Parking one! Pic included. Am I being petty?

[Larafromthe80s]

We have a drive which can fit 2 cars 1 infront of the other and a space on the road outside our house.
Next door have the exact same.
Both houses have 2 cars and neither of us double park on the drive unless someone random has used our road spot. We never take each others road spot out of courtesy.

Anyway a few weeks ago a family moved in on the street next to us, they have 3 cars. They also have 2 spaces on their drive but only use 1, then their other cars keep parking outside ours and our neighbours houses.
It wouldnt be such an issue but my husband's job means he's often called out to work throughout the night so we dont like playing car jenga, hence the fact for 7 years hes always parked on the street outside our house.
Anyway today the son's been parked there, hes gone out tonight so I've moved my car into the spot so my husband can have our drive when home.
However the family have just literally came and stood outside my house smirking and shaking their heads and now I'm really worried I've started a war but also conscious that I may have been really petty!
AIBU to be getting annoyed by this?

It's a public space, first come, first served. You can use it, they can also use it, neither of you is more right than the other.

[quote LookItsMeAgain]@Hshuznw - Well yes, except OP seems to see it as hers and set out to reclaim it.

This particular space is located directly outside the OP's home and not outside this particular neighbour's home too, right?

Why wouldn't the OP think that she would have more of a claim to use it (with it being right out side her home) than someone else who has to walk a distance to this space from their home. I realise that it is a public space but 9 times out of 10 most people in a neighbourhood would think "That must be a space that House number 4 or 6 can use only" based on where it is located.[/quote]
So where is the person without a driveway meant to park, if walking a short distance to a space means they have less of a right to park there…

If that is the case, the 90% of people are cheeky and selfish…and I highly doubt that’s the case.

I'm also enjoying the fact that OP's DH has parked on the road for 7 years so isn't using their drive either, but the family who are doing the same thing are apparently in the wrong

Presumably they don't have space on the road outside their house or they would use that, just like your DH has been doing. So they just park elsewhere on a public road, which is what DH has been doing. The fact he's been doing it for 7 years is nothing to do with them. It doesn't entitle him to that space any more than then.

@milkyaqua

They are fuckwits. They feel entitled to the space out front of your house, and yet all the mad posters on this thread are busy defending them and saying you have no right to feel entitled to the space in front of your house.

Oh yes, those fuckwits who dare park on the public road that no one has more right than anyone else to use. As opposed to the OP, who thinks the space on the public road outside of her house is her parking spot...

You're a bit like a German with their towel around the pool in my opinion!

😂

If hubby needs to get out regularly then I would just routinely use the space on the road sand ge use the drive. They’re doing the same so if it’s good enough for then… but as a public space you unfortunately don’t have any more rights to it than they do and it sounds like they have no where else to park as if they have 3 cars they still need 1 road space at least

Can you and hubby not just swap cars depending on who is parked at the front? I"m assuming you're both insured on both.

Thing is, they won’t know a thing about your dh’s job…to all appearances you drove off your actual driveway where you were already parked, simply to lay claim to the public space. That’s why they were shaking their heads.

(So you are both parked on your 'two car drive' and the road space is not an issue).

The road would be , first come first served . Unfortunately you don't own the space, if it's free park on it if not I'm afraid it's bad luck.

I live in a village with very limited parking (restricted for part of the year too). I have no parking space. I have to park about a 5 minute walk away, outside someone else’s house.

On road parking is for anyone who pays their road tax.

No point getting upset about it. If car jenga is too annoying then park further down your street/on an adjacent one.

@Larafromthe80s

They were walking their dog, the 3 of them plus younger dc. I can only assume that the son had popped out, came back to see I'd moved my car and gone home and told his family. I was upstairs and saw them walking down the street and he was pointing at my car. The mum then pointed as I guess she saw me upstairs and started shaking her head and the dad did too. I've never see them take a family outing to walk their dog so can only assume it was done intentionally as they then stopped dead outside my house and looked back and forth from the road to my house for about 30 seconds. Then walked back in the same direction they came from.

They're pathetic if they are walking round to your home just to check where your car is and also have they never been taught its rude to point. I personally wouldn't park infront of someone's house regularly, as a one off if you don't know the area and just running an errand fine but they live close and clearly know you park there sometimes and i'm sure there will have been tim

Public road anyone can park on it. If they are that simple, make sure you photograph your car. They might also be the type to key it...

It’s not your spot. But tbh, first come first parked.

Car jenga it’s likely to be.

They probably aren’t impressed you aren’t using your tight two car driveway, but whatever.

Oops pressed send by accident.
As i was saying i'm sure there would have been times they've tried to park there and either yours or DH cars have been there so they've had to park elsewhere. I'd find their behaviour odd and rude and i would have done exactly the same as you and moved my car to that spot so my DH had the driveway to put his car on. Not petty at all, you're just doing what suits you as most people do. I'd make sure you or DH park outside the house before using the drive when only one of you is home.

Why wouldn't the OP think that she would have more of a claim to use it (with it being right out side her home) than someone else who has to walk a distance to this space from their home. I realise that it is a public space but 9 times out of 10 most people in a neighbourhood would think "That must be a space that House number 4 or 6 can use only" based on where it is located.

I would dearly love to understand exactly what it is that makes adults genuinely believe that, just because something is convenient for you or you want it, that makes it rightly yours. A toddler, I could understand - but adults?? Does anybody have any psychological insight into this?

How do people seriously reconcile the fact that, unlike a private drive, a piece of public road is available for anybody to drive over, but only one random householder is allowed to park there. That, if any repairs are needed to that space, or compensation payable to people who suffer injury or vehicle damage because of poor maintenance, that's the responsibility of the council - and yet it still only supposedly belongs to one household to enjoy the use of?

What about people who live on roads with double yellow lines along their whole length - if the council provide a free dedicated adjacent parking space for every household, where is theirs?

People who don't have cars (or those apparently very rare people who have drives and actually use them) - should they get a discount on their council tax in lieu of their 'free space' that they can't use or don't need? Or can they reserve the spot on the road outside their house with nobody else allowed to park there - even if it remains empty at all times?

Is somebody who believes this willing to come on and actually state - giving their reasons - why they genuinely feel that this random space on the public road that just happens to be close to their own property is somehow ringfenced for their exclusive use?

How do these people's brains actually work? I'd love to know!

@Bingbangbongbash

It’s not your road spot, it’s a space on a public road. If there’s a car in it and your husband needs to park on the road, is there not a different one he can use? Or, heaven forfend, use your car if he’s called away unexpectedly and yours is easier to get off the drive?

I guess you are that neighbour

Of course neither of you have any more right than the other to the space. However annoying it seems to them that you have a driveway and aren’t using it. Just as irritating that they don’t even live on your road yet are parking on yours. Annoying yet not illegal. Our driveway is only one space and my husbands a terrible Parker but fortunately aside from the odd random person parking here and there, we generally get the same space each time. If your driveway takes two cars and you can park at the end of it, why not do this? Or if possible I’d convert the patch of garden in-between to extra driveway, therefore no one would be allowed to park across if you were on it, blocking you in. Either way, both of you are legally able to park there. Tbh if it were me I’d have gone out and asked if there was a problem. I’m not confrontation it they have no more right to the space than you do.

Sadly we don't own the parking in the street outside our houses it is a public road. Out neighbours think theuly own the road outside their house and get very petty when some one parks there. And even though they have a drive they park their cars in the street so noeone else can. It is petty, first come first served. If your husband is on call need to make sure his car is in the correct space, it is a pain. We are the same. But that is life I am afraid.

It's not your space or anyone else's

You've been lucky until now.

Its tough. Annoying but tough

Yanbu, you did well to do this now.

The longer you leave it, the more they feel that they own that spot, when really it belongs to no one.

If they say anything, don’t be a pushover.

@obstacalling

It's not your space or anyone else's

You've been lucky until now.

Its tough. Annoying but tough

Well actually, OP was lucky tonight. And may she be continue to be lucky.

Like most other folks say - you pay your raid duty/tax, and it’s a public road, then you or anyone else can park there. Can you not just suck that up, and understand that you don’t own that part of the road?

So, at my parent’s, it’s mainly on street parking. They’ve made part of their garden into a drive, and they get one car, and their campervan on it. When any of us visit, we just have to park where we can. The only place we don’t park is right outside their neighbours, as they have baby twins, ans a toddler, and their mum is often wrangling all three in/out of the car. But that’s because we’re not dicks. Otherwise it’s fair game.

Get your dropped curb extended so you can park two cars side by side off the road. Problem solved.

Until you do that you are unprotected from people parking on the public road, sorry.

Pain yes but it’s up to you to change things.

I think that when the space belongs to no one, it’s first come first served…so if you moved your car into it when neighbour moved, so be it. You have as much right to park there as they do.
So they came to see you moved your car? So what. Not their space either. Forget about it.