People parking outside our house

[ReeRi]

I find that people always tend to park outside our house when visiting the neighbours. I’m not sure why at all. This is quite a wide road. There is lots of parking as the houses are decent sized semis and detached with big gardens and most have two parking spaces or more. There are not many cars on the road at all so it is not a case of parking wherever you have space. There is nothing outside the neighbours’ houses and yet, when people visit, they park outside our house.

It is particularly annoying because we only recently moved and are decorating so don’t have curtains or blinds downstairs. There is a massive car parked in front of my living room.

I know I don’t own the road and people can park wherever they like but I’m just wondering why the neighbours’ friends and relatives park outside our house and leave the front or their houses clear?!

I’m probably irrationally annoyed by this

Ya think?

It's just a car parked in your road and a total non issue.

YANB entirely U. We have similar on our road. Plenty of communal parking spaces yet people choose to park on the road, normally opposite or very near our drive which makes driving on and off it quite tricky.
I am well aware that parking on the road is legal however if there is a parking space free I don't see why you wouldn't park there? It's not as if its residents only parking as majority of the houses have driveways.

If we knew what the parking situation was like when buying our house we may not have bought it. Definitely something to consider when we eventually move

You have a huge front garden, and a drive and it's a public road. I don't see what the issue is at all. Maybe put a bunch of trees outside your front window if seeing cars bother you but it doesn't look like its causing you any bother at all.
Are they over your drive or something? My local council will put those big "H" things over drives if you struggle with people blocking you in. Theres a small fee and a bit of a waiting list but my friend did it and it was pretty easy.

It's hardly in front of your living room; it's quite a distance away. Honestly, if this is all you have to worry about in your life, consider yourself lucky.

I have a shared drive to garages with ndn and they park in the funnel bit so as I open my door I have to squeeze by their car. Now that is annoying but big cities have cf problems.

Perhaps your neighbours are opposite a driveway or road so people shouldn't park there. You look to be opposite a house, so that's OK for parking.

If it’s a public road you have no control.

I visited my grandparents this morning and had no choice but to park outside someone else’s house. It’s a bit manic parking there though. I try not to park outside of people’s houses though.

I assume they aren’t there for long so I wouldn’t worry about it.

Ugly to look at? Are you sitting facing the window in between decorating shifts?
If you’ve no curtains up yet put windolene on, you sound like you’re going to be a great addition to the street 🙄🙄

That's easy to fix! Plant a hedge, some trees, shrubs, a fence, a trellis for climbing plants to cling to. Maybe take up a hobby so you're not looking out of the window the whole time?

I see your point. You wouldn't mind if there was no other option. But there are other options.

I have friends I visit regularly. They live in a cul de sac which has parking but can be busy so I park on the main road but along a bit from the turn in for their house. This is mostly so I am not opposite drives and am able to turn there easily. It is outside someones window but it is where i choose to park. I often wonder if the house owners will pop up on MN saying that a big red car parks outside their house every week and they don't know why!

I imagine the person parking outside your house has a reason for doing so which might not be very obvious to you but makes sense to them.

Plant laurel, holly & yew in the front garden which will mean you can’t see the cars

It looks from your pic as though that parking outside the house to your left would mean parking opposite the driveway of the house across the road, making it harder for the people in that house to get in/out of their drive.

If that's the case, they are being considerate when they park!

Anyway, YABU. Find something more important to feel aggrieved about.

Get a life. Omg.

My neighbours family park outside my house or right up to edge of my drive making it a pain to get out of (very narrow road). They do it because they don’t like looking out of the window and seeing cars parked outside their living room, but it’s ok for me to have cars parked outside of mine.
Nothing that can be done, but it is cheeky.

I feel you pain. Our neighbours have parked their van outside our house and it's been there since Monday. We have no front garden and the van is blocking light coming into our living room. Plus it's messed up our lovely parking system we've all had in place for years which ensures we all get a space outside our house. ..they're newish neighbours and have decided the system doesn't work for them

Go and tell him to move his ugly vehicle. Put cones on the road or two bins and a plank of wood. Knock on the window angrily at every driver who parks outside. Soon everyone will avoid your house.

You can give yourself an ulcer getting stressed about where people park or you can appreciate that you live on a public road and hence people will park there. Don't become the neighbour that has the reputation for being difficult and not understanding road usage rights.

I don't mean this in a patronising way, but do you have a lot going on at the moment?
I get irrationally annoyed by parking and stuff when I'm very stressed. Just seems to be an 'easy' thing to focus on.

You are sort of being unreasonable, but not totally

Why don't you park your car there for a couple of weeks, OP? To get people out of the habit of parking there.

GPS directs them to that location incorrectly ?

We get it here - basically the other neighbours are quite arsey about people parking outside their house so they go for the easy option and I'm the little woman so non-threatening.

Yep it bothers me, nope I can't do anything about it but grit my teeth and wait till we're in a position to move - and the cars are hell of a lot closer to our front window than in the OP (we have a tiny front garden) so more intrusive - especially when it's a van.

DH really gets the rage about it - I try not to.

I think you are overthinking this OP. If I drive to a house I pull up near it. I don’t think ‘oh, I must park as close to their boundary as I can’. I just see a gap and pull in. I wouldn’t drive past a perfectly legal space a few yards away in order to get as close to them as possible.

Meh. It's a public road and they aren't blocking your drive or causing an obstruction. YABU.

As you live in a wide road, it’s clearly about convenience to the vehicle driver rather than a wish to annoy you, the neighbours.

I’m guessing that they pulled up and parked in the same direction that they drove down the road and presumably this will make it easier to drive off later. If they had swerved across and parked on the other side, outside the neighbours house, they’d be facing oncoming traffic. 🤷🏻‍♀️