AIBU to park my car here?

[Ravenclawsome]

We moved into our current house a couple of years ago.

The set up is quite strange in that for some houses our drives are "split", with the public footpath in between.

This is not the case for houses that front straight onto the road, but only for those of us with landscaping areas between the house and the road.

We have a main drive, then the public footpath, then a bit that runs through the bushes to allow vehicular access to the road.

In all cases these extra sections are on the deeds as owned, rather than a ROW and some people pave them to match the rest of their drive.
Ours is not paved (just the original tarmac with edging blocks) and is wide enough to easily fit a car, though we don't usually park there.

We live on a corner so cars cannot be parked on the road outside without it being dangerous.

It quickly became apparent after we moved in that our lower drive is used as a shortcut by pedestrians coming from a footpath opposite. We have no problem with this.

They cross the road at a diagonal and cross the drive to the footpath as it's a shorter route and wider pavement than the other side.

This is all for background. But my AIBU is this.

We have had a major leak in the bathroom. The entire thing has to be ripped out, dried and redone.

The insurance company has provided a massive mobile bathroom for us.

But it's on the main drive and I cannot fit my car on there too.
So for the past couple of weeks (and for the foreseeable future) I have been parking on the lower drive. The car fits entirely on our owned section between the bushes and is not impeding the public footpath between the two sections.

This means pedestrians cannot currently use it as a shortcut and I've had a fair few people make nasty comments and complaints about how I shouldn't block the "path" - essentially they've come to think of that section as a public path.

So am I being the unreasonable one here?

Diagram included as it's parking thread law.

You own it, you park there

@Floralnomad

Are you allowed to block off the other end with a hedge or a row of pots as that will make it a clear demarcation for the future whether you are parked there or not .

I wouldn't be able to access the main drive in future if I did that. I normally park at the side of the house

You’re totally within your rights to park there. My only concern would be that people perceive it as a public path. I overhung a friends drive once and ended up getting my car keyed and a note on the windscreen. To be fair, I could have parked better and I wasn’t in the right but I would be cautious about doing it again or in your situation as it cost hundreds at the body shop.

Do you own the grasses parts in between as well? If so I'd put up a little sign "private property no trespassing permitted"

It's a common layout near where I used to live and when buying/selling you had to be careful as some belonged to the house and somewhere just ROW - completely confusing!

That's a crappy design that is bound to cause some grumble bums to complain! I'd say park away on your own land and leave the pathway clear still but just put the disgruntled people right with their nonsense.
I'd also personally put gates up but that's just me 😉

Where is the correct access to the footpath? Might be worth a sign to point people in the right direction
But absolutely park there

@Ravenclawsome sorry didn’t think about that , how about retractable bollards or a sign at the bottom which says private drive no right of way . What would be the insurance implications if you were backing off your top drive and ran into a child walking across your lower drive ?

[quote Floralnomad]@Ravenclawsome sorry didn’t think about that , how about retractable bollards or a sign at the bottom which says private drive no right of way . What would be the insurance implications if you were backing off your top drive and ran into a child walking across your lower drive ?[/quote]
I have to look out for them anyway due to the footpath.

It's a PITA to be Frank but has never cause real issues until now.

I am worried about my car being keyed but I have no where else to park.

There's a couple of lay-bys meant for extra cars but there's a couple of houses with about six cars that treat those as a private extension of their driveways so that's not an option.

The bushes are up to the edge of the drive and waist high. I suspect a small sign would be ignored/ripped out anyway.

I suspect some pedestrians do not realise it IS your driveway and not a rather large dropped kerb.

If there aren't any dropped kerbs other than these split driveways it could be a bit of a pain in the rear for someone in a wheelchair to access the footpath when crossing the road, but that's not your fault its the fault of the planners that designed it!

I'd park there in your situation.

How would pedestrians get from the side path on the opposite side of the road to the footpath that's on your side of the road if they didn't use someone's driveway? Not saying that the pedestrians are wrong or that you're not able to park on the section that you've parked on but they must be using someone's driveway to do this, right??? If not yours then someone else's.

It's a PITA to be Frank

Don't be Frank, be yourself.

IMO it's a poorly designed estate that does this.

Is there a pavement on the other side where the side path is?

If there isn't, that's properly awful design and I'm not surprised people assume the extra bit of drive is for public use.

YANBU. If someone has a go explain it's your land and that should be enough.

If you're worried about your car being keyed get a sign saying 'this drive private property CCTV in operation'.

I would put a sign there saying private driveway, no public right of way.

Just so that people know they're the ones being CFs not you!

How sturdy are your bushes? Would they be able to hold a length of light plastic chain with clips on the end to clip on to a branch? If they could, put behind your car with a sign saying private driveway. Yes you'd need to unclip to get out, but it would make it clear pretty much immediately and stop pedestrian access.

Actually @Ravenclawsome - I would make sure that the bushes don't encroach on your land by installing some fences/chicken wire to keep them back off your driveway, kind of box them in.
Trim the bushes back to the fence every time you see them poking through. Then you can hang a sign from the fence saying that it's a private driveway - no public right of way.

@LookItsMeAgain

How would pedestrians get from the side path on the opposite side of the road to the footpath that's on your side of the road if they didn't use someone's driveway? Not saying that the pedestrians are wrong or that you're not able to park on the section that you've parked on but they must be using someone's driveway to do this, right??? If not yours then someone else's.

They'd have to go up the narrow path and cross further up where the footpath is directly next to the road

They'd have to go up the narrow path and cross further up where the footpath is directly next to the road
Ohhhh - that’s not clear on the diagram, which is otherwise exemplary. Sign at the end of your driveway with an arrow and a “direct footpath access from pavement 20 yards this way”? Even a pic in a laminated pocket to make it really obvious for the hard of thinking, that there is an option other than skirting your car.

Not unreasonable at all.
I can see why they think it is a public path though, it is an strange set up.

If you're worried about damage stick an a4 note in your car window saying "I'm parked on my driveway"

Is it pedestrians generally complaining or a neighbour?

If it was pedestrians who didn’t realise then I’d ignore it. If it was a neighbour, who’ll know because of the same set up with their drive, I’d use that part of your drive regularly to get them out of the assumption that it’s their access

Not unreasonable at all.

I'd think about getting a locked gate if I were you.

Not the point I know, but I had no idea you could get mobile bathrooms to hire! We struggled when we had ours redone as no other loo or facilities in the house. Does it have a shower as well?