Are WE the CFs here or neighbours??

[TigersRoll]

3 houses share our driveway (including ours). So you get the 1st house and then ours next to each other and then at the end you get the 3rd house. 3rd house is a big house and has a double driveway (prob enough room for 3 cars anyway). 1st and 2nd house have a tiny section of driveway each, ours been the smallest, barely big enough for one car.

Anyway, DH likes to faff with his car, our driveway is too small to do anything on so during the day when everyone is at work he pulls it into the shared bit. Occasionally he parks his work van on the shared bit but basically, if anything is on the shared bit, 3rd house can’t get to their driveway which is why DH does it when everyone is at work.

This worked well for ages, occasionally woman next door would come home early but would park at the top on the street and walk down. One time all of a sudden she came home at 11am (!) came storming down the driveway carrying a number of bags (she’s a nurse) and muttered something about so much for buying a house with a driveway”. DH was confused as she’s never mentioned it before but he moved his car straight away anyway.
A week or so later we had workmen at the house and they parked on the shared drive. She came home from worked, marched up to the workmen and told them they had to move. This meant packing up tools, ladders and various other stuff before reversing out of the drive just so she could park next to her house. As soon as she was in they moved everything back, low and behold they came out almost immediately and said they had to move as she was going out. They did, she went out and reappeared 15 minutes later again telling the workmen they had to move everything!!! Surely if she knew she was going back out she could have just parked at top of drive where there is tons of room??

Anyway she appears to be making a point of doing this now everytime DH has something on the shared driveway but has never actually spoken to him about it!

Last night we got an angry knock on the door. Her husband was stood there and he looked at our car and said “can you move it” in a really snappy tone. It’s a big car (Land Rover) and as our driveway is so small the arse of it sometimes sticks out into the shared bit. Unfortunately neighbour also has a Land Rover making getting past a bit of a squeeze. DH looked at the car and the space (as it was on our driveway) and the bloke snapped “I’m not scratching my car again trying to get past. Move it”. DH then had to move the car so it was practically touching our garage door. This bloke has always been very pleasant before so it seems so out of character!

AIBU to think his wife has started some kind of vendetta against us and roped him into it or is it our fault??

@S1naidSucks

Excellent observation!

If your neighbours parked across your driveway one day, blocking your exit, how long would it take for your DH to get annoyed with them?

Now consider that it's taken them 8 years to get annoyed. They're being very reasonable.

You're the CFs without a doubt. I've always been put off shared driveways for this sort of reason, your DH sounds a bit of a nightmare.

This meant packing up tools, ladders and various other stuff before reversing out of the drive just so she could park next to her house.

No. So she could park the on her drive which she paid for.

8 Years! I'd be pissed off too. I suggest you write a note of apology and leave it with a bottle of something nice!

Sadly I believe OP might be for real. I’ve had some nightmare neighbours before and they seem to live in a parallel universe to normal people.

Not long after moving into my current house I spoke to NDNs about an issue. Their response? No other neighbour had complained about it before so it couldn’t be a problem and I was being unreasonable. After numerous visits from the council (who her DH hurled shocking abuse at) they finally fixed the problem.

The stress of the whole incident caused triggered a major depressive episode for me and I ended up having to see a psychologist for a while. All because they were CF neighbours who didn’t give a fuck about how their actions impacted those around them.

Your poor neighbours!

You do realise your DH is making life unbearable for your neighbours.
Everyone has a right to enjoy their home and your selfish husband is making this impossible for your neighbours.

Hopefully they move and you get some rough types that put your DH well and truly in his place.

Its definitely you that's in the wrong you shouldn't obstruct their access ever if your husband wants to tinker with a car then he should go to the end of the drive where there is plenty of room as you say

Tbf if I was this woman I'd be pretty pissed off too!! YABU.

Small (terraced?) house.
Garage too small for a car.
Driveway too short.

At what point when you went to view this house with your Land Rover, second car AND work van did you decide this was suitable???

Idiots.

You, not them.

Definitely you being the cheeky fuckers. The shared bit is for access not not parking.

DH wants to faff around with the car? Go park it on the road and faff.

I can imagine after numerous times of not being able to access her drive and having to park further away and walk carrying bags they've snapped. Ditto with the arse hanging over the drive. Get a smaller car if your drive isn't big enough! It would annoy the hell out of me if I was often having to be asking you to move before I could leave/get in. Don't need the hassle.

The only exception I would make would be for workmen but then I'd expect a good neighbour to pre warn the day before and ask if it was ok. A neighbour you hadn't pissed off would probably say yes,

You are. You are completely in the wrong and I don’t blame your neighbor for acting like that. The shared area isn’t suitable for parking clearly if other cars can’t get down the drive. I actually can’t believe you are even asking who is aCF? You are of the biggest kind.

If your neighbours parked across your driveway one day, blocking your exit, how long would it take for your DH to get annoyed with them?

This. How will you feel if she starts doing it back. Parking across your drive so you can't get in and out? Will you wait eight years to get pissed off?

Because honestly. I wouldn't blame them if they started playing tit for tat with your husband and you and started parking their cars across your drive, preventing you access and making you ask every single time.

I'd do it. I strongly suspect it's the only way your husband and likely yourself will learn. For them to give you a taste of your own medicine.

For the next eight years.

Your diagram is crap and only shows where the carpark spaces are. Where is your DP parking his van? In front of your carpark space so that no car can pass?

You're not having the best of times, are you, @TigersRoll ? Just connected you to your other thread where you said your DH had come home and argued with neighbours about the parking

Just in case anyone thinks OMG this can't be real, here is my parking story
I have a parking space, it's mine, it's on my deeds, I own it and have done for 11 years. It happens to be outside another house (who have their own parking space)

For ELEVEN years, the house have been intermittently using my space, blocking me in, and letting their visitors use it
I have begged, pleaded, shouted, involved the police, sent a solicitors letter etc etc
I thought recently it had died off only to come home and find one of their relatives parked in my space

About 25 paces away, there is unlimited, free, on the road parking with no restrictions

So your husband uses a plant pot to mark "your boundary", but still feels entitled to block a right of way that he isn't actually entitled to do?? Can he / you not see the irony in that? Regardless you're definitely the CFs in this scenario!

• meant to add re the plant pot that he still insists on marking his territory despite being fully aware space is tight and the neighbour has scratched her car is unbelievably ignorant. But then again so is just assuming it's ok to force the neighbour to park up the street because he's blocked her right of way.

It is not a shared drive, it is shared access to your individual drives. You are not legally allowed to use that space for anything other than accessing your drive.

It’s your fault. YABU.

I think the clue is in “shared” drive - if your neighbour can’t use the drive then it’s not exactly shared is it?

And why have a car that’s too big for your drive? Cut your coat according to your cloth, I’d say.

YOU bought a house knowing full well what a tiny tiny driveway you have. Yet YOU continuously and deliberately cause annoyance and inconvenience for your poor neighbour by parking over the boundary and blocking access to their house.

It’s shared access. It’s not for anyone to park on. You are definitely the CFs.

Your dh is a CF, for sure.
Is there any way he could park sideways on the driveway, to allow room for other vehicles to pass by properly? Failing that, then what's wrong with parking so that his bonnet is right up against the garage door? He might have to reverse back to open that door, and then move forward again, but them's the breaks if you buy a house that has a too-short driveway/buy a car that's too big for your property.

I didn’t believe you were “wrong” at the beginning of your post because neighbour was so passive aggressive but then you went on to describe two pairs of petulant children. You all need your heads banging together. Somebody’s got to wave the white flag first and sit down to discuss like adults or you’re all going to end up in the courts!