car parked outside my house for weeks

[Ceci03]

I know I know, there's nothing that can be done, it's a so-called public road, although it's a very small little cul de sac estate. It's right outside my house, where I would park. There are 3 spaces. this car is in the one nearest to me. I live beside a school so it's manic twice a day and I often cant get a space when I get back from dropping ds so end up parking round the corner then moving my car when it calms down again. He's taking up a precious space for school mums too. Just having a moan I suppose. I checked and it is taxed so police wont do anything. I just wouldnt have the nerve to park right outside someone's house for weeks on end. Apparently he lives round the corner and it's been going on for years. Different neighbours have asked him not to but he's said h'es not breaking any laws. Trouble is there are only 3 spaces, and the rest of the cul de sac is no parking 8-9.30 and 3-5pm so if you have a workman in, or visitors there's one less spare space for them.

@Ceci03

yeah I think some people just like to be obtuse. I don't think anyone would enjoy having a random car parked outside their house for weeks on end. It's months at this stage, if I added it altogether for past 18 mths. Like I said, there are 3 spaces 'free to use', and he's always had the decency to not park directly outside, but this time he has. I appreciate that I don't own the space outside my house. I still think he is a CF for using the one right at my driveway.

Anyway, agree to disagree I guess. Horses for courses and all that

I genuinely wouldn't care and I am baffled at how so many of you apparently do.

I haven't been able to park on my street for weeks because there are 48 houses and space for about 30 cars and the town centre with no free parking a short walk away. It hasn't crossed my mind to be arsed, because... well, I don't live somewhere with a drive and there is more demand round here for parking than there are spaces, so... obviously?

It might not be illegal but it does make you a CF.

Oh come ON! 😂

It's not cheeky to park in a legal space on the road.

Is it cheeky to park in the space closest to the machine in a carpark, even though it might be inconvenient for someone else who doesn't want to walk further? Is it cheeky to park outside a business you're visiting, even though another patron might want to use that space?

Being cheeky implies asking for something more than you are entitled to. As everyone is equally entitled to a parking space (assuming it's not private or a space reserved for disabled people/parent &child and marked as such), he's no more being cheeky than taking the last cheese sandwich in Gregg's even though Bill in the office round the corner usually has a cheese sandwich and hasn't gone on his lunch yet.

in some london boroughs, with new residential developments, planning permission is only given with the proviso that residents will never be entitled to buy a resident's parking permit.
so basically, if they live there, they cannot keep a vehicle in the borough, unless they want to pay someone else for off-street parking/ private garage. or park it several miles away.
which is unlikley, as these are usually small flats, not aimed at wealthy people, who would have big houses/flats with off street parking.

i think it is shocking that people are suggesting that OP do something to vandalise the car parked outside her house. on the public highway.
is this the level of lawlessness and self-importance, entitlement, that we have sunk to ?

If parking is a big problem on your street you can ask the council to consider introducing resident parking permits. I don't know a lot about it, just that people on my mum's street applied after a new hospital was built nearby. Overnight there seemed to be bumper to bumper cars down both sides of the street. Might not be a solution for you but possibly worth a look into?

If this bloke with multiple cars lives around the corner from the OP he will probably be in the same residents’ parking zone anyway. So the OP has the same problem, except she now has to pay for permits too.

Fair enough. I thought they might do them for individual streets possibly.

This thread has inspired me to go and check my car. It's been outside of a stranger's house 2 streets away and has been parked there for almost a week now. Glad to see it hasn't been keyed or seeded, obviously no Mumsnetters nearby (or at least, only the nicer ones!).
PHEW!

@scarpa

It might not be illegal but it does make you a CF.

Oh come ON! 😂

It's not cheeky to park in a legal space on the road.

Is it cheeky to park in the space closest to the machine in a carpark, even though it might be inconvenient for someone else who doesn't want to walk further? Is it cheeky to park outside a business you're visiting, even though another patron might want to use that space?

Being cheeky implies asking for something more than you are entitled to. As everyone is equally entitled to a parking space (assuming it's not private or a space reserved for disabled people/parent &child and marked as such), he's no more being cheeky than taking the last cheese sandwich in Gregg's even though Bill in the office round the corner usually has a cheese sandwich and hasn't gone on his lunch yet.

I think it is cheeky to park outside someone else's house for weeks/months on end. If you know you will not be moving that car for a while you know that you are making it awkward for someone.

It might be perfectly legal and you have every right to park there but, in my opinion, that makes you cheeky and inconsiderate. It's something I would actively avoid doing -and have avoided doing in fact.

Exactly. If you park your car on a public space and then don’t move it for months on end then everyone is not equally entitled to it - that car owner is taking away everyone else’s entitlement to use that public space and taking it for their own private use. No-one else has anything more than a 1 in 100 (or less) chance of using it.

To use the sandwich analogy, it’s like an employer providing a tray of sandwiches for their employees lunches, the same one employee getting to the plate of sandwiches first every day because his lunch break is at 12 and everyone else gets theirs later because of their shift pattern, and every day that one person eating all the sandwiches before anyone else gets one. Technically it’s first come, first served - but after months of not actually getting one of those free sandwiches everyone is apparently entitled to the staff would be so pissed off they’d lie in wait for him and kill him slowly.

@SkinnyMirror - I’d suggest the CFs are actually the people who think they own the road outside their house.

[quote Doris86]@SkinnyMirror - I’d suggest the CFs are actually the people who think they own the road outside their house.[/quote]
I don't think I own the road outside my house.
I hate inconsiderate people though, and what the OP is describing is inconsiderate.

It's not illegal and of course they have the right to do it, but it doesn't mean it isn't selfish 🤷🏼‍♀️

I think it is cheeky to park outside someone else's house for weeks/months on end. If you know you will not be moving that car for a while you know that you are making it awkward for someone.

It might be perfectly legal and you have every right to park there but, in my opinion, that makes you cheeky and inconsiderate. It's something I would actively avoid doing -and have avoided doing in fact.

You're not 'making it awkward' for anybody at all. Just because they have a favoured space on the public road that you also wanted - and you happened to get there first. If you don't have private parking (or aren't nearby to be able to use it), your car - like theirs - will have to be left somewhere on the public road when it isn't in motion, so why not there?

If somebody doesn't prioritise or can't afford a home with private parking, they need to understand that it really is an equal entitlement for anybody with a legal vehicle. I think you'd be hard pushed to find somebody who has travelled afar and decided to occupy that space for no other reason than to annoy you. It's a convenient space for you, but you'll also find it's a convenient space for them too.

As for those who live near an airport/major station/big shopping centre, I'm sure you would prefer to have the premium spaces that happen to be nearest to your homes left available for you rather than for non-locals - but why criticise them for 'being too mean' to pay to use a public car park when you could equally pay to use that same car park? You have far more regular opportunity than they do to grab and keep that space and thus enable you to benefit from free, convenient parking for the nearby amenity than they will. Surely you realise that, if you choose to buy/rent a house within easy reach of a very popular amenity, it will be.... popular?

Be dispassionate about it: there is a public road which offers free, convenient parking for the nearby airport/station/shopping centre/whatever. Why should you have any more right to it, just by virtue of having bought/rented a house on that street, than anybody else who also finds it convenient?

If you'd bought somewhere in the absolute middle of nowhere, you'd never have any competition for parking - but you also wouldn't have the convenience of the popular amenities close by.

To use the sandwich analogy, it’s like an employer providing a tray of sandwiches for their employees lunches, the same one employee getting to the plate of sandwiches first every day because his lunch break is at 12 and everyone else gets theirs later because of their shift pattern, and every day that one person eating all the sandwiches before anyone else gets one. Technically it’s first come, first served - but after months of not actually getting one of those free sandwiches everyone is apparently entitled to the staff would be so pissed off they’d lie in wait for him and kill him slowly.

How is that analogous? Somebody competing with you for a single space that you both want can only take one space for their vehicle - which can then not be parked anywhere else, thus all those other spaces remain available for everybody else.

If your colleague is getting the pick of his fair share of the sandwiches, that's completely different from him hogging the entire lot of them and leaving the rest of you with none at all. Especially if, as with the parking, you could have staked your own claim to your favourites and reserved them in advance - but instead chose not to restrict yourself.

I was referring to @scarpa's post.