To bump this car out of the way?

[GenericUsername404]

Every Monday I need to get my van out to pick up my dc from school and take them to their club. Other days I use my car but on Mondays it’s kayaking so I need the van until a place in the kayak storage becomes available. My van is 20year old and very bashed.

Every Monday at 2.30 a brand new Volvo parks directly opposite my drive, in front of my neighbours dropped kerb. When they park here I can get my car out but not my van meaning my dc cannot go to their club which I have already paid for. I know they are inside the house opposite, I knock on the door but they don’t answer but then when I’m attempting to manoeuvre my van out I see them peeping out of the window. I put a note through the door a couple of weeks ago asking them not to do it after they still wouldn’t open the door. They put a note back through mine saying they were parking in front of their dropped kerb, they were entitled to and many others on the road did the same. This is true but I am the only house on my side of the street so no one else has anyone else opposite. I’ve also put a sign on my gate saying please do not park opposite

Having again had to carefully get the car out and not be able to get my kids to their club I’m thinking next week I’ll just bump it. I’m pretty sure I could get out with a couple of touches to their car but it would probably leave dents.

I’ve tried calling the police to say I’m blocked in but by the time they arrived neighbours friend had moved their car and when the police knocked they hid again 🙄

Btw I know I’m unreasonable and I almost certainly won’t do it. I’m just bloody pissed off.

Dosnt matter if they park by their drop kerb, if it blocks others moving in and out of their driveways then that’s the problem. They can’t do it.

This is what i would do

Try and speak with neighbours. Explain the prob and say their guests need to move their car for 30'seconds whilst you move your van out. Offer a bottle of wine and make it a bit of a light hearted joke

Option two, bump car out of way

Option three, park your van across their driveway

Option 4 beep horn for ten mins until they come out

You can't start this thread & not update us on what happens when you put a few dents into Twat Car. No other thread development is interesting now.

Try another note asking if they can just take a minute to move their car briefly while you get in and out, or just park a few metres over one way or the other so they don’t block you in and you don’t have to bother them to move at all. If that fails, lean on the hooter when you need to get out. Also, report to the police again and pester them until they have spoken to the neighbour if it’s a repeat problem.

I’m still unsure if I can bring myself to park across their drive

Dread to say anything in case it's been said and I haven't read every single post, but is there any way to do the above but not in an antagonistic way. Like, could you offer for the Volvo to park on your drive while you go out to kayaking? Present them with a friendly solution rather than a fight or the cops or stalemate? Again, sorry if it's been said but this thread is loooong and I'm making kids' tea... Sounds like a bit of a nightmare though and even if legally you're in the right, I can see that kayaking van lady might seem more of a pita than friend visiting friend, so just hope there's some amicable resolution to be had.

Call the Police an hour or so before you need to go out, and they might move the car in time.

I’d park my van where the Volvo parks, and my car in another nearby spot just to inconvenience her. But I can be very petty so I’m probably being unreasonable!!

How about this? You have two vehicles so night before you park your car one side of opposite neighboured dropped kerb as tight as possible and the van as tight as possible up their dropped kerb the otherside.

Hopefully gits in twatty Mercedes then won’t be able to fit to park in front of cowbag neighbours dropped kerb.

Alternatively do the same when they are already parked but making it too tight for them to get out. So they then have to know your door to nicely ask for you to move one of your vehicles. At which point you decide whether you fancy opening the door to them or not, or you can hide and watch them squirm instead.

Diagram to help explain strategy

I know you don't want to BUT could you park across their dropped curb and put a note in the window saying broken down.
Just detached one of the spark plug leads. Also add your address and contact details to the note so that if they do call the police they will be inclined to call you and you can say you were just fetching tools to get the can moving????

Put your van on the road in front of your house before the arrive Mondays. You are allowed to park on the road as well

@GenericUsername404 WMN might not be interested but Cornwall Live would be all over it, they love this sort of thing! 😂

Christ, will people read the OP's posts?

If I were you, I'd park in front of their driveway. They aren't leaving you with any choice. They're blocking you in.

@GreenCrayon

Would it not be possible to park your van in front of your drive before their car arrives?

This

FUCKING HELL - READ THE THREAD BEFORE COMMENTING!!!!!!

Have you tried parking on your own dropped kerb op 🤣 some people just don’t read do they.

Honestly just report it the second you see the car there every dam time even if you are not about to go out. Be the squeaky cog. The police will get fed up of them ignoring them and take action.

I'd get onto the council about getting road markings put on the road

@Clymene

Christ, will people read the OP's posts?

If I were you, I'd park in front of their driveway. They aren't leaving you with any choice. They're blocking you in.

Of course not, it's MN.

Let them be, it's amusing reading folk that have never driven anything bigger than an Aygo tell someone how they should drive/park a van. Particularly the whole "you should reverse in" thing. If there was someone to guide them out, reversing out of the drive would need less road width than driving out (that works for cars too).

OP - Similar to some others (who have read the thread) I would go with the horn and getting van out as far as possible. When others cars approach to get by, inform them you can’t get out due to this car and you now can’t get back on the drive due to difficulty of driveway, some bs. They are parking illegally and it is sooooo unfair you can’t get out your own drive. Phone the police too - this should hopefully shame these people to not park their car like that again.

Hope you get your kids to their kayaking it’s unfair they’re missing out after the last year especially.

However, in the event of an emergency I would blast that mofo out of the way without any guilt whatsoever… just bash it out the way - sick child, dying relative, just bash it.

So true @DogInATent! It's all cancel the cheque isn't jr?

I have a LWB van and just getting it round a tight bend demands a whole different driving technique. Quite apart from parking it in a narrow street!

What's with all the offering twats wine to do the decent thing?

@GenericUsername404

motogogo when the police came out a few weeks ago they confirmed that the neighbours were at fault. My car is a Nissan Micra and it is only just possible to get that out when the car is parked opposite. According to the police strictly speaking none of the cars should be parked across the dropped kerbs but they don’t generally enforce it as parking is so limited here.

Surely then you can park outside her house over her dropped kerb before 2.30 and perhaps as you're a decent neighbour, you could suggest Volvo parks on your drive IF they kick off.

Could you put a note through their door offering a compromise- they park their car on your drive, and you put your van over their dropped kerb, just for the duration of kayaking? If your van will fit of course?
If this isn't feasible, report every time to 101, and Neighbourhood Watch.

@GenericUsername404

whilemeringuegentlyweeps the local news is pretty dull round here but I don’t think even the Western Morning News could be persuaded to write a story about a couple of kids missing their kayaking lesson. Neighbourhood Watch might be an option though, the man that runs that is a proper little Hitler and he’s never happier than when he’s got something to rage about. It might also distract him from his ongoing obsession with my wall.

Definitely report them to neighbourhood watch man!

Police might move them once if you can get hold of them in time, but council need to address the line markings to make it clear no-one can park in front of THEIR dropped curb because it obstructs YOUR driveway. All these people going on about 'you can park in front of your own dropped curb' are missing the point. We have a dropped curb - I can't park in front of it because it's double yellow lines. Contact the council parking team with photos and date stamps explaining the problem, and ask them to put double yellows there. It's no different from not parking opposite a t-junction being the highway code rule - but councils occasionally needing to paint double yellows there to assist people who are a bit harder of thinking about other people's perspective.

Write a note to neighbours telling them that's what you're going to do. If they want to retain the convenience of occasionally parking across their own drop curb on the 6 days a week it doesn't bother you, they need to engage with you to help during the one relevant afternoon. Otherwise they'll find they get parking tickets for having a car there on 7 days a week.

Perhaps given that alternative, they may be more willing to open the door and discuss like rational adults!