Parking dilemma ongoing

[Suspiciousminds29]

Hi all, I am just wanting some advice on what action I can take. I wrote a post under another username a few months ago after I moved into my new home about an issue I was having with neighbours driving over my drive to access their drive without having tO ask the other household members to move their own car.

we have been here about 7 months now and it is still happening.. we never do anything like that because our drive is extra wide and granted we only have one car at the moment but I just think it is beyond bloody cheeky.

they basically drive along our long driveway until they can move their car in front of their other car. This is because the previous owners of my house removed a patch of grass to widen the driveway to the right so our original driveway is between their drive and ours but we park further to the right to avoid banging their car doors or anything (we have two young children)

She’s explaining that her neighbours are unlikely to be boy racers hanging out in the local car park of an evening and therefore their bizarre and potentially reckless driving is surprising. Additionally it is sometimes difficult to talk to people older than you who have owned a house since new because there is an inherent power imbalance and OP as the newcomer presumably wants cordial relations with her neighbours without making waves anout their CF behaviour.
All of this was conveyed to reasonable readers with the shorthand that the neighbours are not younger than OP.
HTH.

Am I being stupid or completely missing something? Could you not park here to stop them?

She said in her second post that they are doing it when she is out, or when (presumably for logistical reasons like unloading) her car is not parked in that spot.

You have been given many solutions. Just pick one.

Fit a couple of drop down bollards: one at the entrance to your drive and one half way up next to your neighbour's drive. Use them every time you move your car off your drive.

Or speak to them and ask them to stop.

Buy a trailer, caravan, other large wheeled item and park it permanently on the driveway

Or alternatively save your money and tell your neighbour to stop.

Why did you not go with the advice given on your previous thread instead of coming back moaning again?

Plonk a paddling pool/sandpit/play house/AstroTurf over that bit of drive. Or just accept it and move on - it's really not doing any harm. Your neighbours likely aren't being malicious, they just probably haven't even considered that it might be annoying you.

I came back because I thought my parking diagonally and in other different awkward positions on my own driveway to deter them may come across as obvious but yet they are still doing it.. even today my car has been gone but my other half returned home and pulled closer to the house as usual to unpack and they’ve just been reversing on and off all day behind our car.

if I am out I only see that they’ve done it if I check my ring doorbell recordings and watching them makes my blood boil because they act entitled to my drive way.. it seems to be because they are made by the same material they think it is all one to share.. that must be the only reason why they are so brazen with reversing over my drive every day or other day.

I'm not following your logic here.

You can't say anything to them because they bought the house when it was first built, as did the people you bought the house from so they must have had an agreement.

Is that what you are saying?

That doesn't obligate you to continue that agreement.

But they are doing what they've always done since that bit of grass was replaced and in 7 months you've said nothing.

Yes they should have checked with you but it's fairly clear by now they aren't going to so so or say something.

If you can't have a fence and you are scared to talk to them then buy massive stone planters, put them entirely on your side and grow flowers.

Either say something, do something or accept that it is your choice to do nothing and find a way to make your peace with that. You'll give yourself an ulcer otherwise

I can't believe you're still complaining about this and haven't even asked them!

Perfect I put huge pots down mine

Just put some planters in. You can grow veg or flowers for the bees. It doesn't Count as the clause against the fence because they're temporary and small. But you can't drive over them.

I have a similar set up of two neighbours' parallel drives without a physical barrier to divide them and covenants about open plan. The covenants do allow for a low dividing wall up to about 500mm or 20 inches high - do yours? I haven't gone for a wall, one reason being that in a nearby street of houses with low walls, most of them have been hit by vehicles - their own or their visitors' - with bricks knocked out or whole sections of wall demolished. They don't work well.

In my street, despite covenants about open plan, most people have put up dividing tall hedges, or a fence, between adjacent properties and no one has enforced covenants. One thing you would need to be beware of is any physical barrier near the front of the property that would impede the vision of a driver going in or out. The planning laws are strict about that.

Tend to agree.

And after having a horrible bullying neighbour in one place we lived, we always go out of our way to stay on good terms with our neighbours. is it really worth potentially falling out with them over this?

Id add some planters, like these down the center, you would only need 2 or 3 and some nice perrenial flowers.

If you want them to stop, but don’t want to tell them could you put something like garden gnomes, or a collection of painted stones, etc down?
or store a couple of lengths of timber that you intend to use ‘at some stage’ ?

You need to add planters about 1 meter apart.

Get yourself to your garden centre next weekend, buy planters and loads of bulbs for the spring and some potting compost. If you don't want the planters to look bare for the next few months, get a small conifer or some heather to plant in the centre of the pots and plant the bulbs around the outside. Make sure that the pots, once in place, are really heavy to move. You may need to make them shallow by putting concrete in the bottom first (do this bit out of sight of the neighbours) and then move them, empty of the plants and compost and put them in place. Then fill with the plants and compost.
They won't be considered permanent but they will be very difficult to move.

A few of these - www.ruby-group.co.uk/collections/square-decking-planter?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4omaBhDqARIsADXULuVFvS73UQuC5x92iAM2AQGOaNIrZZ1SojnTsx40Hvl5sB6isTojDIYaAgQuEALw_wcB - about 1 meter apart and put some bricks/granite/something very heavy at the bottom of the pot first. Then top up with the compost and plants/bulbs.

It's going to be a bit expensive initially but just think in the spring you'll have lovely flowers and in the meantime, your neighbours won't be able to use your driveway to get in/out of their driveway.

I just did a google search to come up with that website by the way, I have no idea where you're located so no clue if they will be of any use to you.
I went back to browse their site, and discovered this:
www.ruby-group.co.uk/products/deluxe-decking-planter
I'd say 2 of those and the job would be done if you leave enough space between them for the postie to get through for example. You could even plant tomatoes or courgettes or potatoes in one so you'll have some fresh veggies in no time!

@Suspiciousminds29 you can ignore the covenant on your house from the builders about it being open plan. They only care as long a the other houses still need to be sold so it looks inviting for new people to buy.
The covenant can only be enforced by the builder. So build the changing fence. The worst that will happen is the neighbour can complain to the builder. The builder will do fuck all as they don’t care. The builder is the only one who can enforce it and they won’t pay for legal action as it doesn’t benefit them. The neighbour can’t make any enforce the convenant as it’s not a contract with them.
build a chain fence. Job done.

Good idea, but good luck moving them into position after you’ve put concrete in the bottom!

This is just a suggestion, and it's assuming that I'm understanding the diagram properly, but is the drive in the deeds a shared drive? So you're thinking it's yours, but as it's two drives together it's actually shared between you? (We share a drive, which is why I'm wondering)

Not sure what you want to get out of this. It doesn't matter how angry you get or how much you wouldn't dream of driving on someone else's driveway.
Your internally boiling blood isn't going to make their behaviour change. Either make peace with it or do something about it!

Sorry if that sounds harsh!

@JestersTear no it’s definitely not shared as the boundary line from the fencing further up and where the gates attach run between the drives. There is a crack running through the drive to separate them and the drive way connected to theirs is the original driveway. The only reason we have another drive is because the previous owners removed a long patch of grass to make the driveway wider..

they were friends so they probably did this and gave them permission to use it but we are new owners and it is ours and it really pisses me off when the motion sensor goes off and they are just walking over my drive or reversing their car over my drive