Being annoyed about a visitor parking bay

[SaltyChickenWhite]

Hi,

I moved into a new build development recently. It's North London and space is quite tight. Each house has 1 allocated parking space.

Please see the humble diagram attached.

A row of 4 houses. Houses A to D each have 1 allocated parking space. And House A and D have a visitor bay outside. I live at House D.

There's a church and park on the other side of House D, but no parking availability down that side of the road. And the brown bits are pathways.

The issue I've quickly found is that House A has 2 cars. So they have complete control over that visitor bay. And when they have only 1 car at home, they'll park in the visitor bay first.

House B also has 2 cars.

And because Houses C and House D (me) only have one car each, House B has taken to parking their second car in the visitor bay outside mine. This means their car is parked in the visitor bay from evening until morning each weeknight, and usually most or all of the weekend.

It seems House B is fully aware that House A is in control of A's visitor bay, because House B never attempts to park their second car there, even on the rare occasion that it's empty. They just come straight to House D's visitor bay.

To the left of the houses, there's a road which has sort of unofficial parking availability (the blue line), and visitors have taken to parking there instead because Houses A and D visitor bays are usually occupied. And I find it strange that Houses A and B would not park their second vehicles on that road instead.

My options as I see them:

Speak to the neighbour. But I don't know them and people are unpredictable in how they'll react.

Speak to the developer, but what are they realistically going to do? And council have zero power etc.

Do something else?

I have a few questions:

Because I only have one car, should I even care about this? Would it annoy you in all honesty? It just seems a little cheeky to me.

It only becomes a real issue when we have a visitor (in that they can't park outside our house - but then again, they wouldn't be able to either if a genuine visitor was already in that bay, and in which case that would be totally fine - but because it's a neighbour's second car sitting there it sort of stings). Is there anything I could do or should do?

If you had a second car and you lived at House B, would you park in the visitor bay?

And of course give me some brutal honesty if I'm overthinking this.

I would be annoyed by it too, but I don’t think there’s much you can do.

Do you own the visitor bay? As in its included on your deeds and your property alone?

If so, put a collapsible bollard there.

If it's not then there's not much you can do really.

I also live in North London, don't have any parking bays, don't have a car, and therefore don't have to give a shit about where anyone parks or doesn't park. It's very liberating. I recommend it.

If I was in house a or b I'd park in the visitor bay too as I can see the cars from my house, rather than the road with the blue line.
You are so lucky there is a road with parking available so close for any of your guests to park in.
The spaces aren't actually for visitors you know despite being called that - they are for anyone.... including your neighbours.

You see this everywhere when there are visitor parking bays, and limited parking options. Doubt there's much that you can do about it I'm afraid.

You are being unreasonable because the house you bought will never have capacity for the amount of cars that will be visiting people, I feel like these housing estates with ridiculous allocated parking are making this issues and if you choose to live in such a place, where parking will always be a problem, that’s something you take on the chin when you move in.

This!

Does the visitor bay actually belong to you? IE do you have the rights over it the same as the allocated parking space? If so then yes I would be might pissed off that the CF was parking their car there without my permission. If you don't have rights over it and it is a communal space then there isnt much you can do about it and surely it is first come first served.

Is it your visitor bay or a communal bay?

Some places do actually prohibit residents from parking in visitor bays, but that would be in your covenant.

You're wrong but I don't think you are unreasonable as I would feel the exact same. I live in a new build estate and all of our unallocated parking is also secretly allocated.

I think you just need to suck it up unfortunately.

If you don't own the visitors bay, then there's little you can do.
I get the annoyance though. The houses on our street have room for 2 cars - 2 more if you use the garage, might even be able to squeeze another car on the drive.
The neighbour closest to the visitors parking bay has 5 cars ( not so bad now some of her DDs are off to uni) so treats the visitors bay as hers alone as well as the street parking . It doesn't usually impact me directly but I do find the entitlement a little annoying.

Do you own the visitor space on your deeds? My answer completely depends on this information

I always feel like if you care this much about parking, why get a place like this? I did care deeply about parking as it’s a huge irritation so we made a drive one of our top ”must haves” and moved a little further out of London so I didn’t have to get wound up. It’s about choosing your priorities.

Unless the bay belongs to you in your deeds its for anyone to park in and its first come first served. Anyone can park there at anytime.

I understand you thought you would be able to use it but of you don't own it its no different then any other unallocated space.

I don't own the visitor bay. It's fair game for anyone, which I accept.

But just a little annoying that one house has claimed it as their own.

By that logic I could do the same thing permanently if I owned a 2nd car. Which is fair enough I guess. When we were buying the house the developer was sort of hinting that we could just take over the visitor bay by just parking in that one.

But I was hoping to leave it open for genuine visitors for all neighbours. Not to be reserved for someone's 2nd vehicle.

Park your car in one of the visitor bays if it bothers you. You have just as much right to do so as anyone else.

You might get less stressed about it if you think of the arrangement as being four reserved spaces and two spaces on the street for anyone. At least you've got a reserved space.

My answer depends on your deeds - do you own that space or is it just next to yours?

But can't you just start parking in it & leaving your space empty if it's bothering you that much?

Personally I'd only do that if I was expecting a visitor.

God I wish I could have this to worry about

I imagine the developer told your neighbours that they could just takeover the bay by parking in it too. After a, they wanted to sell the houses.

I think you're very lucky to each have an allocated space. I live in a similar set up (terraced houses, spaces in front) but while there are 12 houses & 14 spaces none are officially allocated. And 2 of my neighbours each have 3 cars.

Park in the visitor’s bay when you have guests so they can park in your reserved space?

After all. Not After a.

YABU.

House B is doing absolutely nothing different to House A.

...why do you care?

You don’t own the space. It makes more sense for the neighbours that actually live in the houses, that have 2 cars, to use the spaces than keeping them for visitors that only visit. I can’t imagine begrudging neighbours this. Visitors can just park on the road. I think you’re being really petty.

Falling out with neighbours can be really unpleasant, don’t cause a problem where there doesn’t need to be one.