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.

I mean, if the homeowner was that pissy about it, she could have parked her car in that spot (despite having a four car driveway) approximately 1 minute before the OP usually arrives, so the OP saw her get out her perfectly legal car parking space.

So, what would posters say is this was posted.

I live on a quiet residential street, near a school. There is no restricted parking but most people drop off children at school then pick them up at 3pm. So people do park there but only around school times. This one woman has, for the past 2 years parked directly outside my house everyday Mon - Fri and she is parked from 9am-3pm. She drops her DC at school and then comes back to the car, where she is picked up by someone. I am assuming she goes to work because I don't see her again until 3pm when she is dropped back at the car, she then collects DC from school. I have no idea why she is always outside my house and why she doesn't park elsewhere in the road sometimes. Anyway, this is my dilemma - my front garden is extends to the road as does my driveway, there is no pavement. So where she parks there is no gap between her car and my lawn.

I'm a keyworker and today is my day off, I want to cut my grass but I can't because I will damage her car. For the next few days I am then working so unable to cut the grass. I am fed up with having to juggle this job around her parking.

AIBU to ask her to park elsewhere some days or do I just have to accept this?

I still don't understand why OP is parking on a bit of road with no path. @seventymodulesWhere do you park in relation to the school? Do you walk on a road without pavement? If you didn't drive how far is it from your house to walk your DC to school?

@Thiscantreallybehappening

People are so weird about parking. I see nothing wrong with what you're doing. Fine it irritates her but such is life. Where I live parking is a 'mare and people often park near my house (no driveway) and go to work in the high street. Yes it's irritating but are they doing anything wrong? No.

But is it the same car, 5 days a week for years?

How is that different to it being a different car every day for the same amount of time?! I genuinely don't get it. Is another car in the same colour still an issue? Or a car the same model but a different colour, is that ok? A car is a car. A parking space is a parking space.

This thread has very British replies.

It’s a real pain when someone parks outside your house all day. Especially for those with elderly or disabled tenants or visitors

@mn81987

It might be legal but I'd go fucking mad if you did that outside my house. Your car would have been blocked in a long time ago if that was me!

Seriously?

OP you know what the answer is before you even posted and you know what to do about it.

If you decided to continue to park there (legally or not) you are going to wind up the home owner. You already know this as a FACT.

So what are you options stop parking their or continue to park their and ignore the threats. If you car gets damaged, which is highly likely as they will only get more annoyed as time goes on. You will have to prove 100% that they did it, the police are stretched as it is and more than likely they will not be interested, at best they will speak to her and advise you to move the car in the future to stop it happening again.

You will be left with a damaged car and have proved nothing. By all means don't give in to the bully and prove you are legally entitled to stay there, but just know it is you who will end up with a damaged car and bruised ego and its incredibly hard to prove unless you have your own CCTV installed out side her house.

Is it really worth the stress and hassle just to prove a point? After all you can get your car damaged and come back on Mumsnet later and rant about how the police are not interested some one damaged your car later. You might be legally right but it wont stop your property getting damaged.

People are weird and territorial about parking spots outside their houses - I find it completely bizarre!

We have a single car drive but we have 2 cars. Double yellows down one side of our road and then no restrictions on the other side. Most people on our street have more than one car (next door have 4!!) so it can be hard to get a spot.

We are the first non-permit road away from the city centre and also opposite a very large school. Loads of staff park on our road and so do parents doing the school run. It’s absolutely chockablock!

Occasionally I find it annoying if we have to park a couple of streets away. Or when I reverse off the drive I have to do a couple of manoeuvres as there is a car parked directly opposite and it’s a narrow road.

But would I ever have a go at the people parking? No! Because they’re doing nothing wrong and I have no right over the public road outside my house!

I don’t get why it’s annoying to have someone park outside your house. The same car parks outside my house most days as they get the bus into town. It’s a residential street in a village, all the houses have driveways. All it means is any visitors have to park behind her and walk an extra 4m to my house. It never occurred to me to get annoyed by it

Why would you assume that everyone else's circumstances must be the same as yours, @Almostascot? Might you be a tad miffed if the situation was that, as a result of this, visitors (including, perhaps, carers, disabled visitors etc) can't park anywhere near, or if it makes it impossible to offload important deliveries without blocking the road? Because that is very often the result of this sort of conduct.

Rant over.
It’s just something that annoys me and I don’t get it.

If the mower woman is that bothered I think she will just start parking a car there, then she can move it herself when she wants to mow.

I have this as I live across the road from a primary school. When I used to take my daughter to sixth form, one particular teacher would swoop in and park outside my house - it is annoying to be honest as there's plenty of parking just a little further up the road, that is alongside a wall (not someone's house) but of course it is what it is and in fairness I was off to the office anyway so only missed the space when I needed to nip back home to get changed or take the dog for a walk in the working day. Now I've been working from home for a year and my car hasn't moved off my front really and I see that they've managed to find somewhere else quite easily (outside the school so not near anyone's drive) I'm not sure why she always chose outside mine - maybe she wanted her car a certain distance away from the school who knows.

Ffs she doesn't own the road outside her house. Park where you like as long as you aren't parked illegally. She can get as huffy as she likes. I second the suggestion of taking photos everyday, recording her if she threatens you again. Invest in a dashcam as a deterrent and put a nice big sign on your windscreen saying "smile, you're on camera"

@Thiscantreallybehappening

So, what would posters say is this was posted.

I live on a quiet residential street, near a school. There is no restricted parking but most people drop off children at school then pick them up at 3pm. So people do park there but only around school times. This one woman has, for the past 2 years parked directly outside my house everyday Mon - Fri and she is parked from 9am-3pm. She drops her DC at school and then comes back to the car, where she is picked up by someone. I am assuming she goes to work because I don't see her again until 3pm when she is dropped back at the car, she then collects DC from school. I have no idea why she is always outside my house and why she doesn't park elsewhere in the road sometimes. Anyway, this is my dilemma - my front garden is extends to the road as does my driveway, there is no pavement. So where she parks there is no gap between her car and my lawn.

I'm a keyworker and today is my day off, I want to cut my grass but I can't because I will damage her car. For the next few days I am then working so unable to cut the grass. I am fed up with having to juggle this job around her parking.

AIBU to ask her to park elsewhere some days or do I just have to accept this?

I would say what difference does it make that you are a keyworker, does that mean you are more superior or just think you are.

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.

I haven’t voted as I don’t want MN spam, but I’m in full agreement with the OP. I live right near a school and have all the issues you moan about here. They closed the staff car park at my school and people are aghast that teachers are daring to park on our streets.

Don't care if you're pregnant. If the parking spot is free I'll take it. Coming from some one once pregnant... As long as it's legal you have done nothing wrong OP.

Your the sort of annoying person who parks outside my house all the time.

We live on a street that is residents only parking- There is one space outside each house- yet some houses have up to four cars- one person thinks it's ok to park their works white van outside my house every weekend and his other car there for the rest of the week while he works away. It's common courtesy not to park outside other people's houses for long periods and to leave the space clear for the resident.

@NutNutmum what if she has a dash cam? She would have all the evidence she needs.

@Thiscantreallybehappening

So, what would posters say is this was posted.

I live on a quiet residential street, near a school. There is no restricted parking but most people drop off children at school then pick them up at 3pm. So people do park there but only around school times. This one woman has, for the past 2 years parked directly outside my house everyday Mon - Fri and she is parked from 9am-3pm. She drops her DC at school and then comes back to the car, where she is picked up by someone. I am assuming she goes to work because I don't see her again until 3pm when she is dropped back at the car, she then collects DC from school. I have no idea why she is always outside my house and why she doesn't park elsewhere in the road sometimes. Anyway, this is my dilemma - my front garden is extends to the road as does my driveway, there is no pavement. So where she parks there is no gap between her car and my lawn.

I'm a keyworker and today is my day off, I want to cut my grass but I can't because I will damage her car. For the next few days I am then working so unable to cut the grass. I am fed up with having to juggle this job around her parking.

AIBU to ask her to park elsewhere some days or do I just have to accept this?

Yes YABU, presumably you knew that your lawn meets the road when you moved into your house. You can't therefore begrudge people from parking on a public road. What difference does it make if it's the same car everyday. So suck it up.

I park in the space outside my house, on the road all the time. It's not my space and I don't always get it but I know it doesn't belong to me. I try not to sweat it if someone else is parking there.

BUT, at another house I lived at a neighbour parked on the road even though they had a drive. There were limited spaces in that road. Again, nothing I or anyone else could do about it but it was so annoying.

It's annoying. No one can do anything about it because you are legally right. But it is annoying...so only you know if can you live with being annoying and right?

@youvegottenminuteslynn

How is that different to it being a different car every day for the same amount of time?! I genuinely don't get it. Is another car in the same colour still an issue? Or a car the same model but a different colour, is that ok? A car is a car. A parking space is a parking space.

You are assuming that if OP doesn't park there someone else will, that is not necessarily correct. The very fact that OP can always park in this particular spot suggests that the road isn't that busy. In addition, the fact that the woman has raised objections suggests that she doesn't think that would be the situation either because if it was the case she probably wouldn't bother saying anything as she would know there would be another car there, so what would be the point.

However, the woman did raise a point about not being able to cut her grass. Maybe she is just fed up of the whole situation.

@Thiscantreallybehappening

So, what would posters say is this was posted.

I live on a quiet residential street, near a school. There is no restricted parking but most people drop off children at school then pick them up at 3pm. So people do park there but only around school times. This one woman has, for the past 2 years parked directly outside my house everyday Mon - Fri and she is parked from 9am-3pm. She drops her DC at school and then comes back to the car, where she is picked up by someone. I am assuming she goes to work because I don't see her again until 3pm when she is dropped back at the car, she then collects DC from school. I have no idea why she is always outside my house and why she doesn't park elsewhere in the road sometimes. Anyway, this is my dilemma - my front garden is extends to the road as does my driveway, there is no pavement. So where she parks there is no gap between her car and my lawn.

I'm a keyworker and today is my day off, I want to cut my grass but I can't because I will damage her car. For the next few days I am then working so unable to cut the grass. I am fed up with having to juggle this job around her parking.

AIBU to ask her to park elsewhere some days or do I just have to accept this?

I’d say yes, you just have to accept it, and by the way you’re embarrassing yourself with the ‘keyworker’ chat, that was 14 months ago.

@Sidesaladofchips

Ffs she doesn't own the road outside her house. Park where you like as long as you aren't parked illegally. She can get as huffy as she likes. I second the suggestion of taking photos everyday, recording her if she threatens you again. Invest in a dashcam as a deterrent and put a nice big sign on your windscreen saying "smile, you're on camera"

So the owner of the house can't mow the lawn then?

I was actually hit in the leg by a rock or something yesterday while my husband was mowing the lawn. Hurt like a fucking bitch and would have definitely dented a car. If the OP parks there, she only has herself to blame. This woman is allowed to mow her lawn between mon-fri between 9-15.

I park my car on a nearby street a couple of times a week when I go to work - there are parking restrictions outside my actual workplace. I tend to try to park in different places each time. I have had a few irate residents have a go at me before and I would like to avoid that happening again. All the houses have huge drive ways and it is not a narrow road but I don't want to annoy anyone. I live near a school and as long as people don't block my driveway, I don't have a problem with them parking outside at all.

If you're going to leave your car in a residential area all day when you're at work, you should definitely move it around a bit. I know you're not breaking any law, but it is annoying to have the same car always left in the same spot and yes it might be inconveniencing her in some way you don't see.
An example: A man with a van used to park outside mine every day; a public road and so yes, he's entitled too. But it blocked a lot of light coming into our window (tiny front gardens) which made our front room feel very dark - and it also meant I couldn't see over the road to the 95 year old man who I kept half an eye on (fending off unsolicited callers etc). The van owner would not have been aware of either of these factors, but it was a source of real irritation for me.