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?

People who live in big, detached houses can be really weird about parking even though they already have massive driveways - it’s bizarre! Yet those in streets with flats and smaller houses mainly seem to manage to share the public space around them with few probs.

Why was the neighbour annoyed so much about the car ? Do you know if he has previous behaviours with other people ?

Could it be that the previous occupants of your house had been "bad neighbors" and parked all over the place, blocking drives etc ?
If he had put up with that for a while he might have a short fuse on the subject.
Maybe ask folks next door what they know about parking AND the upset neighbor...

Dick who has way too much time on his hands 😵‍💫

I think it depends on the road and the neighbours. We can easily fit 3 cars on our driveway and have no issue with anyone parking outside our house, but our neighbours who have a smaller driveway always apologise if they have visitors and need to park outside our house. Of course people can park anywhere, but in some roads it's seen as polite to speak to your neighbour if you need to leave a car outside their house for longer than a few hours.

Your neighbour sounds a grumpy get, but the people you bought your house from could have been a nightmare for leaving cars parked inconsiderately / noise / generally being picks and he was tipped over the edge thinking you would be the same.

I like to stay on good terms with neighbours so I would prob leave a box of biscuits and note apologising for any offence caused.

Sometimes being the peace maker is more important than who is in the right, especially when it comes to neighbours.

Like school admissions myths, the "It's my parking space outside my house even if the law doesn't agree with me" persists as a hardy perennial, The kind of person who bangs on your door and whines about this is not someone you can ever reason with. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times I have encountered this personally, and in housing management, where you explain the whole thing at length, and the tenant, "Yeah, but it's MY house". We even had some moron claim that he HAD to park outside his house BY LAW because he worked for the National Grid and he "had to be able to see his car at all times". I took the liberty of contacting the former and they assured me no such law and guidance exists or has ever existed.

Be thankful he's revealed himself as the neighbourhood tosser so soon.

Ignore him otherwise he'll drive you insane.

Off the top of my head, can you get web pages printed on ‘Rules for parking on the public highway’ or similar? Write a polite covering letter pointing out how he is wrong and you are right. Sign it, date it and include your address. Keep copies.
Your neighbour is twat, though ( don’t put that in your letter 😂)

Sounds like an entitled boomer used to getting his way.

Absolutely.

What a knob head. Clearly living in affluent area doesn't buy you class.

I would knock on a neighbour’s door and ask if there really is a silent etiquette about parking in your road and see if this guy is batshit crazy in general! And you don’t want him damaging your car if he is and you’re faced with having to use the roadside in future! I’d consider getting a dash cam that also works when car is parked/engine off even at this stage.

He's an idiot. Just ignore him. The swearing would have annoyed me.

If you live in an area with detached houses it’s definitely poor etiquette to park outside someone’s house for a few days. I’d be annoyed to about not having any privacy so see where he’s coming from.

This is why I find it hard to imagine living outside London. Bat. Shit!

I think its damn poor etiquette to think you own the street outside your property because you have a big house...

Bit weird for people to think they have a right to control who parks just outside their land registered boundary because it happens to be in front of their property.

I think its very entitled behaviour . To park outside someones without consideration. Not illegal. Not polite or friendly either. What if they wanted to park outside theirs? Why not park outside your own house?

Perhaps you were blocking the view from his window?

What a gobshite. Certainly do not engage with him in the future and park on the road, legally, where you like.

Where I live, there is actually a City By-law that limits on street parking to three hours. Very, very rarely enforced.

I once had a minivan left in front of our house for five days. We didn't recognize it, nor did any of our neighbours. My family was coming from out of province for a family event. We can park two cars on our drive, so wasn't too worried because, it should be moved in a week, right?

My neighbour across the road got fed up of looking at it, and reported it as an abandoned vehicle. Police came and tagged it, some time during the night someone tried to peel the tag off of it. Day Eight the tow truck arrived to move it. All of a sudden a guy from the bottom of the cul de sac races up with keys to move it. It was his MIL's van and she was on holiday and wanted to leave the van with him and he decided to park in front of our house. We'd never spoken to this guy and neither had any of my neighbours.

He then parked the van on HIS driveway for the next two weeks! He hasn't spoken to anyone ever. His house is currently for sale.

What a lowlife pig. Park where you want.

If twit neighbour lives opposite put up a "refugees welcome" poster in your front window.

@Hmm1234 are you @Daisycat76 ‘s neighbour? 😂

How does someone parking on the street outside your house affect your privacy?

Here people park in front of their own houses if no room on their driveway, or the ‘neutral’ part at the end of the cul de sac.

No reason for your neighbour to have been so rude though, he could have politely asked you to move it if it was bothering him, blocking his view coming out his drive etc.

Legally of course you can park it where you like, but it doesn’t hurt to be courteous.