*New thread* AIBU to use NND dropped kerb

[Cleo2628]

Thought it would be clearer with this photo. Previous owner left note saying she used his dropped kerb. AIBU to use it?

• [Pic now removed at OP's request]

This falls under the heading of the "yawn" details you should pay attention to when buying property, but you don't because you're more interested in decorating and renovating kitchens and bathrooms.

Your NDN will argue about cost of maintenance of the dropped kerb plus wear and tear blah blah blah.

The responsibility for the maintenance of the pavement usually sits with the local council unless it's a private driveway as per your deeds you can check here:

www.gov.uk/report-problem-pavement

If the pavement is privately owned then the next paragraph is not applicable.

If the pavement is owned by the council, it's an actual offence under the highways act to drive over the pavement to access your drive. I've found an extract from Surrey County Council - (this is applicable because most local authorities follow the exact same rules for maintenance of highways and pavements etc):

www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/roadworks-and-maintenance/report-a-highway-problem/trees-grass-and-vegetation/roadside-and-pavement-verges

You may not take a motor vehicle across the verge and/or pavement. You must have a properly constructed dropped kerb (vehicle crossing) installed by one of our approved contractors

Your NDN may be somebody that would take this up with your local council and push them to sue you, so I would consider this each time you use "his dropped kerb".

If you was my NDN I wouldn't care and would let you carry on.

Good luck!

It’s like discussing the pretty things growing in the garden but spelling them flours.

It's nothing like that

Firstly, the dropped kerb may have may been paid for by the neighbour, but it does not belong to him. It is part of the highway so pedestrians and road users could use it.

The problem you have is the dropped kerb does not extend across your 'drive' so you do not have off-street parking. You have a paved front garden. If you want to have a proper driveway you need to get the dropped kerb extended (speak to the Council - some will let you use your own contractors or pick from a list so you may be able to shop around a little).

You should not have been sold a house with off-street parking as you do not have it.

You need to check the deeds for your house. From the picture, there is a dwarf wall and post but the paving extends beyond that. I would expect that you own up to the end where the paving meets the pavement. If so, you are driving across the neighbour's property.

The pavement is not wide enough for you to get onto your driveway from the dropped kerb without driving over the paving. Just because there is no wall separating it does not mean it is not the neighbour's driveway. The NDN is fed up of you driving on part of his driveway and trying to stop you doing it.

Unless your deeds say you have a right of way over the end portion of the driveway (i.e. before the pillar) then you cannot drive on that area which from the picture looks as though it belongs to the neighbour.

It does not matter if the previous owner told you to. You have to be driving across part of the NDN's driveway to get onto yours as there is no other way to get in at that angle (unless you drive a Twizzy when maybe).

YABU.

YABVU. It's your responsibility to sort out access to your drive. Your poor neighbour!

The OP is in the U.K. so the fact that some Americans can't spell is pretty irrelevant

Goodness. Did you mean to be that rude? It appears so.

I'm reasonably certain that spelling it "curb" is not illegal here in the UK. So I will spell it curb. If nothing else, just to annoy you.

curb curb curb curb curb curb curb curb

If I was your neighbour I would put a fence up.

You are not dong any harm per se, but it's just rue and cheeky and presumptuous. Has he put his wheelie bin there to stop you PMSL!

RUDE and cheeky -not rue!!!

You can spell it as kerb OR curb, neither is wrong.

Wow lots of anger on here! OP drive over the pavement to your 'paved front garden'. Everyone on our street basically had this set up. If we didn't it would be a nightmare with us all trying to park on the road. We have shared drives with dropped kerbs, but most people park on their garden.

Sorry @cleo2628 WHY do you not have a dropped kerb in front of your drive?

A CF post where the OP is the CF.

Makes a nice change.

Except the OP can't accept she's a CF 🤦🏼‍♀️

I am not seeing any 'anger' just peoples opinions.

Don't understand why you even need to ask to be honest. Height of cheeky fuckery at best, persistent trespassing at worst.

THAT was to @owlina

I suggest you speak to your neighbour and offer a service in return for using his facility, or maybe offer to pay.

I think the OP's getting a bit of a hard time personally - yes, it would be simplest for her to get a dropped kerb.

But, if I was her neighbour, unless there's obvious damage going on (which there doesn't seem to be), I can't see that her driving in at an angle using mine would be in any way awkward or annoying - a 1' corner at the end of my drive, which she would drive over is less annoying to me than dog walkers letting their dogs come up and pee on my car wheels.

I used to do this on my own dropped kerb in fact, to park a second car on the paved front garden - as did my parents at theirs, as did half the street (watching the guy across the road park his motor home in a spot exactly the right size, around his dropped curb and a telegraph pole was a thing of beauty).

Op yabu.

Congratulations, you are the winner of CF Neighbour of the Year 2018.

You're either driving across the corner of his drive or across the pavement diagonally or a bit of both.

If his little wall went all the way down to the front boundary you'd be forced to use the pavement alone and i doubt you'd be doing it.

For those that haven’t read the first thread...

OP can’t afford to get a dropped kerb.
Kerb cost the neighbour £1000 and he/she doesn’t want OP to use it for free maybe because the wear and tear is up to him. Maybe just because.

Do you drive a hovercraft OP? Maybe then your vehicle wouldn't touch either the undropped pavement or the neighbour's drive.

If you are not crossing your neighbours drive at all, where he parks his car shouldn't affect your access but you said it makes it difficult.

We had a CF in the next road who had a paved front garden, they used to do what you've described, go over the verge/pavement using their NDN dropped kerb, but they still churned up the verge etc in the process, so the council had a chat and a week or so later put wooden bollard type things on the verge to prevent access.

CF brazenly removed one of the stumps and churned up verge again.
And again. My understanding is that there were legal proceedings and permission for a drive were subsequently refused.

I'm going on hearsay from a chatty neighbour re that last bit but the wooden bollard things remain firmly in place and haven't been removed since.

So yeah, YABVU and a CF to boot.

Surely this is inconvenient for you too? What about when you have guests and you keep needing to explain your parking system. Weird.

Use a hovercraft LOL.