Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to want to park in my garage

140 replies

Poppets14 · 22/10/2021 19:12

My garage is on a corner so if my neighbour parks out side her garage - it blocks mine.
The parking round the back of mine is horrendous so I want to start using my garage to park my car.
If I do this this means that my neighbour can’t park outside hers as she’ll be blocking it- and possibly the neighbour next to her won’t be able to park outside her garage as it won’t give us enough space to get into our garage.

It’ll mean they’ll have to find somewhere else to park or park in their own garages.

Do I have a legal right to have access in and out of my garage?

I’ll probably ruffle a few feathers but the neighbours are so inconsiderate when it comes to parking

OP posts:
Original poster
Poppets14 · 23/10/2021 09:13

If we all parked at an angle there would be no problem- however one neighbour further down has refused

OP posts:
Original poster
Poppets14 · 23/10/2021 09:15

Yes my neighbour can refuse to park in her garage- she’ll have to park somewhere else.

Why should she have more right to her garage then us?

OP posts:
Indoctro · 23/10/2021 09:17

Why don't you just park in front of your garage.? And let her sort her parking out else where

Pottedpalm · 23/10/2021 09:19

@Indoctro

Why don't you just park in front of your garage.? And let her sort her parking out else where
Presumably when the OP went out in her car, the neighbour would put hers there. It would descend into a parking war.
DeepaBeesKit · 23/10/2021 09:21

If your deed says you have right of access to your garage they can't obstruct that access by blocking it with a parked car.

DeepaBeesKit · 23/10/2021 09:22

I'm not sure why anyone thinks that the other owners desire to park on land they don't own, trumps OPs right of access. They will have similar right of access robot their own garages but that doesnt constitute a right to park on the land continually and block others access.

OP you are in the right here.

Kiduknot · 23/10/2021 09:30

@OnlyCans

This thread is crazy.

Your neighbour has as much right as you to park there. Comments that she will have to find another place to park are unfair and entitled. You can't ask her to clear out her garage and park in it. That's none of your business. She obviously doesn't want to do that.

The ground is likely council owned and therefore you equally have a right to it.

Just say "I'd like to start parking in or in front of my garage, how are we going to work this?"

It's very rare people actually park in their garage and insurances add a premium if you do so because even those that do also store stuff in there that tends to fall on the car and causes a claim. I work in insurance so this is true. Some are kind enough to match it to driveway parking if you promise nothing else is in the garage.

I also think this thread is crazy - for the opposite reason to you.

Your neighbour has as much right as you to park there. I agree. But neither should be parking there. They will all have the same right to access their garage. It was never designed for parking.

Fetarabbit · 23/10/2021 09:32

I'm sure if you parked on the road where they park, in front of their garages they'd soon complain and cite not being able to access their garage as the reason!

RandomMess · 23/10/2021 09:36

You need to reclaim using your garage to park in whether you move or not otherwise buyers are going to see that access to the garage is blocked and there isn't enough parking.

Put a note up on your garage:

"Garage in use please do not access"

Tell your neighbour that due to not being able to get parked on the road anymore from now on you will be using the garage so she'll have to park elsewhere.

Then do it. If she doesn't keep the space clear then you will have to speak to her again.

You could also speak to the council if they own the land - is it tarmac - ask them to put yellow hatch lines down.

VanGoghsDog · 23/10/2021 11:50

@Poppets14

They do not own the land in front of their garages
It's similar where I live, in a slightly different way though.

We all have "drives". In the old days there were garages incorporated into the houses but most have now been converted so are just part of the house. Regardless, the drives would fit two cars behind each other.

But most people have blocked their driveways off with gates and made them into a sort of garden.

The bit of pavement we drive over to get into our drives is the width of a normal pavement and then the length of a car with a sort of verge - so tarmac in front of the drives, and grass between.

Nearly everyone in the street parks on that cars length bit of tarmac verge that belongs to the council and they only have a right of access over. Some park on the grass too (one three bed house has five cats, another house over the road have five cars, it's mayhem, I'm so thankful for my drive).

I don't, my drive is open and I park on it. I can't manage two cars because the person before me put a huge shed on the drive which I'm intending to take down, but it's ok because I don't have two cars and if someone comes to stay I park round the corner.

Obviously people parking on the verges here doesn't impact me, and luckily they didn't park on the grass near me (which would impact on my ability to turn in and out of my drive) because mine are the only bits with trees on, but it's the same principle, they have no right to do it. They should use their drives.

FatBettyintheCoop · 23/10/2021 12:10

What @DeepaBeesKit said.

If your deeds have granted you a ‘right of access’ that means they can’t block that access by parking there.

Could you ask the council to paint a yellow crosshatch box on the section of the road where they are currently parking?

Maybe send all the nearby neighbours a solicitors letter pointing out that they have no right to park and leave their vehicles unattended on that strip of land. They can only use it to access their own garages.

iwishiwasafish · 23/10/2021 12:12

It's very rare people actually park in their garage and insurances add a premium if you do so because even those that do also store stuff in there that tends to fall on the car and causes a claim. I work in insurance so this is true. Some are kind enough to match it to driveway parking if you promise nothing else is in the garage.

How very odd. In our last house the car insurance was slightly cheaper because we parked in the garage. I think the rationale was that a car was unlikely to be broken into or vandalised if it was protected in a garage (that being what garages were meant for).

Bluntness100 · 23/10/2021 12:47

@Poppets14

Our deeds say we have access to the garage - so would assume theirs would say the same?
How do you know what their deeds say in terms of their boundaries but not what it says about access?
bizarrustii · 23/10/2021 14:34

OP I posted an edited version of your aerial photo earlier, I'm not sure if you've seen it as you've not commented on it.
Anyway, you say yourself you have a VW Up size car, why can't you park as per the yellow car in my edited photo? Your photo would suggest there is space.
How is going to be easier to move house? Anyone who hasn't experienced neighbour issues is surely in the minority? Just park your car on an angle going forward and stuff the refusenik further down.

bizarrustii · 23/10/2021 14:35

From an outsider perspective, you're giving this far too much headspace.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page