Neighbour knocked on our door and had a go...

[Daisycat76]

Not sure what to think of this.... DP and I moved into a new neighbourhood a few weeks ago. It's a fairly affluent area, detached houses etc. Anyway we had visitors over the weekend staying for 2 days, and DP wanted to move our car so the visitors could park on the drive. He parked the car on the street opposite. Wasn't blocking anyone's drive, or parked in an illegal or obstructive way. He parked it there Friday lunch time.

Saturday evening neighbour we've never met came knocking on the door, and without introducing himself just started having a go at us for parking our car there. He didn't ask us to move it or explain why it bothered him - just immediately started ranting that we're "disrespecting our neighbours" and "we don't give a s*". We said we haven't done anything wrong, it's legal to park on any road as long as it's not blocking a driveway. He accepted it's not illegal but it's not acceptable anyway. Said we "should have realized" it would upset him!!

DP then said sorry I'll move it, I didn't mean to upset you and we'd like to keep good relations with you. The guy just kept having a go, and eventually went "well you have upset me, welcome to the neighbourhood" and stormed off.

I'm not being unreasonable here, right? Would you go and have a go at your neighbours for parking a car outside your house for a couple of days?? I keep overthinking it, is it rude to park outside someone's house?

This is like deja vu for me. I parked. My car opposite the house on the Friday we moved in until Monday morning when I went to work. When I got back, I parked in the same spot and the neighbour whose house I parked in front of came running out of the house with a “welcome to the neighbourhood” That’s nice I thought, until she followed up with, “by the way that’s where I park my car, I’ve had to park all the way over there’ (literally 2 spaces away). Instead of just moving her car, she waited until I got back to give me her passive aggressive welcome speech. From then on it was like a scene out of Bread with the two neighbours opposite moving their cars every time one of them went out to make sure no-one could park in front of their houses. To this day, I can’t stand her!

YANBU - Anyone who thinks someone should ask permission to park on the empty public road outside their house is unreasonable. Anyone who speaks aggressively to a new neighbour for doing so is a bully.

Please don’t give these small minded idiots any more thought. Get in with your life - if they want to curtain twitch at entirely reasonable behaviour just be thankful that your life isn’t so small. You did nothing wrong. All the best in your new home - your neighbours should be glad to have someone as self reflective and thoughtful as you.

I know you said you wanted to keep things friendly but I would tell him to piss off! It's a road anyone can park there!

Its not rude, cheeky or any of the other nonsense posted here, to park outside someone's house on a public road.

He is just a dick.

That's a bit mean. He didn't want to create unnecessary confrontation, he's not a drip. We had 3 children in the house who could probably hear the argument.

I've recently moved from a fairly low income busy street where people mostly got along with each other and looked out for each other to a naice area with detached houses and driveways (for the secondary school catchment - I know) and all my new neighbours are a bit like this. Very protective of their spaces, very suspicious of each other and not very friendly, frankly. Most are retired and have taken up finding fault with their neighbours as a new hobby. Give me my old run down terrace back (but with a decent secondary within a 3 mile radius) any day.

It’s on-street permit parking in my area (though some bigger houses do have driveways) but there’s a person on the next road over who leaves cones in ‘his’ spot with passive aggressive notes on like that.

The daft thing is that you can’t even see their house from the road, just the back gate! So entitled.

If they’d wanted their own space, they should have bought a house with a driveway!

I am so sorry I clicked YABU instead of YANBU. New format woes.

Until about 20 years ago, it was considered rude not to park cars in the garage if you had one. Now there is barely an inch of outdoor space not taken up with cars.

Literally every road I have ever lived on has been like this (apart from a few years in student digs/terraces) so that's why I know it could be the height of bad manners to do it (in some areas)
Another poster said it ended in violence and criminal damage and that doesn't surprise me at all.
Think of it as the equivalent of taking a dump on your neighbours drive, if you want to get an idea of how rude some people might find it (see reaction of ops neighbour ...)

I've never lived anywhere so busy or with houses so close together that you need permits etc, just suburban streets of detached or big semi detached houses with a lot of older people (so less cars overall on the road)

There was once a young person who kept parking in front of my house instead of her own. My neighbours were outraged on my behalf. It was the talk of the road for several weeks. Someone probably told her in the end, as she stopped doing it. The drama!

Of course it's a bit cheeky and inconsiderate to choose to park outside someone else's house when there is a free space outside your own home, @LoveAllCakes 🙄Why would you want to potentially make your neighbour's life harder if they need to unload shopping or a child or have a visitor with a disability?

Anyway, OP said that they can't park safely outside their own home so it's irrelevant.

I once had an annoying neighbour who insisted on parking outside my house on a street that was always empty, despite having parking space for about half a dozen cars on their drive, so that they had an uninterrupted sea view, and blocked my view instead.

I wonder if he’s my parent’s old neighbour! Absolutely mental, used to come out and threaten people with a baseball bat if they parked where he thought they shouldn’t.

We moved into our house just over 6 years ago
we got on with both sides-one a couple who moved and a family moved in and an elderly gent on the other side who died-a lady and her family moved in
we met her not long after-all good
until I was sent home,very ill one day from work-my partner came to pick me up and bring me home
he parked up outside our house and she came flying out to scream that we had no right to park there and that we HAD to move-now
i was that Ill I just walked past her and my dp told her to jog on as he had as much right to park outside our own house as she did with her own property
it ended with her phoning the police on us-after banging for over 20 minutes on our door
she got told off for wasting police time,refused to speak to us for well over 6 months until we took in a parcel (signed for) for her dd
i popped it through her door and forgot about it-she’s now acting like she’s our bestie

people are weird

It is absolutely mental and unacceptable to think you own the road in front of your house. But I work in a room facing the road and I do get a little Grr in my heart if people park a big van outside - I would never try to stop them - because I know these feelings are mad - it is territorial.

Unless you own a very very tiny car you couldn't get a car into my garage !
An old neighbour was selling up years ago and they put a lovely card with a note attached in the door asking politely if my son could move his van from along side her house , to the dude so not even outside it ( no restrictions, no yellows , no reason it couldn't be there) one day as she was having viewers round. We agreed as it was beautifully written and he did have a scruffy looking van for work , but occasionally he had to park it there for the odd day ( not all the time )
There is a way about going about things and she sold the house and moved on and he got another job without anymore van worries.
Happy ending
I doubt this bloke will be as good though :(

Well what can I say I live in the uk and I don’t drive but outside my house there is currently a large van that I don’t own parked there, I can’t stop him and no he doesn’t ask to park there he pays road tax for that privilege, what an absolute cock womble your neighbour is, I’d have sent him packing with a few choice words starting with F and O and possibly flipped a finger or 2 at him. YANBU next time smile and see him off x

That spot would now be my preferred parking space

OP, you must live on DH’s old street. His mum
loved on a oddly angled corner house facing a main road with an awkwardly sloped drive so couldn’t get more than two cars on. But it was a five bedroom house and she had her DP and both adult daughters living with her, so one of them used to park on the quiet road around the corner.

we were visiting one day and couldn’t get on the drive so nipped around the corner to park opposite a row of huge detached house with massive driveway. For context the road was oddly wide- so no turning or reversing issues.

Before we could get out of the car a man came hurrying out of the house opposite (not next to but on the actual opposite side of the road) to yell blue murder at us that we couldn’t park there. How dare we! Didn’t we know that he couldn’t get off his drive if we parked there. He always knew building those new houses (DH’s mum’s house was a special build) would be trouble.

He then told us to get back in the car are move it to the town car park, which was a clear two miles away. When we pointed out it would cost £10 for us the park for the day he said it wasn’t his problem and that people weren’t allowed to park on his road (not his road he had just decided it was).
Some people just like exerting authority on others.

Why would you want to potentially make your neighbour's life harder if they need to unload shopping or a child or have a visitor with a disability?

so @chesirecat99 if I’ve parked on the side of the road in the direction of the traffic so I don’t have to pull out against the traffic later, should I check all the neighbours aren’t having one of their multiple disabled visitors coming with their children on the way back from doing a big shop en route to visiting their friends?

“Knob” is a complete sentence, to paraphrase a Mumsnet favourite 😊. Totally agree - they don’t own the road.

Thank you for all your responses everyone! It's made me feel a lot better. Seems that the majority of people agree it wasn't unreasonable. Just for context - DP and I used to live on a bust street in central Bristol near a train station, and people would park all day in front of our house then walk down and get the train. Our most recent home had an allocated parking space in front of a garage, and people would still park on it. I used to grumble in my head but never spoke to anyone about it. So I suppose I was just very shocked that someone would actually come and have a go. But there we are. Some very angry people in the world!

It isn’t illegal but where we are people would raise an eyebrow. We tend to stick to our own part of the street… and whilst I’ve never said anything, it does annoy me when people park right outside our house!

It's perfectly legal but why couldn't you park on your side of the road but away from your drive?

To have such an overreaction is absurd. At least you know who the estate weirdo is, there's always a few.

Bit like that where live, we all have our 'bit' outside of the house as well as drives etc.
We have a few vehicle so DS parks his outside of our neighbours house who has no car, but this is after we went and spoke with her and it was agreed. If she has visitors she messages so DS can move his car.
Thankfully the lady that owned the house informed us of 'the rules' before we moved in! Still think its batshit and should be able to park where needed!