outside my house either.

However a lot of people get very over possessive about 'their land' so it's worth going to their neighbour and apologising for shoestring then and explain you'd only done as the previous neighbour had suggested. But now you know they don't like it you won't do so and will now park on the road instead. Mind you, sounds like the neighbours might be the type who aren't keen on that either -so make sure you aren't too close to his dropped kerb!

We have pavement parking where I live, and I use the 'NDN's' dropped kerb all the time. As far as I am concerned, every time someone puts one of these things in they are removing a parking space on the road from communal use; they don't get to own the pavement as well!

I have a dropped curb that I paid £1500 for and my neighbour likes to use it and even parks so she's partly blocking it at times.

It pisses me off to unreasonable levels that somebody else is using something that I paid a lot of money for without even asking me first.

DP now parks across our curb so nobody else can use it apart from us.

YABU and a CF OP!

And yes, if your neighbour is now parking partially on the pavement to try and block you he is definitely in the wrong too. He is not entitled to park on the pavement at all.

GlassSuppers

You don't seem to understand what you paid for! You paid for the kerb to be dropped, not to own the pavement. It's outrageous that you deliberately block it.

He's the only one who can use it though, unless he has visitors. There is no way anyone should be using it to drive diagonally along the pavement.

How long have you lived there? If your house was sold as with a drive you may be able to claim something back. Because while you may not have realised what you have isn't a drive your estate agent will have.

I understand that I paid a lot of money so that I could access my drive.

If somebody else is parking there so that I can't do that then what am I supposed to do? Park down the road until she gone out? I don't think so.
He's only parking where we did before we had our drive put in anyway!

He keen feel as entitled as much as he likes but he still doesn't own the kerb, not the pavement between the kerb and his drive.

He shouldn't be blocking it really as a dropped kerb is very important for disabled people to access pavements.

GlassSuppers

They are not allowed to block your drive. Driving over it isn't an issue for you because you don't own it. That's your home. The pavement is owned by the council.

Yabu.

You do not have a drive or a legal right of access to get a car onto your land. What you have is a paved front garden.

If this wasn't pointed out to you when you bought the house then your solicitor was an idiot but it may be too small a case to bother suing the solicitor for.

If you can't afford to get your own dropped kerb then park on the street.

Using your neighbour's dropper kerb is cheeky as fuck. YABU.

lunar1

Can you explain why you think he is the only one who can use it, without reference to someone illegally driving on the pavement? Because I accept nobody should be doing the latter, but the actual driving over the dropped kerb isn't the issue.

Parking across your own dropped kerb is fine. They're not there for disabled access, they're for vehicular access.

Because the only way to use it is to drive diagonally across the pavement. From the pictures it can't be used to access anywhere except the NDN drive. Plus look at the join where the curb has been dropped, the op will be causing damage every time she goes across it.

lunar1

But that is between the OP and the council. He can report her for driving on the pavement, but not for using 'his' kerb because it isn't 'his'.

He paid for the drop because he wanted to be able to drive on to his driveway and otherwise he wouldn't have been able to. That doesn't grant him sole use.

Yes, and it to access that driveway and only that driveway. Anyone can use it but only to access that driveway. Otherwise you are driving across the pavement which is illegal.

SoupDragon

You are conflating two separate issues.

No, the OP isn't entitled to drive on the pavement. No, the NDN did not pay for sole use of the dropped kerb.

Imagine the OP did pay to have her kerb dropped, but someone blocked her in. Would she be breaking the law if she used the dropped kerb outside her NDN's property to access her own drive? If not, it's not sole use. The only issue is her driving on the pavement, which the NDN is entitled to report as a driving offence if it is one.

Can you explain why you think he is the only one who can use it, without reference to someone illegally driving on the pavement? Because I accept nobody should be doing the latter, but the actual driving over the dropped kerb isn't the issue.

The whole point is the driving over the pavement 🙄

Obviously the NDN is looking at it from a different perspective and believes it is his along but the fact is that it is only there to access his driveway and no other driveway, regardless of who “owns” the dropped kerb.

You are conflating two separate issues.

No I am not.you are being obtuse.

The only relevant thing is that she can not use that dropped kerb to access her property.

@Pengggwn the result is the same though, just because the NDN doesn't own the kerb doesn't mean the op can illegally drive on the pavement. You can't separate the two things. The only way for the op to use her paved garden as a drive would be to get her own kerb dropped.

The NDN allowing here do do it wouldn't be ok either, he doesn't own it and neither of them can change the law regarding driving on the pavement to suit themselves.

Show me why, Soup, don't just assert it.

It is abundantly clear from photos and diagram that it is completely impossible to get from the dropped kerb to your front garden without driving over unreinforced pavement (illegal and likely to damage buried wiring and pipes) or a corner of his drive (extremely unreasonable without a legal right of way)

And??

And therefore he can't be on his high horse about OP using something that technically belongs to the council, when he is parking in a manner that the council could fine him for. I think OP should've asked him because it's the polite thing to do, but it's now looking like OP is within his rights to use the kerb, and the NDN is parking illegally to prevent it.

I have a dropped kerb. My neighbours use it to park on the verge outside their house.
It has never occurred to me to be annoyed at that.
I can’t see why I would.

lunar1

I'm not saying she can illegally drive on the pavement. I am saying any offence she is committing is committed when she drives on the pavement and is therefore the remit of the council, not the NDN, who is being officious and is technically incorrect.