Neighbour using wheelie bin to save space?

[Tipspips22]

I live at the end of a cul de sac and have a drive with space for 1 car. Further up the street there are some terraced houses no driveways and on street parking outside their houses (not allocated to specific houses)

My teenage nephew is staying with us for a while and has been parking on the street by the terraces and one of the houses have obviously taken offence and have now started saving the space outside their house with their wheelie bin. Wibu to go and move it? Or are they right to be annoyed?

They obviously don't own the space but I wouldnt want to inconvenience my neighbours so I would tell nephew to park further away.

But pretty, surely he's just going to inconvenience someone else.
Why is this person so much more entitled to their strip of road than anyone else on the street?

I think ywbu. You're taking up 3 car spaces and so the neighbour can't park near their house. Can't your nephew park in the opposite direction and walk a few extra steps?

No, they don't own the space, but I'd be pretty pissed off if we couldn't park on our street for somebody else's visitor.

It's an every day occurrence where I live. A lot of households have 3 or 4 cars, because their grown-up kids can't afford to leave home, and only space for one on the drive. No-one seems to use their garage for their car (including us, but ours is full of motorbikes). There's room for just one car on the front of most of the houses, unless people block the drive.

If no-one has a visitor, I think everyone just manages to fit on our road, at least at my end of the road. As soon as someone has a visitor or a workman call, we end up with a RL game of Tetris, but with cars.

It's a nightmare atm, as 2 houses in the street are having extensions built and the people across the road are having their back garden landscaped. There's a narrow window around 4.30-5pm, when the builders are drifting off and I can park in my road easily, any later and I have to hope I get home before everyone else does.

My bonkers neighbour has a small car, a drive big enough to take 2 small cars, and a garage. He parks on the bloody street, the idiot. If he can't park outside his house, he parks in the drive, but the minute the space outside his house is free, he goes out and moves the car back out on to the road.

One of these days "his" space will be free and "ours" won't, and we'll have to park our motorhome outside his house.

That will so piss him off.

Can't believe some of these comments! 3 cars = 3 lots of road tax. He's not blocking anyone for heaven's sake.

How hard would it be for your nephew to park somewhere else?

Oh yeah - no one should ever park in front of someone else house on a public road!

I can't believe people are siding with the neighours. A public road is just that - public. They have no right to claim it as their own

They don't have a right to the space outside their house but it would be common courtesy for him to not constantly park in front of their house. Good neighbourly relations and all that.

Sorry if this has already come up in a previous reply, but can your nephew not double park on the road behind you if your car is in your own drive? It means he'd have to move it when you want to go out, but in my view that would be the most considerate compromise. It wouldn't inconvenience any of the neighbours (and frankly that's important whether they're disabled/elderly/have kids or not) and he'll be close to your house.

But if it's the only available space when he gets home, where is he dipping see to park? On the next street? It's a public highway

@LakieLady OMG I feel your pain, our road can be like this sometimes and it makes my crazy pregnant lady hormones maaaaad!

How does my phone make supposed into dipping see?

Tipspips22 Thu 14-Jun-18 23:33:11
Flyingmonkeys- to block my space they wold have to park over a dropped kerb, the way the street is layer out there are semi detached houses at the bottom (where I am) and most of the kerb space is taken up with dropped kerbs. Further up are terraced houses with no drives (so no dropped kerbs)

if you aren't on your drive, people can park across it over your dropped curb. Its also legal to park on other peoples drives apparently too. How would you feel if the neighbours did either of these and then went away for a week? Or continuously parked across your drive so you couldn't get on it? They'd be well within their rights to do so.

The people saying iabu, does this apply to outside anyone’s house as dn would have to go pretty far to find a space not outside any house.

Just park outside different houses each day.

Does that also mean that anyone with visitors has the inform them that the street is resident parking only and to avoid annoying the neighbours they should park miles away?

Fucking obviously most people would be ok with a one off but every day? Your DN is taking the piss.

Parking a vehicle fully or partially across a dropped kerb is classed as an obstruction and either the police or local council can enforce the contravention. ... As ridiculous as it may seem, you can be issued a PCN for parking across your own dropped kerb.

The law exists precisely because this is an issue. And the law says it's a public highway, end of. Your nephew can be considerate if he wants to, but as you rightly point out, if he doesn't park there another 'random' person may. The problem here is people thinking they own things they don't.

Obviously your neighbour has no legal right to reserve the space but I probably would ask DN to park elsewhere if possible just to be neighbourly. (Obviously it would be perfectly legal for me to buy five cars and take up loads of parking spaces on my road but it would be annoying for my neighbours).

Reminds me of a time years ago when we had a neighbour policing where people could park on the street. Just to wind him up my dad borrowed a mates caravan and parked it outside his house for a week and told him if he complained again he'd tether up a horse next to it! Excessive admittedly but fear of repercussions works both ways!

@BigGrannyPants Its an obstruction if you block someone in on their drive but its its not if you park across a dropped curb that doesn't have a car on the drive.

"But pretty, surely he's just going to inconvenience someone else."
That is a good point @MaisyPops I didnt think of that, I guess I dont know the layout of the roads and the parking I was just presuming their immediate area was stretched for parking.
Its a difficult one but could he not try another road on some days so he doesnt annoy the same neighbour?

@blahdeblahblag - my theory isn’t one car per house. My theory is that neighbourly harmony comes about if the demand for parking spaces matches supply and neighbourly friction comes about if demand outstrips supply. It’s not about one car per house, it’s about whatever number of cars can fit into that house’s drive (if any) and onto a fair share of the street. For mansions on huge plots, that could be a dozen cars. When houses are converted into flats or blocks of flats are built with inadequate parking, that rather proves my point because it usually adds to the parking overload. The root of the problem is that too many of us own too many cars.

"Look at it this way, if your neighbours had a visitor and he kept parking outside your house, so you couldn't park there, you'd be pretty pissed off."

Yes, but we'd be saying 'annoying, but there's nothing you can do about it, it is a public road'

The more people get cars from their teen years onwards, the less space on the roads, so this kind of hassle will increase. there is only so much parking space.

Parking in my road of terraces regularly erupted into fights, sometimes physical. Someone who puts bins out is feeling pretty territorial. It depends whether you want to set up a feud that will continue long after your nephew has left. Tell your DN to park round the corner.

For the the sake of good relations with neighbours, I'd ask your nephew should find somewhere else to park. It's summertime after all- walking in this weather is hardly arduous. This is the type of thing that could balloon into long-term resentment and disputes. If you care about where you live and plan to stay there for some time, it's worth doing what you can (within reason) to stay on good terms with your neighbours. Never mind who is technically 'right' or 'wrong', but invest in having a happy life.

"dn would have to go pretty far to find a space not outside any house."

Likewise your neighbours would have to go pretty far while your DN is staying.

I appreciate that those of you at the end have driveways but the fact is that drives actually 'bags' part of the public highway unless people park across the dropped kerb. Having a drive makes parking unavailable to other road tax payers.

What is the relative inconvenience to your teen nephew compared to , say, a family with kids in a car seat, loads of shopping....

@ troodiedoo Can't believe some of these comments! 3 cars = 3 lots of road tax. He's not blocking anyone for heaven's sake.

WRONG! They will be paying 3 lots of VED (Vehicle Excise Duty), based on the emissions of the car. This VED goes into a centralised Government pot that doesn't necessarily get ear marked for maintaining roads (it could be used for education instead, and if it is road related, more likely to go towards motorway upkeep).
It is council tax that will pay for fixing the pot holes in your local constituency, so people that don't even have cars will be contributing to maintaining the road you park your car on.