Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

To wonder what is an acceptable time to be knocked awake if their car is blocking the way ...

59 replies

BlueEyesWhiteDragon · 13/02/2022 13:34

I'm in a bad mood today (one of my long term foster dogs has gone to his new home today) and so I'm in one of those I hate the world and all the people in it.

Chatting to one of the subbies this morning who also works with an arborist in the week and I was just generally moaning about people - see previous point about mood - and he tells me about a job they did.

Huge tree something like 100ft high needs reducing in height as dangerous. It's right by the road so the firm arranged a road closure. Signs up a week ago. Road closure people turn up on the morning to put up temp traffic lights and whatnot and someone has parked directly under the tree. They find out owners details and about 7.30/8am ask him to move so they can commence work and he refuses because its too early in the morning and tells them to come back later on and ask him to move it or to just work around it ...

He moved it about 90 mins later I think but why would you be such a plonker in the first place? The mood I'm in I'd have just dropped the tree on his car .....

I'm then ranting about the inconsiderate nature of this chap to another friend and she in an absolute shock twist says she thinks he's right. You can't go knocking on people's doors early in the morning. This causes a argument spirited debate between the 2 of us about an acceptable time to be knocked up.

Obviously it's all irrelevant as it's affected neither of us but we won't back down about acceptable knock up times and thus we have agreed to abide my MNs decision on who is unreasonable clearly not me

OP posts:

AnotherMansCause · 13/02/2022 14:27

@Badbaddog - you can change your vote if you press the wrong button.

GnomeDePlume · 13/02/2022 14:29

Wouldnt have seemed too early to me. But we are an early household (DH starts work at 6am) so would already have been up some time.

GracieLouFreeebush · 13/02/2022 14:30

I knock my neighbour awake at least twice a week at 5am because her son has blocked me in on my drive. She does mad about the time every week but doesn’t seem to have made the link as to how to avoid it. She’s even offered me the keys to move it for her - if it wasn’t for the fact I’m not insured to drive his car I would take her up on it and forget where I’ve left it!

HunterHearstHelmsley · 13/02/2022 14:30

Any time is acceptable when you've had that much advance warning.

My neighbour has blocked me in in the past. She's then kicked off that I've woken her at 5am as I need to get my car out. If you don't want to get woken early don't park like a cunt.

affairsofdragons · 13/02/2022 14:30

He was being a twat. People like this cost the rest of us money (our taxes) while the workers have to sit around twiddling their thumbs waiting for them to move their vehicles so they can do the job. Shame they didn't just have him towed.

HaveringWavering · 13/02/2022 14:32

What’s a subby?

He was being unreasonable. Especially in view of the update- surely it’s illegal to park right up in the pavement at any time?

SamMil · 13/02/2022 14:35

I don't think he was necessarily being unreasonable with the parking, without knowing all of the details (he'd moved it off the road and maybe didn't have anywhere else to leave it).

But of course he was being extremely unreasonable for refusing to move it when they knocked!

CleansUpButWouldPreferNotTo · 13/02/2022 14:36

Paid the council a fortune - several hundred pounds - to have three parking bays suspended outside the house for 6 hours on moving day. Signs went up a week before detailing date and times, with tow warning. Come 8am moving day, the moving truck arrives, cars parked in suspended bays. Wardens and tow truck arrive at 8.05 and suddenly road is filled with screams and shouts as neighbour realise their cars are ticketed and being towed. One even turned and shook his fist towards my house.

I just watched from inside. The movers told me this often happens that's why they get their customers to pay for a longer slot than they actually need. Those neighbours cost me money - I'm glad it cost them too. Fortunately ex-neighbours, and i've got my own private driveway now.

jytdtysrht · 13/02/2022 14:36

YANBU what an utter prick. Deserved the tree to fall on his car.

FantasticFebruary · 13/02/2022 14:39

The bloke is an inconsiderate, ridiculous fuckwith!! The notices did not say, please park on the pavement!

If I'd been the contractors it would have been more a case of 'you're parked illegally, you've been told the riad is closed, you're in our way, if you don't move your car NOW, we take no responsibility if large chunks of tree land on it - your choice, but we will not be asking again'

@BlueEyesWhiteDragon. Sorry to hear about your foster dog, I hope they stay in touch & let you know how it gets on. It's a great thing you do xx

AlannaOfTrebond · 13/02/2022 14:46

I totally agree that it was not too early as he had had ample warning.

However, I disagree with the amount of posters stating that "most" people are up and about by 7 or 7.30 on a week day.

In my social circle people only about half would be up at that time unless they had kids and most of my friends don't or their kids have left home. We're a mixture of work from home, self employed or hospitality workers.

EveningOverRooftops · 13/02/2022 14:50

Anything that is a risk to the safety of others, their isn’t ever an unreasonable time to knock and ask them to move the car.

Asking someone to move for a safety reason that was pre planned and notified. He’s a fuckwit and I’d have set the wood Chipper to fling its waste over his car.

whynotwhatknot · 13/02/2022 14:53

if it says dont park it doesnt mean move it to the pavement

hes a dick

Picklesbaby · 13/02/2022 14:55

@HaveringWavering I’m guessing a sub-contractor

Yanbu,People are just idiots .My dh fits fibre and they leave notes saying cars will be towed . Man tried to complain to the company they had contract with once that his brand new Audi was covered in dust . After they had knocked on and suggested he move it and he refused . Agent came to site and gave him a tenner for car wash!!
They told a man that pulled up they needed to access a box underground where he had just parked, he shrugged and walked off , so they pushed it into the road.

Staffy1 · 13/02/2022 14:59

If they are blocking someone in or parked somewhere they shouldn’t be, knocking as soon as they were discovered is fine, whatever the time is.

WeirdlyKind · 13/02/2022 15:00

@HaveringWavering

What’s a subby?

He was being unreasonable. Especially in view of the update- surely it’s illegal to park right up in the pavement at any time?

Sub contractor I'm guessing.

7-8am is too early for me, because I work some really odd hours but my car is on my drive and in no one's way.

Also can't really blame the dude for parking if he wasn't told about the tree work. Should have moved it though.

FortniteBoysMum · 13/02/2022 15:05

The bloke was a twat. If you need to move your car then you do so. He could go back to bed after it would take him a minute or 2 tops. We have an inconsiderate arse on our street who always parks like a cunt. So many neighbours have put notes on his car because you can't get past the way he parks always directly opposite another car so it's really narrow. We all pointed out that if the emergency services need to get through they can't. Sure enough a fire engine came up in the early hours around Christmas due to a house fire. They couldn't back out to go round because the road is full of bends, so they bumped his car slightly.

SeaToSki · 13/02/2022 15:14

Well he assumed wrong didnt he

What a plonker reading signs that the road is going to be closed and thinking …. Oh, I know, if I park on the pavement then it wont matter

I cant believe they said ok mate you go back to bed and have your lovely lie in, and didnt just laugh and tow the car.

SierraHotelIndiaTango · 13/02/2022 15:17

Where I lived a whilst ago I parked in my road where you needed a parking permit , which I had , I however didn't see the parking area closed sign they had put up on the lampposts , for a removals company ,the parking warden phoned my and asked me to move so I did immediately, I apologised I hadn't seen to parking restriction notice and he's was kind to me but said had they not been able to get in contact they could have had my car towed away

Monmon28 · 13/02/2022 15:33

Someone once blocked me in at a relatives house (whose a 20 minute drive away), I knocked on there door at 3am to get them to unblock me.
I think if you're blocked in, particularly in this situation you've mentioned anytime is fair game

Laiste · 13/02/2022 15:38

They had loads of warning so can't complain.

Where i used to live a similar thing happened on our st in west london. The council wanted to do the road and put a board up saying shift your cars by Wednesday, basically. One person ignored it and they did the road anyway. This (white) car was covered in splashes of tar i was secretly happy

Blogblogblogblog · 13/02/2022 15:42

I got woken up on a Sunday 7am by someone dressed like Hyacinth Bucket pushing past me for ‘the Bible interpretation class’. I told her I was atheist and this was no. 7a not 7 (who I knew had crosses in their house) and she told me this was no.7.
I stood looking at her, in my tshirt, thinking wtf until she realised the hall and living room were quiet then she swivelled round, shouting that our house number was wrong (it wasn’t) and we better fix it, and trotted off to next door. Dh didn’t believe me when I came back up to bed.

Upset65799 · 13/02/2022 15:44

Given the circumstances, 6am wouldn't have been too early.

giveyou2reasons · 13/02/2022 15:54

Your friend is wrong.

Assuming they didn't shout at him to move his car, he was ridiculous to refuse. It was 7:30/8, not 5 in the morning. Even at 5, I'd have grumbled, but I'd probably still have moved right away. He may not have known that parking there would cause a problem, but his wish to sleep undisturbed isn't a good enough reason to hold everyone up for 90 minutes! Besides, surely once you've answered the door, you're already awake. Just pull on some clothes, move the car, and get back into bed! (Or get up a bit earlier than planned. It's hardly a tragedy to lose an hour of sleep as a one-off.)

RedToothBrush · 13/02/2022 15:56

In these circumstances the appropriate time to move your car is whenever you are informed you have ignored the warning.

If you ignore the warning, you were given, then I do think work should just commence and to hell with it if your car ends up damaged.

Flip

1 2 3