Neighbours parking, mudslide!

[RibenaMonsoon]

Genuinely want to know if I am BU here.
We live in a small crescent and parking is scarce on our road as there are alot of families with more than one car or work vans and it's a small road. Alot of the neighbors park on the grass verge.

Lady next door parks on the verge outside our two houses and it's just awful looking. That in itself doesn't bother me too much.

On the verge there is a path. I use that to get the buggy with DD across the road. There isn't anywhere else to cross unless you walk 6 houses down the road in the opposite direction to where I want to go.

The lady ALWAYS parks over that path. So whenever I need to go out. I've either got to take the buggy through the mudslide or walk in the opposite direction to cross the road. This is just the most annoying thing. Especially with DD in her buggy as well as the buggy board attached for my 3 year old DS. Buggy board and buggy coated in mud.

Weve lived here for a year now and she was already here when we moved in and was already parking like that. We haven't said anything in the interests of neighbourly relations. Over the summer it didn't matter really as its all pretty dry but now it's going into crappy weather again I'm starting to get a bit resentful. Even when she's not home and I can use the path, it's covered in mud.

The buggy and DS get coated in it and mud gets traipsed through the house as a result.

Starting to get quite resentful now. I don't see why I should put up with a crap load of mud being tracked into the house just so that she has a more convenient place to park. There are no dropped curbs there. Its just blatant curb parking.

Pictures attached. I know the rules of a parking thread

Am I being really petty here? She doesn't seem very social at all as she just ignores me. Would it be really petty of me to have a polite word? What would you all do?

Time to say something. I would also check the rules around parking like that too

I’m assuming that from the post, the verge is owned by the council and there is no ownership by the neighbour for parking. If that’s the case, ring the council neighbourhood matters department and complain.

I would just call your council to complain.

One of the neighbors on the street behind me has solved this problem by putting out some of the big rocks on the grass verge. I think everyone assumed it was the council.

I know our council asked people to stop parking on verges sometime last year but I can’t remember if there was the threat of a fine or not. It definitely comes under their remit though.

I would be reporting that to your local streetforce equivalent.
It must be impossible to keep out of the house.

Our local council won't stand for this. There would be wooden posts dug in by now or she would be threatened with her car being towed if they see it there again. My neighbour's son had his towed!

Yes it's council owned. Will look into that. Thank you.
Yes it's a nightmare to keep out the house.
Especially when I bring DS home from nursery he decided to jump in the muddy puddles sometimes. Damn that Peppa Pig!

Our council has installed wooden posts wherever this is a problem locally. Definitely complain to them...every time she parks there!

Yes the council also put wooden posts in the area my mum used to live to stop this

@comedycentral It's illegal to place hazards on a public highway so your neighbour should remove those rocks.

Many councils have similar rules but here are Surrey's - www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/policies-plans-consultations/policies-and-plans/traffic-policy-and-good-practice/protecting-grass-verges

We have a strip of grass behind our houses which is council owned. People started parking their cars on it and churned it up and hit a neighbours wall and damaged it. We called the council and they weren't happy it was being damaged and fenced it off within a couple of weeks! So councils do act of their property being damaged, it is worth a call. Although in your case it isn't a case of fencing it off clearly.... kids literally play on the grass our council fenced off.

If the path has a dropped kerb, she's doubly out of order because she's preventing access for wheelchair users. If it does have a dropped kerb, contact the council and complain.

This sort of inconsiderate parking pisses me right off. People do it down by our local shop, where there's a dropped kerb and a tarmac path that crosses a green. People often have to struggle up a muddy green with buggies to get to the shop.

OK so have contacted the council. They have come back and said that it's not a dropped kerb so she's not doing anything illegal. Therefore they can't do anything.

I really don't want to turn into one of these nuisance neighbors that complain about things but I'm sick of mud being trodden through the house on feet and buggy wheels every time we go out and come back.

Weve slipped up on the muddy path numerous times, once when I was holding 6 month old DD in her car seat. Being so careful too.

It's that time of year where the grass that's being parked on just turns to mud, it's gotten much worse.

Not sure where to go from here. What would everyone else do?
I do plan to move in a year's time and the mud is only bad in the winter months. Somethings telling me maybe I should just wait it out. But the some other poor sod who moves in will have the same issue.

Bags of quick cement and after dark stick a few gnomes down into the corner....

Don’t focus on the legality of it with the council - you need to focus on the damage it’s causing to their land - that’s what triggers them getting involved.

We had a similar situation outside our house - eventually the mud run off and constant weight from cars started damaging the pavement - it took two weeks from us reporting the damaged pavement for them to fix it and put bollards up.

@Whynosnowyet That is genius!

Yes I'm going to find out what triggers them to get involved, thank you Banjo.

I work for a council and compensation claims are all that really matters to them. Contact your local councillor and slip in the mud.Tell them you're going to claim and you'll see progress.

Contact your local councillor and slip in the mud.Tell them you're going to claim and you'll see progress.

That would be my advice too.

Buy a couple of bags of gravel and tip them on the mud. It'll bed in and be less muddy

There isn't anywhere else to cross unless you walk 6 houses down the road

I know you shouldn’t have to but I’d do that ^ rather than traipse mud through the house or cause some sort of neighbours dispute (the type of person that parks inconsiderately isn’t likely to just apologise & park elsewhere) especially as you say

I do plan to move in a year's time and the mud is only bad in the winter months

I already have slipped a few times, DS nearly fell in the road.
Thank you for the advice, I may do that and approach the council again.

DH says he has a solution. I have my driving test in a couple of weeks and he wants to get the same make and model of car as NDN has (because its a decent family car, not just because of NDN, he's done his research) and wants me to park it in the same place she does.
Part of me thinks it will be an awesome middle finger at her selfish parking, the other part of me thinks I'm just lowering myself to her level and being just as selfish as she is.
The other neighbors the other side are really nice, I don't want to create bad blood with them. Mind you they may even find it amusing and are as pissed off with it as I am.

As a previous poster said ring the council and highlight strongly the damage they are doing

We have an area of grass behind our houses. The odd person used to park on it but when a local development was finishing suddenly a dozen cars were in it! We rang the council and highlighted that as soon as it rained the grass would be damaged and within days they were there putting up a fence so it couldn't be accessed by vehicles!!