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??

Also if neighbour from house 3 is a nurse then surely she's a shift worker?! Then if your DH only blocks her driveway during normal working hours then you've been pissing off a sleep deprived shift working nurse for quite a while OP! I'm surprised you've got away with it for this long!

Yep you are definitely the CF’s. It’s not not a shared driveway, it’s shared access. As a shift worker who sometimes is out of the house for 15 hours at a time, then l would be raging at not being able to park on my own drive when l got home. Surely people can come and go as they please so someone coming home at 11am is none of your business

So your house is literally the width of a Range Rover?

I'd like to know about this, too.

I'm fact the house and the built-in/attached garage are together literally the width of a landrover. Apparently.

Is it like platform 9 in Harry Potter?

Or a folded out tardis.

We have a similar set up and are the third house up the driveway, which is for shared access and not for parking on. Each house has it's own driveway for parking on, with room for 2 cars and a garage, but not much street parking.

Over the years we have had neighbours in house 1 and 2 blocking our access without asking if we needed to get the cars in or out. On one occasion I had gone to bed after a night shift when DCs were small. When I got up to go and collect from school, the drive was blocked by workmen who had set up a concrete mixer and insisted it was not practical to move this. I had to ring the school to say I would be late and get a taxi to collect the DCs. Same thing happened on following days and I also missed a dental appointment.

We had strong words after this and neighbour in house 2 said we were being very unreasonable not to let her workmen block the shared access to our drive. We suggested that if she could not be more reasonable, then my car could be left parked over her driveway during the day to ensure it did not happen again.

We pointed out that if she came to sell the house, she would have to disclose arguments about access to potential buyers and they would possibly not want to buy it.

Later the lady in house 2 put her house up for sale to go and retire abroad. We made a point of speaking to the estate agent and explaining previous difficulties. Told them they should point out the situation with the shared driveway to potential buyers, but that if they complied with the law on ensuring we had unobstructed access to our property, there would be no problems whatsoever. We also suggested that if there was a need to block the driveway, we would not be unreasonable so long as notice was given and we had the opportunity to source alternative parking, providing they covered the cost.

Our new neighbours seemed to understand and we have all lived fairly amicably since then.

@TigersRoll I doubt you're still reading this but you need to show your DH this thread! He is utterly deluded to think that your neighbours are being unreasonable given the information given! I think a BIG box of chocolates and wine for poor house number 3 is in order- plus a discussion with a builder to see if the driveway issue can be improved by knocking down the garage or extending the driveway across the front of the property or something- if not then my vote is for
Your small car in the garage
HIS work van on the road- up the insurance and hope for the best
Land Rover- sell it and buy something that fits on the drive.

And for what it's worth that whole plant pot thing is egocentric and mental. He needs to give his head a wobble.

You’re the CF

How in the world can you think you and your hubby aren't being unreasonable. No wonder the couple are getting pissed off. You're basically parking over their driveway and claiming it's okay because it's a "shared" driveway! They should have access to their driveway at all times whether he or she decides to come home at 11 (!) or not.

Ah, 8 years of being blocked in or out of their own driveway during the nice weather. Nice weather is now coming and your dh has started blocking the access again.

Maybe for the last 8 years your ndns have been hoping it wasn't going to happen the next year and have been getting more and more agitated wondering if/when your dh is going to start blocking them again. Each year they get a little bit more agitated and less understanding. Each year it builds up more and they get agitated quicker and quicker. This year it has finally bubbled over, thinking it is never going to end. They don't want to face this again next year, then the year after, the year after...

Maybe, just maybe, your ndns dread it ramping up again. Maybe they dread working long shifts and coming back to a blocked access and just do not want to face your dh to ask to get in when they have had to deal with ill/dying patients and bereft families at work.

A tad over dramatic perhaps, but they have been pretty understanding of your dh for the past 8 years, I reckon it is time for your dh to be a bit more understanding of them now.

I need another diagram to explain how a house with an integral garage is only the width of a single driveway. Where tf is the front door and window?

Your neighbour be able to access the shared drive. YABU. You need to make nice. And in future, a note re workmen & vans in advance apologising for inconvenience.

8 years they've put up with you inconsiderate people.
Your husband sounds like a gem. Lucky you.
What is the plan then for rectifying the situation?

I actually spat my drink out when I read your DH had been taking the piss for 8 years. 8 bloody years!! Your poor neighbours have the patience of a saint.
Your DH is an entitlement wanker with maximum cheeky fuckery to boot.
YABVVVU

Based on your OP you are the CF

a big car (Land Rover) and as our driveway is so small the arse of it sometimes sticks out into the shared bit.

So sometimes you can park correctly? Do it all the time?

When you say they've not discussed this with you, what did they say when you discussed the workmen would be needing to block access? You surely discussed this with them?

8 years!! Yabvvvvu

Having previously owned house 3 in a similar set up YABVU.

We bought a house with lots of off road parking suitable for our needs and found that we were not only often unable to enter or leave our property our CF neighbours believed the right of access entitled them to park on our driveway if they wished to

We ended up selling the house after 8 years of polite requests falling on deaf ears and I suffered with anxiety as I didn't know what I'd be faced with each time I returned home.

@yesqueen

Have them towed.

YABU

@Ce7913 looked into it but the price was extortionate and they would just do it again the next week they're seriously dim

YABU. You shouldn't be blocking someone else's driveway, end of. If it were me and I got on well with the neighbours then I wouldn't be too bothered about being asked to park further down sometimes to help the neighbours when they needed the space, but I'd be pissed off if it was assumed that I would. Very cheeky.

Your DCFH husband blocks the shared access occasionally (is that weekly, every 10 days, every fortnight)? Your pour DNs must dread arriving home EVERY SINGLE DAY incase that's the day they need to beg for access to their own property from some tinkering fuckwit with his shit spread all over the access. Then he has the temerity to "mark his boundary"