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??

How would you feel if NDN started parking on the shared bit and neither the work van or your car could get to your drive?

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)

How DARE she work a night shift or have a day off! That BITCH!

I haven't RTFT is this a reverse?

If not then obviously you've exhausted their good will. Blocking someone's drive very occasionally for building work might be OK although you should obviously have asked first but doing it on a regular basis and just expecting them to park elsewhere is weird behaviour.

So even when your car is on your drive they still have to squeeze past it as it's sticking out? Of course YABU!

Sorry you are the CF.

Where I live we have shared access like that to 3 houses (one of them mine) and nobody parks in the shared access.

Somebody might park temporarily to offload shopping, and someone might have builders round who end up parking on it - but in that case we talk to each other and warn the builders thay'll have to move the vans all the time, and anyway, we all get on well as neighbours.

Having to ask someone to move their car every single time you got home from work is a good way to erode all good will and friendship which is vital in a shared access situation.

You're blocking their free access to their home and land.

The shared driveway is effectively their access road. Do you not have any grass at the front of your house which you could lift and lay an extra drive for you and any visitors to park on?

These problems are common with shared access and I'm afraid it would absolutely stop me from even consider buying a house with this kind of set up.

It sounds as if the neighbours have been simmering for a while but are now past the point of being polite as nothing is changing.

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

Just re-read this bit. "This worked well for ages." Yeah, worked well for you! This is dreadful, can you not see that?

As stated in my previous post, I suspect that this is not a shared driveway at all, but shared access. And they are probably baffled that you don't understand this.

How were you led to believe that it was a "driveway"?

I agree. It’s not a ‘shared driveway’ it’s the access to everybody’s own driveway and no, you can’t block it because you are cutting off your neighbours access. Your neighbour should be able to use her driveway at all times of day and night. If she drives home for 15 minutes and goes back out again, it’s your and your workmens’ fault if you prevent her from using her own driveway to do so.

You are the CF. Get off the access fgs.

You are in the wrong. Massively. How you don’t know that is beyond me

We live in a house with shared access to our drive and one other house. When we first moved in we had issues with the shared access blocking out access. We knocked or blocked them in every time. We now have no issues & get along fine with them as we both respect the shared access!!

Well yes you do sound like you are the CF family.
Is there any way of putting more parking out front? Maybe put more across the front of the house so you can paralell park in front?
My Ds is about to do that, now they have two cars and live in a cul de sac, so on one the very short drive and one paralell parked across the front, it's only just wide enough and the road side wheels will be right on the edge of the road, but still better than all on the road.

How very fucking dare she have a day off, a hospital appointment or have to come home ill. Fuckksake. The nerve of the bitch. Who the fuck does she actually think she is?

We have a similar set up, shared drive, 3 houses. Other than taking the time to hook up a trailer and pull it out of the drive or into the garage, or have to stop to move something out of the way or let someone into/out of the car we would never, ever block the shared portion of the drive in this manner. It's just not done.

Yabu. They have asked more than once.

I have never had a shared driveway but one of my friend's has and when they moved their first criteria was no shared driveway. Never again they said! Be warned househunters.

So look at your diagram, @TigersRoll, and imagine that shared drive is actually a public road. Not much traffic, but a road nonetheless. Would you block a public road? No, of course you wouldn't. But you think it's OK to block the shared drive, even though it means House 3 is inaccessible. So the only reason you would think that's OK is if you don't give a toss for those needing access to House 3.

So yes, you and your husband are the Cheeky Fuckers here.

"DH then had to move the car so it was practically touching our garage door."
If your drive is that short, then you either get a smaller car, or you park it right up against the door. Why wouldn't you pull it right up to the door, knowing it's blocking the 'road' if you don't?

What else have you got at the front? Can you sacrifice front garden to allow the drive to be widened, and the car then parked at an angle so as to NOT block the road?

And frankly, knowing that the workmen would be blocking the road (yes, I'm continuing to call it a road because in essence that is what it is) why would you not have contacted your House3 neighbours and asked if that was OK, how can we make this work, yadda yadda. Show some consideration!

Because when people show consideration, others respond to it and are more willing to put up with temporary inconvenience. Whereas you have just thrown away any goodwill you might have had from them with both hands.

@TigerRoll ???

We live in a similar set up, shared drive to access 6 houses, we are at the bottom.
Originally we all moved in approx 15 yrs ago, the woman nect door to us continually let her visitors pafk in dgsred drive blocking us in or making it very difficult to get out.
It all came to a head a year later when we returned from 2 nights in hospital with our 11 week old son and couldnt get on the drive.
Her visitor claimed he couldnt find his keys resulting in my stressed out husband driving over the house onthe other side ofvshared drives garden to access our drive!
We apologised to those neighbours but never spoke to cf neighbour again.
Thankfully she moved a couple of years later and things have never been as bad but the minute someone blocks the drive again, im incredibly pissed off.
I will never ever buy a house on a shared drive again
I have huge sympathy for your neighbours - it is never acceptable to block a shared drive.

You and your DH sound like pain in the backsides. I bet you are not well liked amongst your neighbours.

YABU.

I’d have battered you by now.

It is SHARED ACCESS they shouldn’t EVER have to ask you to move because you shouldn’t EVER be parked on the SHARED ACCESS.

Is that clear enough?

It's not a shared driveway, it's public access if I have understood your post correctly, allowing your neighbours to access their drives. It hasn't come about "all of a sudden " either, your neighbour probably didn't say anything at first because she thought it was a temporary thing and didn't want to rock the boat, but now she's realised you both see the access area as an extension of your driveway and is pissed off. I would be too. Sorry... yabu. She shouldn't have had to ask you and the workmen more than once to move, she had every right to use her driveway when she wants.

If the OP is reading still, when you know workmen are coming and need to get the van near your house, you move your car off the drive in advance and park it up the street. It's a bit of a hassle but if your drive space is limited it's the only thing to do.

Ok I've now read the full thread. I particularly like the part where you whine about your car being close to your garage door. Fuck their access, your garage door really should take priority.