To think neighbour is an absolute c**t!

[CanNeverThinkOfAName]

Massive row with new neighbours last night which had other neighbours coming outside due the shouting. Totally mortifying and want opinions on whether neighbour is the c**t we think he is!

Moved into property a few months ago with a drive with space for 3 cars back to back at the side round the corner. We enter house through back door as that's where drive is. We have a works van and other cars that park opposite our drive and it can be pain to get out but only takes a few more seconds to manoeuvre. Not a big issue. and not something I'd complain about as it's not parked illegally.

Front door is near the bottom of a dead end road - pavement and road in front two car widths wide. Directly opposite front of house, both houses have drives big enough to fit two cars side by side. Have one car each so plenty of room on drive.

Lots of cars parked at top of road as many do not have drives so it's basically a one car width road due to parked cars. At the top of the road there are about 6 properties with one car drives with cars constantly parked opposite.

No one parks in front of our house and I wouldn't have an issue if they did.

We had 3 cars (including DDs's). DD occasionally parked in road at front of house if she come in late as DH leaves for work early so he'd have to move her car out first. Perfectly legal to park there and neighbours opposite have room (one road width) to get out of their drives.

Anyway DD has now moved in with boyfriend and hasn't been at home for a few weeks so has not parked at front for that period. Last night she popped round to pick up a few bits. Parked in front of house so she could come in front door and carry stuff out.

She'd been in house for literally 2 minutes and neighbour opposite front knocked and said she needed to move her car now. It was 10pm. We've never spoken a word to them before as we rarely use the front door.

DH basically said what's the problem, your drive is not blocked, she'll be going shortly, you're not even going out now are you? Neighbour said DH was being a prick and we had a 3 car drive so shouldn't be parking on the road ever. He's going to call the police.

DH did get rather angry at being called a prick and told neighbour to get off property and car would not be moved, he can call police etc. Neighbour then starts shouting that he's had enough, he's put up with it for ages (we've lived there 2 months!), who do we think we are etc. His wife comes out shouting, other opposite neighbours come out shouting that we're blocking emergency vehicles and rude etc, etc. We are certainly not blocking emergency vehicles, cars are parked all down the road and bin trucks get through fine!

DD is mortified and insists she'll move the car (bit annoyed at that) despite DH telling her not to. Neighbour says to her 'at least you're a decent one' which enrages both DH and I even more. DD is furious her Dad has been called a prick and shouts at neighbour that he's not decent either for swearing at her Dad.

Neighbour refuses to get out of front garden and keeps saying how horrible we are. Other neighbours have opened doors to listen by then so whole street will have heard. Had to slam door on him in the end.

He had his leg in a cast and was going on that he's had to come over to our house while in pain and didn't want to stand there any longer but he wouldn't leave as he wanted to continue the argument🤔

Neighbour now thinks he can tell us where to park and is the dogs bollocks probably thinking that told them!

Who was BU?

I've asked DD's boyfriend to park his battered transit van in front our house for the weekend - unreasonable?

I can only assume that most people on this thread are shit at parking. Even if it makes it more tricky, if you live in a tight residential street, is it not normal to be able to learn to manoeuvre properly? I had to learn how to parallel park in my last street. Now I have a drive in a road that looks similar to this - is it a bit of a pain? Sometimes. Do I make a fuss about people parking where they are legally allowed where it isn't dangerous? No. I'm not a twat.

Creating a slalom oh honestly give over. If someone finds it difficult to get their car round a 'slalom' they shouldn't be driving.

So many vehicles? OP has 2 vehicles if I’ve understood correctly, both on the drive and DD was visiting with a 3rd vehicle for the household. In my experience it’s incompetent/ nervous drivers who get stressed about not having the full road width to swing out and instead of realising the onus is on them to improve their driving skills they lash out at anyone/ anything making it harder for them. Agree that you didn’t respond well but easy to lose your cool in the circumstances. I would hope my response would be can you calm down and explain exactly what the problem is and why it’s upsetting you in the hope they’ll see sense. Also the time of night makes it even more ridiculous to storm over and pick a fight unless it was likely they’d be going out in the car at that time.

The council should come in and put double yellows on your side of the road.
I hate it when cars are parked/allowed to park on both sides of a narrow street.
And you do have a three car drive at the back after all!
YABU.

We don't have a works van! I made the point another neighbour parks his opposite our drive and we haven't knocked on his door late at night and sworn at him nor would we complain.

DD only parked in front of our house a handful of times and hadn't done it for at least two weeks. Late at night for a short period but neighbour knocked immediately and he was not going anywhere!

I've also stated quite clearly emergency vehicles are not blocked. If they were they'd never get past all the cars parked on both sides of the road further up, let alone get to the bottom of the road where we are which is a dead end.

There is no junction. Our drive is up a side road of three houses and is also a dead end.

The area in front of our house is about 50ft so plenty of room for cars to get round DDs car. Both neighbours opposite have drives at least 15ft wide.

There was no issue with her car being there at all.

Oh wow, that's embarrassing.

Even if you're technically allowed to park there, do you want to row with multiple neighbours after only just moving in?

I'd be mortified at being at the centre of all the drama.

Would definitely have watched if it was my street.

Regardless of who was right or wrong re parking, you're neighbour's response was outrageous so do the thing that will hurt him the most - go over with a (shit) bottle of wine, smile sweetly, apologise and kill him with kindness.

This. I used to live on the world's shortest and narrowest street. Parking was very difficult and you had a tight manoeuvre into very small spaces. Not unusual for many people who have only street parking and no drives so I can't lose sleep over people moaning it's a little tight to get out of their massive drive.

I am lucky to have a drive now and I wouldn't dare to complain about people parked either side of my drive or opposite to it. They are parked legally on a pubic road and it's absolutely none of my business where they choose to park.

Like many parking wars this thread sits in the gap between what is legal and what is considerate.

It sounds like there was a bit of a system going in the street until you all arrived with your vehicles and disrupted it. You weren't to know, and if it was a problem the neighbours should have said something earlier while they were still able to do so politely.

I had a similar experience with a neighbour I've never met before coming out screaming and swearing over something I didn't know I'd done wrong - it's really unsettling and makes things so awkward, I feel for you!

So youve lived there 2 months and already ALL of the neighbours have come out shouting at you.. You think its all them thats in the wrong and not you? I think thats the jist of it yeah?

Your going to need a pretty impacful diagram to make this sound like its not you thats a fault tbh.....

if everyone has car tax, mot and insurance, they can park wherever they like within reason. Sounds like everyone blew their heads. I dont think youve been unreasonable fwiw. He came over with an axe to grind. Let it settle and see how it is tomorrow, but like i say, i dont think you did anything wrong!

If you do have a 3 car drive, why didn’t your daughter just park on it?

For goodness sake its a public street and OP’s daughter— or any other guest— has a perfect right to park in front of the OP’s house without being screamed at by the neighbors.

Looks like DD is parked like a t*at on your diagram. Too close to the junction, and parked on the opposite side to the other parked cars, causing an obstruction.

OP your neighbours have just done you a massive favour. You no longer have to talk to them! And if you don’t talk to them, they can’t argue with you.

My own driveway sounds similar to your awful neighbours. There is another drive opposite us however occasionally someone parks over it so it narrows the road and does make it a bit awkward to get in and out. I have never in a million years had a problem with this.

It sounds like your neighbour shouldn’t be driving at all if they can’t navigate a slightly tighter space.

Get cameras, ring doorbell etc. That might put them off starting anything again and if they do just don’t engage. Ignore them, go inside.

Well I wouldn't have parked there...but I wouldn't have come out guns blazing and calling your dh a prick either. It does all sound a bit dramatic. If you had stayed calm he would have made himself look like a tit, regardless of your daughters bad parking

OP why does nobody else park there if it’s allowed and there is limited parking?

Actually she parked about 20ft from the corner. Probably not clear from the diagram as I didn't include measurements, but not right on it. At least 30ft clear road on the other side of where she parked.

Why shouldn't she have parked legally in a road causing no obstruction so she could carry her stuff from upstairs straight out the front door to her car rather than walking around the house and up to the top of the drive?

I know what parking like a cunt looks like and that was not it.

There is a long stretch further up at the top of the road where cars are parked on alternate sides of the road and it's a bit zig zaggy. Really don't even think about steering round them but I'm not a lazy driver who doesn't like having to steer!

I have exactly the same issue with one of my neighbors. Their car is literally across my drive meaning I almost have to go on top of my hedge and scratch my car just to get out of my drive. My next door neighbor struggles to reverse park in his drive because of the obstruction. So so annoying but we've never said anything so I can see where both neighbours are coming from. Maybe they're jealous of your nice detached house with room for lots of cars 😂

It depends on how wide the street is as we had a neighbours car which used to park outside their house but on the opposite side to the other cars causing the bin lorry, buses and fire engines to have to weave around it. I thought it was just us irritated by it but it turns out it was our neighbours too. Eventually the opposite site has double yellow lines added.

It does indeed sound like an episode of Jeremy Kyle....

Moved into property a few months ago

Well, you'd have to declare any neighbour issues if trying to sell and move again when it all becomes unbearable.....

I do think your neighbour sounds like a nightmare.

I cheered at your last line and I hope dds boyfriend goes along with this plan.

Perhaps there was a previous incident where an emergency vehicle struggled to navigate the slalom and/or change direction at the dead end?

As an aside, I notice the OP said 'There is no junction. Our drive is up a side road of three houses and is also a dead end.'

Can anyone explain to me why where the two roads (on the diagram) meet is not considered a junction? Are there rules around how long/wide a road (complete with road markings as per OPs diagram) has to be before where it meets another road is considered a junction?

The parking is very congested at the top of the road down to the middle but towards the bottom where we are it's not. Our house is the only one for about 50ft (probably more like 70-80ft including adjoining houses back garden) on our side of the road and the few houses further down before the dead end have drives or park on the road outside their houses so less convenient for them to park in front of our house I suppose. I've not taken much notice as we rarely go out the front!

Either that or cunty neighbour started beef with them!

It did motivate DH to put our ring doorbell up today and change the bulb in the outside light so that was a positive.

Really hate the feeling of living here now though. Still can't get over that I was making DD a cuppa and we were having a laugh, then within minutes it was a neighbourhood war outside. Younger DSs heard it all. Really shaken.

I think your DD’s parking is fine, but I can see it’s a bit irritating. Your neighbour was totally wrong in the way he addressed it though.

We sometimes park like your DD, outside the front of our house which is opposite the neighbour’s drive. The neighbour politely asked if we could try and avoid doing that by parking 6ft further back as it would make manoeuvring in/out of his drive easier for him - he was clear we’d not done anything wrong and he could still use his drive if we did continue to park there - but of course we agreed to because we wanted to be neighbourly and make his life easier.

Very occasionally the road will be busy and we will park in the spot he doesn’t like, but we move the car when a space comes free. He never complains because I think he can see we are generally making an effort to accommodate him.

As is so often the case I think this was very poor (and rude!) communication by your neighbour but your family’s approach didn’t de-escalate it. Sometimes it’s not enough to be right and you have to be the bigger person engage with idiots and the problem they perceive, particularly when you have to live alongside these people!

“I can see you are very upset but I don’t appreciate the language you are using. My daughter will be moving her car in the next 30 mins. We would be willing to discuss this general point with you another time in a calmer environment.” But ultimately it sounds like he was just ranting and you had no option but closing the door.