Note left on car after parking outside someone's house.

[Thumbs]

Yesterday, a car was parked outside my house and there was no space on the pavement along my house so I parked around the corner.
There was no dropped curb so naturally presumed I could park there.

Spent my day doing things around the house when DH comes in saying there's a note on the car and that i've parked in front of their drive.
I read the note and it said something along the lines of
"Please don't park across our drive again, there are plenty of spaces on this street. Thanks."

I have never met this person despite living on the same street and never really took notice of their house to have known they have a "drive". Most of the houses on my street do not have drives apart from the odd one who has had their kerbs dropped.

But I was always led to believe that a 'drive' always has a dropped kerb. There is no dropped kerb outside their house.
Anyway I moved the car but DH told me it's obviously a drive even though it doesnt have a dropped kerb and he apologised to the owners of the house.

I feel stupid now because according to DH it was obvious.

There's a few sad face stories about people being fined for driving over the pavement. This is the only link that wasn't the daily fail.
images.app.goo.gl/wyUUjzFpZ8p9G3469

@Thumbs

But as mentioned in the OP I didn't notice it was a drive. I'd understand if it was.common for my street to have drives and I parked in front, but out of about 40 houses, only 2 have drives and these houses applied to have the curbs dropped

What's the issue though?

It's not like you've got a parking ticket, they've just left a note and now you know they need access and not to park there. You're not in any trouble so why worry and go back and forward about it?

Actually what is the distinction between ‘clearly a drive without a dropped kerb and patio’?

Bournemouth council state

If you have a parking area, driveway or similar on your property, you’ll need a dropped kerb to be able to use it legally.

So you can call it what the hell you like but unless you have a dropped kerb you can't actually use it as a drive!

It's not like you've got a parking ticket, they've just left a note and now you know they need access and not to park there.

If they need access then they need to drop the curb and create a proper driveway. Until they do this OP and anyone else is absolutely fine to continue parking there.

Amazing how many people insisting their ‘drive’ without a dropped curb is a drive. This is illegal. You can’t just cross the pavement to park on your ‘drive’. Firstly because you shouldn’t be mounting the pavement for safety reasons but most importantly because you don’t own the path and you don’t know for sure what is beneath it. There may be utilities under there with a non load bearing path laid on top, repeatedly driving over it could cause huge damage! I can’t believe people don’t know why dropped curbs are a legal requirement for using your front for parking and why permission must be sought from authorities.

It would be common sense surely?

Perhaps you could print out your council's page about applying for planning permission for a dropped kerb and ram it through their door

That is a completely appropriate response if they're in the business of leaving passive agressive notes. Depending on the surfacing of their 'drive' you might also want to add the page about requirements for paving over front gardens for the purpose of using as driveways because you either need to add appropriate drainage or apply for planning permission for that due to flood risk management.

My neighbours opposite did this, driving over the pavement to get on to their drive. The council came pretty sharpish and out bollards up on the pavement.

It's not like you've got a parking ticket, they've just left a note and now you know they need access and not to park there. You're not in any trouble so why worry and go back and forward about it?
This exactly. Why make a drama of it? You parked there in good faith. They left a message to say you'd park in front of their drive. Drop curb or not, if you parked in good faith and wouldn't have otherwise if you thought you were blocking them, all you have to is not park there again as you've managed all this time. Matter resolved. Why turn it into a conflictual situation?

You are unreasonable to say you'll never park there again. No dropped kerb means they do not have a drive way and the parking place on the road is totally legitimate to use.

Driving across the pavement when there isn't a dropped kerb does damage to pavements and to pipework under the pavements, costing all tax payers extra money in maintenance of the public property. They shouldn't be doing it. So that should be your new favourite place to park if you can't park outside your house.

I agree with PP that printing out the web page from the local council on how to apply for (and pay for) a proper dropped kerb would be an excellent idea.

If it looks like someone is using the space in front of there house as a driveway, i.e. paved over and with big gates on it, then its a bit knobby to park in front of it irrespective of a dropped kerb.
Maybe legally you are correct, but its just common courtesy not to do it.

well now you know, you can avoid it. Its annoying with street parking isnt it. I occasionally get a note if someones annoyed where ive parked. I angrily mutter about the audacity and the fact that street parking is such a pain sometimes, and then I move on and try not to park there next time

Si these people were cheap and didn’t pay the council to drop the curb? Tough.

It's not a drive without a dropped kerb. There's nothing else to be said. They might park their car there but they shouldn't without the correct permissions & works done to strengthen the pavement.

You did nothing wrong OP, those people are cheeky cheapskates.

'A patio with aspirations' - indeed!

@KarmaStar yes it's common sense that a drive must have a dropped curb.

YANBU to presume no dropped curb = no drive
And YANBU to not check every single time you park that some CF has suddenly decided their patio is now a driveway because they feel like it

On my road there are quite a few houses that have had front gardens converted into drives - of those houses, some have paid the council for a dropped kerb, and some haven't. Those that haven't have to put big notes on their gates saying 'don't park here, access needed, it's a drive' etc etc - because when people are parking they look at the kerbs to see whether they can park there or not.

I personally think that if someone doesn't want to go to the trouble of getting a dropped kerb then that is their own problem if people sometimes park in front of their drives. Not sure why they paid the money to get their garden converted but didn't pay the bit extra to do the kerb as well.

It's annoying as a driver on my road, you think 'oh, there's a parking space' and then you park, then see the note (or remember).

It sounds like you were not to know about the driveway as theer was no dropped curb.

I am a bit bemused at your DH going off an apologising to the neighbours. That was not his role and smacks to me of a controlling element. It was your decision to deal with this and provide you with the opportunity to explain your own reasoning and to also point out that there was another person parking in front of your house.

So, in my opinion, it is your husband and possibly these neighbours that were being unreasonable.

My ‘DH’ would only ever date apologise for me once.

*dare

Hmmm I mean it’s just a simple mistake, I would probably say sorry to them but I always check as I am abit paranoid about pissing people off. I once didn’t park somewhere tho coz it was infront of someone’s drive and someone else literally parked there two seconds after I’d moved anyway so if you hadn’t of done it someone else probably would have 🤷🏻‍♀️

@IsFinnRogersDead

If it's not a dropped kerb it's just a patio with aspirations.

Perhaps you could print out your council's page about applying for planning permission for a dropped kerb and ram it through their door?

and report them to the council - if they're driving over the kerb all the time to get to their non-drive, they must be damaging it.

@goldenharvest

If you blocked access to someone else's off road parking you were being unreasonable. They've made the choice to give up part of their garden to ease on road parking. You can at least respect this and leave that area for their access. It was not illegal to park there but pretty unobservant if you.

Reserving access to a driveway (whether by a dropped kerb or not), does not ease congestion on roads. Rather, it potentially creates more congestion by removing a general parking space that could accommodate any car that needs/want to park on that road (perhaps more than one depending on its position) and instead creates a private space solely for use by the house with the drive.

The only circumstance in which it might be argued that a private driveway reduces parking congestion is if a single width driveway entrance gives access to a drive that accommodates more than one car that would otherwise be parked on the road.

@TeaAndHobnob

It's not a drive without a dropped kerb. There's nothing else to be said. They might park their car there but they shouldn't without the correct permissions & works done to strengthen the pavement.

You did nothing wrong OP, those people are cheeky cheapskates.

'A patio with aspirations' - indeed!

This.

If space were at a premium, then I'd happily park there. It is, after all, legal.

If you want a drive, you pay the costs required and get the kerb cropped.

If there's an open driveway leading on to a hard standing which is obviously there for cars to park on it, with or without a dropped kerb, I don't park there because I would always assume that I am likely to be blocking access.