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.

@Babyroobs

We have people round where we live who park their cars , then catch the fat link bus to the airport and go on holiday for a week !

Sorry that should say fast link !

Loadsa people park outside my house

@BronwenFrideswide

It does also sound like you're treating it like a car park.

That's exactly what the OP is doing and it is cheeky to use a residential street you have no connection to as your own personal car park whilst you go off to work.

No. It isn’t cheeky. Sometimes I park my car in residential streets and go for a walk. What of it? And if I do that every day in the same spot - I can! Why would that annoy anyone? Not their land, not their business.

Why is the same car 5 days a week more annoying than multiple cars occupying the space over the course of the 5 days?

Can’t believe we still don’t know whether the road is busy with other parked cars or if there are plenty of options.

Or that we still don’t know what the OP is planning to do!

So the woman is looking at her car all day every day.

What's so awful about seeing a car and why is she looking at it all day?

I’m not sure if people are kind of understanding the op parks right in front of her front garden. So the woman is looking at her car all day every day.

With a driveway big enough for 4 cars, and maybe some cars of her own in that driveway, the view of OP's car cannot be too intrusive now can it?

@Thiscantreallybehappening

sent too early, maybe the woman has put up with obstacles and bad parking by OP for 2 years and today she decided to say something.

Goodness now there are obstacles and bad parking. It’s getting quite exciting! What obstacles? A trailer? A camping tent erected across the lawn? Parked diagonally across her driveway?

What piffle!

People who are angry with their lot in life get angry at someone parking outside their house. Happy people don’t. Simple as.

Bluntness100
I’m not sure if people are kind of understanding the op parks right in front of her front garden. So the woman is looking at her car all day every day.

wrong colour?

Yabu, this would annoy the hell out of me.

How do you know the owner hasn't other family members living there, who do night shifts and come home midday etc and need that space? I'd be really frustrated if I was the homeowner. Where do her visitors park? Where do delivery vans park? Fair enough the odd days during the week, but the majority of the week is taking the piss! God knows why she hasn't moved her car already each morning to prevent you parking there.

@RichardMarxisinnocent

How do you get the very edge of the lawn if there's a car parked all the way to the grass?

As I said upthread, I watched my hsuband mowing ours yesterday and he seemed to have to take the mower onto the patio by half a foot to a foot at least to actually get the edges.

@Mmn654123

For all we know she isn't allowed to put a wall up. In some areas there are rules against those sort of things.

Where do her visitors park? Where do delivery vans park?

Probably in one of the four spaces on her driveway.

@helloyoutoo8

How do you know the owner hasn't other family members living there, who do night shifts and come home midday etc and need that space? I'd be really frustrated if I was the homeowner. Where do her visitors park? Where do delivery vans park? Fair enough the odd days during the week, but the majority of the week is taking the piss! God knows why she hasn't moved her car already each morning to prevent you parking there.

Who cares? She doesn't own it. Getting frustrated about something you have no control over is the problem, not what anyone else is doing.

@helloyoutoo8

How do you know the owner hasn't other family members living there, who do night shifts and come home midday etc and need that space? I'd be really frustrated if I was the homeowner. Where do her visitors park? Where do delivery vans park? Fair enough the odd days during the week, but the majority of the week is taking the piss! God knows why she hasn't moved her car already each morning to prevent you parking there.

I'd suggest they use the 4 car driveway and delivery drivers can stop over the driveway entrance for the 30 seconds they stop.

How do you get the very edge of the lawn if there's a car parked all the way to the grass?

You ask nicely 👍🏻

At least she knows it's going each day, someone could park an old banger there for weeks on end.

The comment about cutting the grass was a threat to damage the OP’s car, not a genuine need to cut the grass

Oh, how do you know that?

I know people are legally entitled to do what the OP is doing but I still think it is cheeky and shows a rather entitled attitude to use the outside of someone else's house on a residential street you don't live in or have any connection to as your own personal car park. I can completely understand why people are irritated by it.

@sunglassesonthetable

How do you get the very edge of the lawn if there's a car parked all the way to the grass?

You ask nicely 👍🏻

Precisely. "Excuse me, would you mind parking further up today, I need to mow the grass and can't quite get to the edges? Thanks ever so much (cheery smile)."

You're not doing anything illegal, but it's not fair to park outside someones house 5 days per week.

I'd be annoyed too. We have a couple of holiday lets around here, and they park outside our house for days on end, and trundle off with their suitcases. Annoying as fuck, when you can't park near your house.

If it bothers her, do the kind think, and move it.

[quote JesusIsAnyNameFree]@RichardMarxisinnocent

How do you get the very edge of the lawn if there's a car parked all the way to the grass?

As I said upthread, I watched my hsuband mowing ours yesterday and he seemed to have to take the mower onto the patio by half a foot to a foot at least to actually get the edges.

@Mmn654123

For all we know she isn't allowed to put a wall up. In some areas there are rules against those sort of things.[/quote]
She chose to buy the house. If she isn’t allowed to build a wall she will have known that long ago.

A strimmer might work better on the edges. And frankly that isn’t the Ops problem. She can always pop out and do the edge after 3pm if she really can’t manage it with the (legally parked) car there.

If I was Op I’d drive the car until it’s very very old and of little value then when she gets a new one, drive the old one to its parking spot and leave it there Mon-Fri each week, 24 hours a day. Just for a month or two. Just for amusement. Before scrapping it.

But then I’m naughty like that. Moaning at me about something I’m perfectly reasonably doing will encourage me to do something slightly less reasonable - but still legal.

@TheAlphaandtheOmega

At least she knows it's going each day, someone could park an old banger there for weeks on end.

Hahaha! Great minds......

It isn’t cheeky. Sometimes I park my car in residential streets and go for a walk. What of it? And if I do that every day in the same spot - I can! Why would that annoy anyone? Not their land, not their business

Me too. At weekends, I'll sometimes park a bit of a way away so I get a 20m walk when going to Post Office or dry cleaners. I park on a residential street cause you can't park on the main roads

Its just so weird how weird people are about this. Do people literally only ever go to places where they have a direct connection with a resident?

Pre covid, alongside the post office/dry cleaners trips i would also regularly need to park to go to my yoga class or for my sons football training or matches (occasionally onsite parking but usually not). If I visit a friend, or drop dc off somewhere, I may need to park a couple of roads away from the house we're visiting. None of the parks near me have dedicated parking and I'm 20m drive a couple of lovely woods where the only parking is on a street.

And obvs I know the OP is parking regularly in the same place, but the principle is the same. Loads of people think that its inconsiderate to park on someone else's street.

Annoying as fuck, when you can't park near your house.

I live in a terraced street and it is a bit annoying when you can't park near your house. But this woman has a driveway which takes four cars, so she's not in the same situation at all. The best argument anyone seems to have come up with against the OP is that mower woman shouldn't have to look at a car all day 🤷‍♀️