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.

Nice diagram but seeing as you dont own it not alot you can do

unless you park in it yourself which is a bit petty

What does the Transfer from when the property was sold as a newbuild say? Some of them limit parking in the visitors’ spaces to 24 hours at a time.

I would do the same. Why would you leave a car on the road to save a space for a car which may or may not even appear (a visitor).
Visitors can just park on the road.

Park a bike in it. That's what our unbelievably petty neighbours used to do to reserve the spot (on the road) outside their house. They'd offset it just enough so that we couldn't park outside our house if our other neighbour's car was there. They were delightful to live next to.

Seriously though, unless there's a covenant saying that residents can't park in visitor bays, then you can't do anything. You bought the property knowing this space was outside it and would likely be used.

It just seems a little cheeky to me

It's fair game for anyone,

Anytime you see the neighbours parking 'cheekily' say to yourself 'it's fair game'

Come back to us when/if anyone parks on your driveway

This is what I do when I have visitors. (I also live in a new build). Some of my neighbours have also commandeered the visitor spaces and see them as an extension of their property and they get cross when when I do this. I don’t care.

I would park in it occasionally, perhaps when you know you have visitors coming not to be petty - but to stake your claim on it remaining a visitor space and not being claimed by the 2 houses with 2nd cars as part of their properties.

Marvellousmay - I completely disagree. #corpsereviver has posted the most pertinent post of all, why do people living in london need so many cars? #corpsereviver has got the right idea, no car, no stress about parking.

😳

Time someone had a little break from mumsnet I think.

Not sure why the font was so big! Not sure why that implies I need a break from mumsnet, how bizarre?!

Thank fuck I don’t live somewhere like this. I can’t imagine having headspace to worry about nonsense like this.

Excellent diagram, though.

Any place I've owned that has visitor bays have a restricted use of them - you can't just leave your vehicle there indefinitely as they are for visitors. Check your deeds/lease agreement see what it says in relation to these spots. Other than that - forget about it. If you have a visitor they can park on the street. And no I don't think I'd be telling all my neighbours that I was leaving my car there if there were no restrictions on use.

More what you said, and the hashtags...and yes, the font size was 😳

You bought the house with the expectation that anyone might park there., right? You only have one car. I would rather my neighbour monopolised the space, because the alternative is randoms pulling in and out of the space all day and night. This is better. Get to know the neighbours. Develop a good relationship, if possible. They are doing you no harm and possibly some minor good.

I do get your annoyance OP. We have a driveway for two cars as do all the other houses in the road, and then there’s a sort of layby for visitor parking which has room for 2 cars. My next door neighbours have 4 cars (2 young adult children 🙄) and so the visitor parking is permanently taken up by their cars - I don’t actually need the spaces but it still annoys me that one house (or two in your case) gets to commandeer the spaces.

Install a bike hangar in your parking bay (they hold 6 so you could charge neighbours annual rent for the service), then park your car in the visitor bay. Or sell your car & join a car club /take taxis when needed. You’ll be quids in and removing your own car space will annoy your multiple-car owning neighbours. Bonus result.

Householders using visitor bays as their unofficial permanent 2nd car parking spaces are cheeky fuckers. We have a similar set up, but it’s clear that you can’t use visitor spaces for a second car. We have private parking wardens that watch out for cars permanently occupying visitor spaces. Offenders get a warning and then get a ticket.

If the house sales person said to you that you could just take the visitors space, they may have said similar to those with 2 cars ... sales spiel I'm afraid. If it says something in the deeds about you being able to allow visitors to use the space, or no residents parking just genuine visitors only then You could have a legal angle maybe (non-legal person here though)

Handshake - was what I said so shocking? We need people to stop being so reliant on cars, especially if they live in cities. Sorry such forward thinking concepts shock you.

Maybe just think of them as unallocated spaces and you'll feel better.

OPs not asking about whether she needs a car or not. You don’t know her reasons for having a car and have assumed she would find not having a car less stressful. You said that the most pertinent post on the thread was one which was completely irrelevant to the situation OP is in.

For example, I don’t eat meat, but if I went on a thread where the OP was asking for a good beef curry recipe and I said ‘well, you shouldn’t eat meat, why do you need to eat meat, make a vege curry instead’, I’d expect to be told my comment is irrelevant to what OP is asking.

Handshake, the issue is occurring because too many people in op's street own too many cars. That's the first thing I think when I read parking threads, I thought this was a public forum, but I guess you feel the need to police it.

Nope, just found your large font comments with hashtags a bit funny and irrelevant. Posts like yours always give me a laugh so please carry on. 😚

Well I'm sure she bought the house with the expectation that yes, anyone could park there, but that her visitors may also be able to park there occasionally.

If you have a visitor coming, just park in the visitor bay and then move the cars round when they come.