New house - new neighbours - new parking woes

[PeeAche]

Moved into the house of our dreams this summer - but didn't realise parking would be such an issue.

We have a "driveway" that is wide enough to accommodate 3 cars. It is L shaped so 2 cars would be parked in a line and 1 car off to the side IYSWIM.

We don't have 3 cars though, we have 2. And we thought it would be perfect. But after we moved in, we realised that space 3 (the one off to the side) is impossible to get into, due to the narrow entry way into the drive.

Because spaces 1 & 2 are back to back, we only really get use out of 1 space.

The people that lived here before us were very elderly and housebound.

So the solution is to whip out the gate post and make it all wider at the front. Ideally we would also increase the dropped curb.

Parking on the road should be no issue. It's a tiny village with no shops, no school and no attractions. Just a line of houses and every single house has a drive - apart from the house opposite. The house opposite have 3 enormous cars and nowhere to put them. The road is narrow.

Their preference is to park them right outside our house - which would be no problem, except they hem us in on all sides. They park so that each end of their cars are overhanging our dropped curb by just a few mm. The third car, they park directly opposite our drive. It's not technically an illegal parking formation but it does mean that it's a 6-point-turn getting onto or off our own driveway. Every day. It's driving me batty!!!

I have tried having a friendly word and they just said "we've lived here for 22 years" and nothing else. No apology, explanation or owt. Just that. And then they walked away.

I realise this is a very small thing to be complaining about. But I am at my wits end after missing my own midwife appointment last week because they had totally blocked me in!

The other thing is (although the speed limit is 30), people average around 50mph on our road and I can't see round the tunnel of car they have created. It's like the riskiest creep-n-peep ever. And it's an almost daily occurrence that some vehicle is bombing it along and has to do an emergency stop because I'm sat in the middle of the road, trapped between 3 cars, doing my dodgy 6-point-turn 😅

If I call the council and show them how dangerous it all is, how likely is it that they will let me increase my dropped curb by another foot or so? Or apply some double yellows? Or am I in fantasy land? And would this be the biggest Dick Move ever to my neighbours - who would then have to shuffle along the street to the next spots?

We do try to nab at least 1 of the spots with 1 of our cars, if we can - and leave a good foot of space so that the driveway isn't all hemmed in. But we work full time and the cars are in constant use. Whereas our neighbours seem happy to leave theirs there for days on end. We can't both be parking on the street all the time as we have young kids to load in (and I'm preggers). Plus my car is electric so I need to be able to charge it.

Our house is quite wide so there are a total of road 3 spaces along our frontage. They could shuffle down a bit and not use the one that hems in our drive!

Oh, for the record, I drive a Golf so it's neither a big nor small car. DH drives something similar but not electric. I'm not trying to manoeuvre some angry tank!

So, the Q is:

AIBU to contact the council and try to get the curb lowered / permanently change the parking situation?

YANBU: This sounds fine and safe and your neighbours will get over it.
YABU: They've done this for 20 years and now you think you should shake it all up? It's just parking. Get a life. Etc.

Opinions from both sides welcome! I can submit diagrams if this helps... I have the day off.

If you are able to expand the dropped curb, think that might be the best solution. It will cost some. But resolve any future issues. In my area, if we apply to expand the dropped curb, we have to convert a certain percentage of our driveway into soft landscaping... so are actually losing parking spot. But you could start by applying for white I line across your driveway. Pretty sure they mark them on either side a certain distance from the dropped portion of the curb. Vehicles parked on either side must keep their tyres inside the white lines. So you could have a word with someone in the highways section of the council to get the measurements beforehand before applying for white line markings.

YANBU
I would apply to have the kerb lowered. However, I think they might still park there.

YANBU

Nothing useful to add, but I'm really interested as to why so many people are calling the kerb a curb. What's that all about?

@Funmum34

The problem also is that just because you have dropped the kerb doesn’t mean they won’t park there as it’s still public highway and you don’t own the road, if they’ve been parking there for 22 years they’re unlikely to stop otherwise when you spoke with them they would have been more accommodating & as it isn’t technically illegal to park over a dropped kerb just a nuisance then maybe you’re better off going to the council with safety concerns & see if they’ll double yellow it

Actually IS illegal to park over a dropped kerb.

Sounds like you have this in hand now with the council, and great that others have given good advice. It may be the best (and only) way to go. I do wonder whether it would be worth trying to have one more chat with them, maybe show them your diagram and mention whether removing the gatepost might help, want it to be safe for all, esp when baby comes along etc.. You never know - you might have just caught them in an off moment, and they've ended up defensive and given an off the cuff response (equally they might just be dreadful). After years of having bad neighbours, we've ones we can see eye to eye with now, and it has been beneficial for loads of reasons. However, if they are not prepared to be reasonable a second time, I would just push on with doing what you can.

I had a similar situation in that the combination of a car parked either side of my driveway plus a car opposite makes it very difficult to get out of my driveway. Then, to make matters worse, a woman who lived a few doors down started parking her car overlapping my driveway by a foot. At this point it was impossible to get out.

I went to speak to her and her response was unbelievable ('if the only place I can find to park my car overlaps your driveway, why shouldn't I? I have as much right to park my car as you'). She said I was patronising her when I then clearly explained that you can't in fact block someone in on their driveway regardless. It was fairly heated and I'm still proud of myself to this day for standing up to her I'm usually a doormat.

I'd speak to the neighbours and ask them not to cover the dropped kerb.

As pp suggested, another option is to start parking one of your cars on the street where they currently do. They might find somewhere else to park and get out of the habit of making your driveway inaccessible.

Park your cars across your drive and then you can just drive away - we have to do this when we start getting hemmed in

@Intheopinionofourexpert

Nothing useful to add, but I'm really interested as to why so many people are calling the kerb a curb. What's that all about?

In my case it’s because I live in both the UK and US and I have trouble remembering which spelling goes with which version of English, so you’ll see a mix of spellings in my posts, though I try to get it right. Other people may live in the US or Canada or just do a lot of reading of North American content and become so used to it they don’t notice.

The other advantage of a dropped kerb is that as its access to your property you can park across it. So if you can extend it wide enough for a car you gain an extra parking spot on the road that only you can use.

I believe if someone has blocked you in you can have their car towed, the police organise this round our end. If they block you out this is different

Lol @Funmum34 clearly missed the point about me missing an appointment because they'd totally blocked me in the other day. 😅

But, to be fair to fun mum, my approach to almost everything is "don't make a fuss" which is why I feel like such an unreasonable sod if I start messing with 22 years of ingrained parking practices! In a way, I agree with her. 😅

Um, today I learned it's kerb not curb. 😳 Next time the kids call me old, I'll politely explain that this dog is still learning new tricks, TYVM.

@Beamur

I'd ask to widen the dropped kerb all the way up to your path. That way you could use all your parking spaces. You could pull out more safely too.

I was going to say this too

I would park on the road on either side of the car they have parked outside their house thus blocking it in . Let them know how frustrating it can be not to be able to use the car when you need to .

I think it illegal to block a driveway.

@winnieanddaisy

I would park on the road on either side of the car they have parked outside their house thus blocking it in . Let them know how frustrating it can be not to be able to use the car when you need to .

Ah, I should explain, they have driveways either side of them. They have opted to not add one themselves - or maybe they were declined. Who knows what the history there is! They have a long front garden instead. So, they effectively put one car against the kerb where the opening to their driveway would be, if they had one.

If they had a drive, it would fit 2 cars - leaving just the auxiliary vehicle (their daughter's boyfriend) to park elsewhere. But, as I say, perhaps they were declined the opportunity to add one? Sometimes councils do say no.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

It’s odd that your neighbours are being so provocative about it when you’ve only been there a short time.

No, it isn't - they're deliberately setting out their demands from the outset. The one 'qualification' they have that OP cannot possibly have is how long they've lived there for, so that's the card they're playing. Not that it is a card to play - all they're doing is admitting that they've been able to get away with selfish parking for so long, because the previous residents didn't need full vehicle access to their house.

That said, though, if they were elderly and housebound, they very likely had numerous visitors - family, friends, delivery drivers, prescription drop-offs, doctors, carers, ambulances - who needed to at least park outside their house and would have found it much easier to be able to use their drive when visiting. Just because the old folk didn't drive themselves, their right to full use of their property was royally trampled on - for 22 years, as CF neighbours freely admit.

CFs routinely use the excuse that 'nobody stopped me before' as if it means that they've somehow acquired a right. Oddly enough, bullying vulnerable people for over two decades does not 'earn' you any actual rights. They should be deeply ashamed of themselves, not proud and entitled - but they sound like 'that kind' of people who simply couldn't care less about anybody else.

This is exactly the problem we had when we bought our home a few years ago. The elderly owners had died and the house was empty for years. We bought the house and THREE different neighbours had apparently been parking in my drive 'for decades' because the elderly couple didn't drive and then the house was empty so no one to challenge the neighbours. I bought the house partially because it had a large drive but I found out it doesn't matter how large your drive is if someone parks on your drive right in front of your car and then refuses to move!

Even after I bought the house and was clearly parking on my drive they would continue to use my drive. When I would challenge them and ask why they didn't park on their own drive the response was always 'because we've parked on this drive for decades'.

They didn't care that it was now my private drive, or that I wanted to use my drive every day, or that I was their new neighbour and it would be best to try to get on. The only way I could stop them parking in my drive was to park at the very end of my drive right near the footpath. Well that kicked them off something awful. After a few months one (adult son of one of the neighbours) eventually stopped and started parking in his parent's drive. The other two neighbours started parking across my drive, on the footpath right up against my car (like the top line of a 'T'). This has gone on for a few years now. They both have their own large drives but they absolutely refuse to park in them because they feel they have some sort of 'right' to park in mine and they HATE me because I am 'denying their right' to park in my drive.
When I once parked in the road to allow a plumber in my drive I was screamed at and then a note was left on my car because I am new and don't have a 'right' to park in the road (or my own drive apparently).

Some people like to make up silly rules that best suit them and then try to bully others into following their rules. Don't try to talk to them anymore OP, this is your house and your drive and you've paid a lot for it. No matter how nice, friendly or reasonable you try to be people like this will never change.
Talk to the council about how dangerous parking on the road is, send photos and videos, log every near miss, extend your dropped curb and focus on how you can make getting in and out of your own drive easier. Don't worry about this neighbour because nothing you do will satisfy them and you can't live your life worrying about these petty types.

Have you tried talking to the other neighbours to hear their views? Could this petty neighbour's parking be affecting anyone else?

@yellowsubmarines your story is absolutely awful! Parking ON your drive? Seriously? Ffs.

Our neighbours on the "hedgerow" side have had some issues with the same people and the parking. They have opted to leave a car permanently parked to one side of their driveway, leaving almost-but-not-quite a car length between said car and the entrance to their drive.

This means that the neighbours opposite now have to park further along the same stretch of pavement which is partly the reason they end up overhanging our drive, IYSWIM?

Looking at your diagram, I wondered if it is possible to reconfigure the front of your house?
Could you make the driveway entrance wider so you can use the full L-Shape driveway and move your gate to where your driveway is... change gate to a really wide one for cars.
I realise that this still involves a dropped kerb but it will make it more difficult for them to ignore the dropped kerb and continue to park their cars as they currently do.