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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

People parking outside our house

221 replies

ReeRi · 28/12/2019 12:07

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?!

OP posts:

Jog22 · 28/12/2019 13:55

Put a couple of bins out in the space. It's illegal but if there's loads of other parking no-one can conceivably complain.

transformandriseup · 28/12/2019 14:03

It could be worse, visitors in our street park across the end of our driveway blocking us in or out

howabout · 28/12/2019 14:13

YANBU Op. The only way to sort it is to "mark your territory".

That means parking outside on the road using the maximum amount of space possible for as long as necessary for people to recognise your status as equally entitled to park outside your own house, despite your lack of need to actually do so.

If you don't do this then you risk arsey neighbours with delusions of grandeur as TigerOnATrain describes.

Iwasneveragoddess · 28/12/2019 14:14

Parking in the middle of two (semi detached) houses is a bigger sin IMO.

BlouseAndSkirt · 28/12/2019 14:16

*they park right outside my Mum's wall/ lounge window even if the space beside the adjoining house is 'free'.

This means that if my mum has more than two visitors coming to see her, only one can park in her drive and the other has to find somewhere away from her house*

Like.... in the space beside the adjoining house, which is free?

londonscalling · 28/12/2019 14:18

YABU. End of!

Zzzz19 · 28/12/2019 14:19

I tend not to let things like this stress me. It’s just one of those things. Not like it’s right outside your window

sproutsgalore · 28/12/2019 14:23

Unless they are parking in a space that you need, or are blocking access, then what's the harm?

Seeing someone's car parked outside wouldn't bother me in the slightest.

It's not as if the vehicle is blocking your view of delightful chocolate-box picturesque countryside is it?

ChocolateCoins19 · 28/12/2019 14:30

I live by some businesses and working hours the moment I move my car.. Someone snaps up the space. Dh has the drive. Often just after he's left they park across the drive too.. They're gone by time he gets home so can't get too worked up about it.

Laughterisbest · 28/12/2019 14:38

I live in a terrace with only on street parking so of course there are cars outside my window. My garden is much smaller than OP's so they're closer, though luckily my house is higher and they dont block my view (which is lovely).

However, on an otherwise almost empty street like OP's it would irritate me that the car is parked outside my house and not outside the house they are visiting.

Yes it's legal, we know that, but some things are legal but inconsiderate.

CatkinToadflax · 28/12/2019 14:39

Our first home was a flat on the ground floor of a converted Victorian terrace. The front door and kitchen window opened/looked out straight onto the road. There was one particular car that pretty much always parked right in front of the kitchen window, and it drove me mad....not because we wanted to use the space (we didn’t have a car) but because it was the ugliest rustbucket of all time - an utterly knackered, ancient multicoloured 2CV which was long past its best. I’d rather have had a Porsche as my kitchen window viewing!

Itsigginingtolookalotlikexmas · 28/12/2019 14:44

Is it wrong to be really enjoying this thread

Hearthside · 28/12/2019 14:58

Its one of those .We live in a small village .No drives as all Victorian houses .We have just enough space on our small street for those of us who live her .People visit and park then there is no room for us and my dining room window looks directly out so i can end up strangers car directly outside my window .Car is not so bad but a van completely blocks light .There is a car park but visitors never use it .I will admit i do get pretty peeved after long shift at work get home night and there sometimes is absolutely no parking .But i just have put up with when it happens i love my house i chose to buy it knowing it was on street parking .But i can understand people getting fed up with it .

paranoidmum2 · 28/12/2019 15:00

I parked my car on a residential street the other day (no drive, markings etc) to get my eyebrows done. As soon as I got out the car, a lady in the upstairs window of the house rapped on the glass motioning for me to move. I gestured back 10 fingers to show I would just be there for 10 minutes, and she nodded ok. Probably should have just given her the finger, not ten

spingly · 28/12/2019 15:05

I am lost as to what the issue is? It's ugly? It's just a parked car, what's ugly about it?

Hearthside · 28/12/2019 15:06

paranoidmum see i would never dream telling someone to move i don't own the road outside my house but it suprising how many people think they do .I have got home from work when people have been sat in the car for because they are waiting for someone in the shop and they have seen me go past then come to my house and to be fair once they realise they offer to move which they don't have too but that is their choice .

paranoidmum2 · 28/12/2019 15:11

@spingly I think the issue is that OP feels like her house has been singled out so that the visitor can avoid inconveniencing the person they are visiting. OP has acknowledged it may not be completely rational but she is entitled to feel a bit aggrieved, have a moan here and then forget it.

It’s like when I call the lift, wait absolutely ages and then just as the lift arrives, some cheeky fucker arrives and gets in the lift all nonchalantly. I know it’s not rational to be annoyed that I waited and they didn’t have to, but I can’t help how I feel, I can only make sure I don’t show my feelings!

firstimemamma · 28/12/2019 15:16

Yabu. To be honest the 'spoiling the view' thing made me chuckle, it's just an ordinary view of a street.

You seem to understand that people can park there so there's nothing you can do about it - life's too short to be annoyed.

paranoidmum2 · 28/12/2019 15:16

@Hearthside that does sound annoying, looking at a big van right outside my window would annoy me. The residents should tell their visitors to park in the car park but I guess no one wants to inconvenience their visitors!

I think a big part of why my DH wanted to buy our current house was that we have a double drive and double yellow lines

DramaAlpaca · 28/12/2019 15:19

I get it, OP. Our neighbours' visitors do the same. We live in a quiet cul-de-sac. There's loads of empty road space outside their house (enough for four cars) but they always park outside ours for some reason. It annoys me irrationally. It annoys me even more when they use my drive instead of theirs to turn around, especially as there's a turning circle at the end of the road. And visitors to the opposite neighbours like to park directly opposite my drive, when there's loads of space further along. I know it really shouldn't bug me, and I'd never say anything to the neighbours or their visitors, but it really does. I accept it's totally a first world problem, and yes I do have more important things to worry about

MirenaManiac · 28/12/2019 15:21

I feel a lot of people missed the point of my OP!
I don't think anybody missed the point - they just think YABU.
It's a big road and there is no reason why they would park in any particular place. I certainly wouldn't agonise over the parking if visiting someone - just think "There's a free space, I'm allowed to park there, not blocking anyone's drive - great!". That's all there is to it.

paranoidmum2 · 28/12/2019 15:23

@MirenaManiac actually a few people have said ‘I don’t get it’ or ‘I am lost’ so some people have missed the point of the thread.

ChristmasSweet · 28/12/2019 15:25

Oh goodie a curtain twitcher..

If you don't like other people so much, go live in the countryside. Not in an estate.

Hearthside · 28/12/2019 15:27

paranoidmum2 sounds bliss double drive and double yellows .It is when it happens .My car is small so doesn't affect the light but things like 4x4 and Van's do .As neighbours we all get on brilliant and park outside our own i never park outside my neighbour if i can't and they don't to is .Joys on street lol .

StepawayfromtheBiscuittin · 28/12/2019 15:32

OP I totally get like this. If it wasn't for your pic I would think you were me.

Cherry laurel makes a good fast growing and nicely coloured hedge.

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