AIBU to buy a house with terrible parking?

[Seaandsand83]

We currently live in a 2 bed terraced and have found a fantastic 4 bed semi with big beautiful rooms, well within our price range. We'd have enough money to build an extension on the back for a really spacious Kitchen diner. However, the parking situation is terrible. There is only parking on one side of the road and it is always full. There are a few spaces about a 1 or 2 min walk way, round the corner. I know that doesn't sound far but if I have done a food shop it would mean a few trips back and forth

We are in a position to put an offer on but AIBU to buy a house which is perfect for us but with such bad parking?

Is the house in a fairly central city location? As if so, difficult parking is normal.

Hmm, depends a bit.

We bought our second home on the same road as our first place, even though we knew the parking was lousy (all on street, heavily used because a fair proportion of the houses are split into flats), but then we are 5 mins walk from the tube, so there is a trade off, and we know that the parking situation is no better in most roads in the immediate area. So comparatively it's not so annoying.

However, if the place you are looking at is the only place locally with such bad parking, I think it could be really frustrating - especially if it's only on one side (we at least have both).

We lived somewhere like that. We moved before we had children. We both cycle(d) to work, and only use the car a couple of times a week, if that - both at the house with limited parking and where we live now (with our own drive).

We could pull up outside the house to load, but still chose to move (parking wasn't the only issue, but it was definitely an issue).

If you have DC and a full car (e.g. coming back from holiday), what will you do with them while you unload? If you go out with them on your own, then you'll have to walk back from the car from where you park. Possibly in pouring rain when they'd gone to sleep in the car.

In our case, an unexpected family situation meant that being able to park right by our house made life much easier - one driver was unwell for a while, unable to walk far (more than 20m was impossible some days) but still able to drive. Had we lived in our previous house, life would have become even more challenging.

You can perhaps tell I would advise against!

Do you have children OP? Picture yourself there with kids who will also have a car and need to park.
The stress of worrying how far from your home you will need to leave your car will mar any enjoyment you get from it.
Walk away.

Don't do it.

I've lived previously in a flat and house with terrible parking. There used to be arguments, neighbours being a*holes etc. Now in a house with 2 driveways, makes such a difference as we need 2 cars. I would never live somewhere like that again, so stressful.

Well OP I have come to give you hope-

We moved from a more "suburban" house with a big drive to the middle of a busy town.
I had two criteria set in stone before moving-off street parking and an ensuite.

I have neither and have never been happier.
When it came to it the house and location mattered more.

We have street residents parking-sometimes you get lucky sometimes you don't. We have gotten rid of one of our cars and it has been very freeing. I don't know your set up but I do an online shop for the heavy stuff and walk into the shops-about 6 minute walk to pick up bits.
Walk to dr, vet, dentist, train station, shops etc

It can be occasionally frustrating but on the whole we just get on with it and it is not a big deal-much less of a big deal than I thought it might be.
And yes-delivery ppl and ppl with shopping etc do sometimes have to stop in the road and it's fine for the minute you have to wait.

How often do you actually need to drive?

Where are the various tradespeople going to park when you have your extension built?

It does sound like the parking is the reason that the house is so reasonable and I do think it would grate on a day to day basis - sorry OP.

No way! Look for something else. My sister lives in a house with no parking and often ends up streets away. Hopeless if you are lugging shopping/babies etc.

It wouldn't bother me at all if I could park a couple of minutes away.

The best advice I was ever given with regards to buying a house was "You buy the area not the house". basically you can change house (to a certain extent) but you can't change the area.

Parking for me would be a nightmare and a deal breaker. What happens when friends/family come round and can't park? You said about shopping but what about if you have a baby and struggling with pram etc.

My brother lives on the end of a Victorian terrace, beautiful big houses but dreadful parking and with parking both sides it’s a single track road. Often have to park miles away when I visit. It would abnnoy me living somewhere like that.

Absolutely no way would I buy it, no matter how lovely. To-ing and fro-ing with shopping or kids, or both, in rain would outweigh any nice bits of that house!

These are all really good points, especially about the tradesman parking!! Also when it come so selling it again it won't be desirable for most without parking space. We have two children who are of school age so not as much of an issue getting them in and out of the car. I'm going for another viewing tomorrow, hoping i come away loving it less.

Nope.

We have space for 3 cars on our drive, but only a few spots on the road that aren't blocking drives (no driveways when houses built in 60's), nearest parking couple mins walk on another street.

Neighbours get really petty, only yesterday our neighbour was trying to rally everyone to get a petition to the local councillor as one of our neighbours run a childminder business and she doesn't like that parents drop off outside the house, I have to give detailed instructions to any of my visitors of where to park, or ask them to move if they park in one of the spaces outside someone's house (yes I know it's a public highway but was made very clear when we moved in who 'owned' certain spots and not worth the aggro). My parents have had their car damaged parking on the road, visitors have had a note on their car.

And that's in a relatively quiet residential road. . .

I wouldnt buy it either Op....ive lived in my house 15 years and have a decent size private driveway...no way could i be arsed hunting for a space everytime I came home...

Don't do it! We lived in a house with awful on-street parking for four years and it was a fucking nightmare. When we bought a place my No. 1 criteria was a driveway. I would never buy a place that did not have parking.

We regularly pass a house that we didn’t buy due to parking issues. We always look at the choc a bloc parking and say thank God we didn’t buy. The new owners have done done attic conversion, removed pebble dash and had lots done inside. It’s within walking distance of schools and high street so maybe the car isn’t really an issue for them.

It's a no from me. Parking isn't terrible where we are, but it's bothered us enough to know that we will be moving on eventually. We have very weird passive aggressive next door neighbours who have caused us huge stress (that's for another thread!!) because of parking. Our previous home was a flat in a heavily populated area with only on-street parking available and it was a total nightmare - even worse when we had kids. Think very carefully before committing...

I wouldn't. Not only would it cause you problems but in this time of internet and supermarket deliveries you will find that you will have lots of missed deliveries.

One of my friends' rented a flat with no parking so even delivery men risked parking tickets. When I visited him I had to park nearly a mile away. He finally realised his mistake when we went to buy some furniture for him and it was a military mission to unload it. When he brought a house it had a parking space and depending on the time of day visitors can park outside or 2 minutes walk away.

OP, the thing with parking issues is that they'll only get worse. There are still some elderly (women mainly) who never learned to drive / have stopped driving but that generation will have gone in the next 20 years. The teenagers in houses now can't afford to move out so all those families with one or two cars now will need spare for 3 /4 /5 cars in years to come. In ten years' time, how much harder will it be to park if the neighbours are also 4-bed houses, with what are currently teenaged children? Keep looking, your house is out there. It just isn't this one.

I wouldn't. I have a friend who cadges lifts from people because when she moves her car she loses her space. There are many occasions when it's useful to be near the house, not just grocery shopping but trips to tip etc etc.

I would never compromise on this ever again. I have too many kids to be walking a mile to my car four times a day.

And yes to thinking about tradesmen, we've had our driveway blocked with a skip for weeks at a time whilst doing our renovations, we had to park elsewhere the entire time, several neighbours were put out as we had to park on the road during that time and led to a frosty start. Our neighbour's also not forgiving if they have to wait a few mins for Asda delivery van, or even having to drive up on the curb to get past our removals van when we first moved in! People can be awful about parking, take heed!!!