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

to expect complete strangers to not abandon their car outside my house since Xmas eve?

104 replies

theexmrsbarryscott · 26/12/2007 11:46

This is beginning to drive me sightly mad, there has been a car parked outside our house since Xmas Eve. Abandoned by people who go to the pub at the rear of our house, this happens frequently on a Friday and Saturday night but am I being unreasonable to expect them to have a bit of respect and courtesy over Xmas and allow my visitors to be able to park outside our house?

We do have a very small bit of grass outside our front window and there's loads of parking just down the road so it's not as if there's absolutely nowhere to park at all.

OP posts:
southeastastra · 26/12/2007 11:49

it would annoy me. put a banana up his exhaust and blame revellers.

Original poster
theexmrsbarryscott · 26/12/2007 12:00

he he

OP posts:
purpleduck · 26/12/2007 12:01

apparently there is a website called "you park likean asshole" or something. I think you can print off things to post on their windscreens

bookofchristmascarolsmum · 26/12/2007 12:03

Better than them drinkdriving it home after going to the pub .

MaureenMLovesmincepies · 26/12/2007 12:06

YANBU at all, however there's not much you can do about it. They pay their taxes the same as you! I've got the same problem with my neigbours relatives. We have a shared driveway and they've been parked over the drop curb since Xmas Eve, makingit difficult to get our car off our drive. Trouble is, its not impossible to get off, just bloody hard work, so short of having a row with the neighbours, I've just fot to lump it!

LIZS · 26/12/2007 12:12

We used to live a few miles from a major airport and people woudl leave theirs for a couple of weeks

WideWebWitch · 26/12/2007 12:13

Sorry, if it's a public road then you have no say whatsoever and YABU IMO. How would they know it would annoy you? It's just a road to them presumably. If parking's really important to people then I think off street parking should be a consideration when buying or renting somewhere. I speak as one who has a drive and couldn't stand parking on the street again. When we buy, it'll have a drive.

niceglasses · 26/12/2007 12:14

Unreasonable, sorry. Pple do it all the time here - doesn't really bother me. Most of the time I can't get parked at all in my street. And have to park a wee bit away. Not a bigee surely.

they'll be back.

POOKAingwenceslaslookedout · 26/12/2007 12:16

YABU. It's a public road and they (presumably) have a taxed car. Nothing to stop them parking anywhere without parking restrictions.
We don't have a drive and sometimes I have to park over the road or a little way down the road (not much though, that's true).
But you have no rights over your frontage, and no doubt if you had lots of visitors, it's conceivable that they'd park in front of someone else's house. Just the way of the world I'm afraid.

foxinsocks · 26/12/2007 12:18

oh these threads are marvellous

This must be a not-living-in-a-big-city type of problem - round here, we'd be lucky to park in our street let alone have visitors park right outside the house!

Original poster
theexmrsbarryscott · 26/12/2007 12:19

I know it's better than drink-driving but the fact is a taxi would only have cost them £5 or so to get to this pub & they must have got a taxi home.

I have to put up with this week in week out and I know there's nothing I can do about it as it's a public road - it's just so maddening. I've politely asked people to move their cars before now if I see them park there when I'm expecting visitors and most people are fine about moving it 200 yards down the road but I have also had abuse as well.

OP posts:
niceglasses · 26/12/2007 12:20

Abuse isn't on, but really they don't have to move - the fact is they can park where they want. You can ask, and most would move, but they don't have to. And if there is nowhere else to park, sorry I would park there too!

Original poster
theexmrsbarryscott · 26/12/2007 12:22

A lot of you may think I'm being unreasonable which is why I came on here to find out other's points of view on it but they park outside my house out of sheer laziness, we live around a large green which has loads & loads of parking which isnt goint to disturb anyone else but they simply park outside my house as we live next to the pathway that leads to the pub.

OP posts:
WideWebWitch · 26/12/2007 12:24

I'd park there too if you were nearest to the pub! Sorry, public highway means just that imo.

POOKAingwenceslaslookedout · 26/12/2007 12:26

Why can't your visitors park around the green? Think you're lucky to have such a lot of on-street parking near to you TBH.

Original poster
theexmrsbarryscott · 26/12/2007 12:26

yes www, but would you leave your car outside my house from xmas eve to now (so far)

OP posts:
foxinsocks · 26/12/2007 12:27

lololol

I think you are fabulous MrsBarryScott.

I have a picture of you as that woman from To The Manor Born insisting no-one parks near your house and asking them to move and being outraged when they abuse you .

I can quite honestly say the only consideration I have when I park is whether I'm going to get a ticket or not and that's about it.

glastocat · 26/12/2007 12:29

YABU - I don't understand why it bothers you at all, you don't own the road after all.

WideWebWitch · 26/12/2007 12:31

Yes, I would! Sorry, it wouldn't really even occur to me that someone would be cross about it. Ditto re parking tickets etc. I have a drive at home, pay parking at a station every day and pay a meter if I go to the shops. It wouldn't cross my mind really to think about it if I was parking in a private road (i.e. public highway). I do know people get very excited about parking, whether it's work or home or in a hotel, I think it's one of those things that drive people mad.

MsSparklingXmasTree · 26/12/2007 12:31

I don't think it's laziness because of coarse your gonna park as near to your destination as possible. Your not going to park further away in case the stranger in the house gets funny with you for parking outside their house because chances our even if you did park further away, your gonna upset someone else by parking outside their house. So you can't win.

WideWebWitch · 26/12/2007 12:32

I appear to be contradicting myself there. What 'm trying to say is I know parking drives people mad and it does me too sometimes (i.e. arrive at stastion after 9am and can't park at all) but I think most people accept and realise that you don't own the road outside your house, or the parking on that road.

DontCallMeHun · 26/12/2007 12:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SantaBabyBeenAnAwfulGoodGirl · 26/12/2007 12:47

it wouldnt occur to me it was my business who parked on a public road...i live in town and its almost impossible to park on the street at all its just tough

yesterday cos of christmas it was deserted usually its rammed

i am amazed you actually ask people to move !

blueshoes · 26/12/2007 12:49

ExMrsBS, I can understand why you are annoyed. It would annoy me too. People do park their cars outside my house from Friday evening to Mon mornings because the parking restrictions do not extend over those hours. By Monday morning, I am keeping my beady eye out if those cars are still there ...

But there is nothing I can do and it is a battle not worth having IMO whilst they are perfectly within the law. Bear in mind that if there were parking restrictions around your house, you have to pay for that privilege with a residents' pass.

In your case, you say you live near a pub. I think when people buy near a pub, they do take into account the noise and disruption caused by parking and littering etc. It is reflected in the price. If I was driving to a pub, I would try to park as close as possible, if I could get the parking. Would never occur to me to notice the houses around it. Sorry.

bookofchristmascarolsmum · 26/12/2007 14:33

My car is often parked outside my neighbours house - in the bit he could probably claim is 'his' space since it is actually in front of his house. He's never asked me to move it yet - in the ten years I've owned a car! He just drives around to get on or off his drive (they have 2 cars, we have 3 in my house).

I have been accosted by people and asked to move my car if they're expecting a delivery or something similar but I think parking is first come, first served when it comes to parking on streets without residents permits.