For "blocking" next door's drive for 10 seconds?

[flyingturtles]

Selling things on fb. Man comes to collect an item, so was at my door for nano-seconds. He parked at the end of my drive, with perhaps half his engine overlapping next door's drive, while he collected from my doorstep.

Next door arrived home and sat behind this car constantly sounding the horn, then the passenger got out and started swearing and shouting about not being able to use his drive and how we were breaking the law.

The entire street was vacant of cars, so they could have either parked elsewhere or turned around and entered the drive from the opposite direction. His drive was actually still accessible. Or waited.

Next door actually went back out again five minutes later, so parking on the road for those minutes wouldn't have hurt either.

Just feel there was no need for such a drama, and the shouting continued after the man had left too.

(Just to add, they block me IN on many, many occasions. When they are happy to park on the road.)

I said next door went out again minutes later. The man had long gone by this point.

The man was collecting something already on my doorstep (social distancing) and was on his way back to his car when next door arrived. The sounded their horn before they had even come close.

The entire street was vacant of cars

but your visitor parked in a place which made it awkward for your neighbour to use their own drive? Your visitor,... and you dont seem to think was that important. No wonder he was pissed off

Yes, YABU.
If the entire street was empty, then the person at fault here is the person who didn't use any of this space, but instead chose to park over someone's drive.
I can't understand the mentality of people like this.

We live next door to somewhere where people do this all day, every day. They ALWAYS say 'I was only going to be a minute - which a) is clearly never true and b) doesn't help when you've got traffic queuing up behind you when you are trying to park on your own drive / or are trying to get off your drive and not be late to where you want to go and c) they seem to forget it isn't just them, but the other 17 people a day that do it.
It is just SO selfish.

Technically I'm sure there was no need to park there, but what a dramatic overreaction. Screaming and shouting? I'd just ignore and not make reference to it again.

Sorry op. I came home today to my neighbours partially over my drive. I'd have had to drive through my other neighbours car to get to my drive. I was pissy. As it happens they apologised and it was ok. An apology would go a long way.

I pop to people's houses to buy off Marketplace all the time (obviously not during lockdown).

I'm often not 100% clear on the house so kind of kerb crawl to find it. When I spot it I then stop safely but not necessarily 100% conscious of every potential action that could happen in the 45 seconds it takes me to get to the house and back. I'm often there less than a minute because people are expecting me and have the item at the door.

So it's perfectly possible the buyer spotted the OP's house, parked right outside it (not paying 100% attention to how far he was on or off the neighbour's drive) and popped to the front door to collect.

It is extremely unfortunate timing that the neighbour returned at that point and even more unfortunate that the neighbour is an impatient arsehole.

OP in reality there was nothing you could do. To ask the buyer to move his car would have taken time that at a glance wasn't required for a quick pick up and return to car.

Your neighbour is a hypocritical arsehole who is being unreasonable.

"So it's perfectly possible the buyer spotted the OP's house, parked right outside it (not paying 100% attention to how far he was on or off the neighbour's drive) and popped to the front door to collect. "

Obviously that's what happened. That's the inconsiderate bit, the not giving a shit whether they were blocking the neighbours drive

Apparently, as I found out being the person who’s drive was blocked - there is no law saying you can’t park on a dropped curb, the only time it is an offence is if someone as parked across your drive when there’s is a vehicle potentially being blocked in. Yes, I’ve had some very irritating neighbours who would block my drive whilst I was at work and there wasn’t anything that I could do as my car wasn’t being blocked in. The law is an ass.

Your visitor shouldn’t have parked overhanging their driveway.

Your neighbour shouldn’t have reacted int he way he,did.

You did nothing wrong and shouldn’t have been abused.

Inconsiderate of your buyer to do it, that's laziness from him. How much effort would it have taken him to use his brain, park properly, and walk a few extra feet? He manages to use his brain to drive the car, surely he can engage the brain cells a little more to figure out how to park properly?

Hate people like that. Had someone park opposite my drive today and on someone else's so that their lazy ass didn't have to walk further. They then had to leave and move it later for people to park. God forbid they walk further, might kill them.

I had someone shout at me for parking over their drive on a very narrow and packed road when I had to drop off my son at his dads. I was literally less than a minute. I wouldn't have minded as much if they had actually been trying to get in or out irl their house but they came out of their house just to shout not to block their drive and continued when I said I would literally be less than a minute.

People occasionally block my drive and as long as they are not long I just think it's neighbourly to be a bit patient with this (especially on a busy, parked up road as my example was whereas my road usually has plenty of spaces).

You are not being unreasonable.
The correct way to deal with a blocked drive is to request that the person move the vehicle (like most normal reasonable adults would do). Shouting and swearing for such a minor transgression is completely unnecessary.

Well quite clearly you are in the wrong as you failed to provide detailed access and parking instructions to potential buyers along with a detailed site map showing where they were and were not allowed to drive/park/walk/look etc and i bet you didn't take steps to ensure they would be appropriately dressed or driving a car worthy of passing along your street.
Did you at least confirm with every neighbour in the street 48+h in advance that they would not be inconvenienced by you having a momentary visitor?

Joking obviously - for those that didn't get it. You neighbour is a twat and has real issues. He must have a canary every time a courier does a delivery around your street.
It was sod all to do with you and there was sod all you could really do about it either.

Your visitor should not have parked there. It’s really that simple. Imagine coming home because you need to run in for just a minute and your neighbor saying, well if you go around the block and come back from the other direction, you can get on your private property.

@JMKid

By law you can park in front of someone's drive unless they have a garage. People are just being OTT

What law is that, pray tell?

The driver was in any case loading, not parking. And for a very short time period.

Where I live, blocking drives for loading is often not reasonably avoidable. Nobody I've seen has been an arrogant arsehole about it. Just wait two minutes or ask the driver to move.

@emmcan yes! Or it’s like using CIO as a sleep training method rather than co-sleeping until your kid’s 17.

They overreacted. Big time .
But you twisted the truth a bit here.. Because this would have taken minutes. Not 10 seconds. .

I arrived home from work the other day to find my drive blocked by our neighbour's visitors. As it happens, they were there for hours and I put a note on the windscreen but I would have been equally cross if it was 'just' a few minutes because those were the few minutes that I wanted to park my car.

How did your neighbour know that they were going to be quick? Totally unreasonable overreaction on their part but it's really not ok to block people in.

Because he was walking back to his car after spending seconds picking something from my doorstep. They didn't arrive until this point, so yes, seconds, and they could clearly see what was happening.

And if you have just acknowledged their inconvenience and apologised, maybe it ended up fine. You saw them making sound, you saw them coming out the car. You said they kept swearing at you even after you went inside. Did you say sorry? Or shouted back?

Hingeandbracket Sat 20-Jun-20 23:41:49
JMKid

By law you can park in front of someone's drive unless they have a garage. People are just being OTT

What law is that, pray tell?

the only one i know of, is that you must not park blocking access to the highway - ie if there is a car in the driveway, you cannot block it. If there is no car, you can block it.

www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/waiting-and-parking-238-to-252#:~:text=Rule%20243,prevent%20access%20for%20Emergency%20Services

Can you park over a dropped kerb?

This is one area that always causes controversy. Dropped kerbs are lowered sections of the pavement that allow easier access from the pavement to the road by wheelchair users, pushchairs and the visually impaired. Dropped kerbs are also often found outside of businesses and private residences for vehicle access.

The Highway Code's Rule 243 states that you should 'not stop or park where the kerb has been lowered to help wheelchair users and powered mobility vehicles, or where it would obstruct cyclists except when forced to do so by stationary traffic.'

Rule 243 of the Highway Code states: 'Do not stop or park in front of an entrance to a property except when forced to do so by stationary traffic.'

www.honestjohn.co.uk/news/legal-motoring-advice/2017-07/your-guide-to-parking-rights/

That’s true - not sure what it’s called exactly but I was told that when I called 101 to report that a car has been blocking my drive so I couldn’t get in for 2 days. I was told that it’s only an issue if the person had blocked me in so I guess having a garage could potentially mean drive way blocker had blocked in a car