Really shaken up. Did I do anything wrong here?

[seventymodules]

For past two years I have done the school run, I park on a street near the school. There is a detached house with a driveway and a patch of grass next to the driveway. I park in front of the patch of grass, not blocking the driveway whatsoever.

Once I drop my child at school I get collected by my workmate (we are cleaners so have company car) and then work till 3 until I have to return for school run and car.

This morning as I was getting out of the car the lady in the house came charging out, she said 'can you stop parking your car in front of my house?' I said 'it's a public road' and she said 'you park out here 5 days a week, if you refuse to move it I should make you aware that I will be cutting my grass today and any damage to your car is not my responsibility' said with a sarcastic smile on her face, she then walked back into the house shaking her head.

I've left the car but worried now she is going to damage it.

Am I being unreasonable parking it there? It's a public road and not on her property at all.

Or Sparks, those visitors and handymen can just park in another free space. In my road we all try to leave spaces free outside the houses of people with very young children or mobility issues but who don’t have a disabled bay. Beyond that, every slave is fair game

Space. Every space

I'm guessing if the OP always parks in the same place, arming is not at a premium there. So I can't see why she can't park in a different place.

Yes of course legally she is perfectly entitled to park there but it would be more considerate to park in different places. The woman is obviously upset so why escalate?

@Ginuwine I do reverse onto my driveway. I drive out facing forwards and still have to manoeuvre around stupid van that blocks my line of sight. I recently had a close call when I drove out, checked the road was clear before moving and by the time I’d gotten past stupid van a car had turned into the road and was zooming towards me at speed. Luckily I was edging and just managed to slam on the brakes. If I’d had to reverse out of my drive at best my car would be badly damaged and I’d have had a big insurance bill. At worst I or the other driver would be hurt. It’s a hazard and shouldn’t be there.

Just saying indeed

@Putfireonlass

I agree with this. Yes, it’s legal - but so is playing music in your garden all day, leaving your car radio on while you wash it etc etc. What you’re doing is pretty likely to cause her annoyance and inconvenience.

Not remotely comparable

Exactly, loud music etc is a real and legitimate annoyance/inconvenience. Getting annoyed about a car parked outside your house is completely irrational.

Arming? Parking.

Resorting to arms is taking it too far.

We live near a primary school so twice a day it is chaos. We bought the house knowing the school was there, and that the road is a public space we don’t own. There is a bus stop close by which means the road can be blocked by inconsiderate parking. While appreciating that people have to collect / drop off their kids, the frustrating bit is the inconsiderate parking that a lot of parents do. It may well be that the woman in question is sick to death of other parents bad parking, but you got the brunt of her frustrations. We regularly have (empty) cars over the end of our drive as the parent has rushed off to collect Tarquin and Portia from the classroom in case they get abducted in the 25m between the school gates and the car……!

It would massively piss me off.

If you parked in front on my house all day, that means my guests would possibly have to park in front of my neighbours’ house and then their guests would have to park in front of other neighbours etc ad infinitum.

It’s one thing to do it for a brief visit, it’s another thing to park all day, everyday.

Leave your car at home and head off for the school run earlier if it’s such a long by foot. Stop being so entitled.

Its a public highway and if you are not blocking her drive or causing any other access issues then you are free to park wherever you want. We have moved out of London and have the same problem with our neighbours who seem to think that they can have a guaranteed parking space outside their house (on a public road) and get VERY upset if anyone parks there. They have taken to putting flower pots out which makes me laugh as an ex-Londoner who was grateful to be able to park in the same street, let alone in front of my house.

If the houses on the street have off-street parking then her getting annoyed becomes even more ridiculous!

I’d move the car around a bit - you’re not legally doing anything wrong, but you are using her residential street as free parking all day every day - not illegal but a tiny bit cheeky...

@UneFoisAuChalet

It would massively piss me off.

If you parked in front on my house all day, that means my guests would possibly have to park in front of my neighbours’ house and then their guests would have to park in front of other neighbours etc ad infinitum.

It’s one thing to do it for a brief visit, it’s another thing to park all day, everyday.

Leave your car at home and head off for the school run earlier if it’s such a long by foot. Stop being so entitled.

And what? What would be wrong with that? Why can’t your guests come on foot like you suggest OP should, since it’s you that’s bothered? And how often is it that you and your neighbours all have simultaneous guests in the daytime, on weekdays, mid-term?

You are perfectly entitled to park anywhere providing it's not a private road and there are no other restrictions. However, it would be good manners to not pick the same house 5 days a week, every week, wouldn't it?

Try to mix it up a bit. This would piss anyone off eventually.

@seventymodules

There is no pavement outside her house her drive way is directly onto the road, same with her patch of grass, where the grass stops the road begins, there is no pavement and it's a wide, quiet road. Also her drive is raised on a hill so would have no problem seeing past my car.

So if the grass goes all the way to the road, where you park all day, 5 days a week, doesn't that mean she can't access the end of the lawn with her mower as your car is stood there? Am I wrong here? I was watching my husband mow the lawn yesterday and it seemed like he needed to shove it off the lawn and onto the patio by quite a bit to get the sides properly. That would surely mean she can't mow her lawn when she wants to but has to plan it around you and your car? I would be well fucked off.

I guess I can understand why it bothers her but realistically it's tough, as long as you're parked legally what can she do? Apart from resorting to damaging your car of course which definitely isn't legal!

🍿😁

@OhTheIronyOfItAll

It’s ridiculous how many people make excuses about emergency services. If a road tis too narrow for parking to allow emergency services get through, there are parking restrictions on it

@MintyMabel that’s not always the case. I lived on a street with semis with driveways on one side of the narrow street and terraced houses on the other. Only a car could get down with the terrace owners parked on their side. No restrictions, although the fire service that had to visit one day did say, if it came to it, they would just plough down the street and not worry about hitting vehicles

Same here.

Our road had no restrictions until emergency services tried to pass between a skip filled to the brim, a badly parked commuter car, and a car whose owners had gone on holiday.

It was the perfect storm of bad luck. The neighbours car couldn’t be moved because they were out the country, the skip couldn’t be moved because was full and the company couldn’t get close enough to lift it, and the commuter was long gone in the tube. The ambulance then couldn’t reverse as a huge 12-wheel lorry had joined the traffic at some point and couldn’t reverse down the narrow terrace with cars parked either side, even with everyone guiding the driver it was far too tight for a vehicle that size.

It was an absolute disaster, everyone was out in the street trying to manoeuvre their cars out the way and the lorry driver didn’t speak much English and then the police arrived to cordon off the roads around ours and redirect traffic.

It was actually amazing to see how one badly parked car caused chaos for hours.

Saying that I’m sure that’s NOT the case with OP but these things do happen! Crazy as it seems.

@heidipi

Yep agree to disagree but if the OP does what she is being advised to and moves, how does she deal with what the person in the house she parks outside of instead wants? If she varies it/mixes it up etc etc is she expected to knock on a door every day and ask if the homeowner minds her parking perfectly legally on a piece of road they don't own til 3pm?

Well, clearly I'm not OP or the woman in the house but if I was OP I wouldn't have parked in the same spot from 9am - 5pm, 5 days a week for 2 years without knocking on the door and speaking to the homeowner. Yes, I know it is legal but OP is treating this like her personal, reserved parking spot so I can see why the woman is annoyed.

OP doesn't seem to have any problem parking there, the space seems to always be available which suggests that the road isn't full of people parking there all day, every day and the woman's annoyance suggests that she thinks if the OP didn't park there she wouldn't necessarily have a car outside her house so regularly.

I don't think the woman would have necessarily complained if it only happened sporadically it is the fact that is is like clockwork every single day. I think if OP rotated her car she probably wouldn't have the problem with this woman or other homeowners.

You're not in the wrong. Someone spoke to you because they were annoyed. Not seeing why you were really shaken up by it. Just say I'm legally parked. No biggie

No restrictions, although the fire service that had to visit one day did say, if it came to it, they would just plough down the street and not worry about hitting vehicles

Exactly, so the fire service had visited, as they do regularly around streets, and said they could still access despite cars parked. If they couldn’t have, there would be restrictions.

if the OP does what she is being advised to and moves, how does she deal with what the person in the house she parks outside of instead wants? If she varies it/mixes it up etc etc is she expected to knock on a door every day and ask if the homeowner minds her parking perfectly legally on a piece of road they don't own til 3pm?

People can be so obtuse on here sometimes.

She doesn't have to knock on anyone's door for permission to park in a perfectly legally in a public street.

But if she mixes it up regularly then the chances of any one resident losing their rag and shouting at her is greatly, greatly reduced.

a badly parked commuter car

Again, not relevant as the commuter car was parked badly, not as the rules of the road dictates. As you say, OP isn’t parked badly so the emergency services line is irrelevant.

Of course there are always bizarre incidents that can cause problems but in the vast majority of cases “oh think of the emergency services” as an excuse for nobody but the residents parking in their own streets is a poor one.

If it's a small residential road I'm guessing it's not wider than two passing cars. These sorts of roads where the houses have driveways often aren't really intended to have parking on the roads, if a lot of cars do it can clog it up and make manoeuvring off drives a real pita.

I find it odd a bit of a pisstake when someone who neither lives in the road nor is visiting/has business there, is leaving a vehicle taking up space there all day. If lots of people did what you are doing anyone actually visiting the people living in the road would find there was no space.

OP
It seems the argument escalated because she asked you to move your car today for a very legitimate reason and you refused. She warned you quite fairly that as her grass fully extends to the road that by refusing to move there is a risk that your car could get knocked by the mower or covered in grass cuttings. You still refused to move, took that as a threat rather than a fact and now intend to keep parking there and taking photos of your car. I think as she has not said a thing in the 2 plus years you have parked there you have been very unreasonable.

I think the people voting that the OP is not BU are people who don't have the "pleasure" of living near a school and having to put up with gridlocked streets twice a day, shit parking, having to do a 21 point turn because some fucker has parked half on and half off the kerb right off the driveway and directly opposite too, nowhere for delivery drivers to STOP never mind park and general traffic issues caused by parents who are too fucking lazy to park in a proper car park further away (by about 2 minutes) and walk their darling offspring to school.

@RaspberryCoulis not true. My house is right in front of a secondary school and people parking and gridlocks in the road just don't bother me. I knew what I was signing up for when I bought my house