A parking one, felt threatened.

[ParkingAgain]

Apologies for the length
Years ago our street was made a clearway so no on street parking. The houses were awarded residents parking on various nominated nearby streets. We also have room for one car on our driveway.

We have a small manual car that our children share and use for learning to drive etc. that we park on a nearby street with a residence disk on display.
For various reasons the kids haven’t used the car for about 6 weeks so it hasn’t moved.

Today a rather irate man arrived at my door. I recognized him as a Dad of a kid in one of my kids activities about 10 years ago so I said hello.

He was firstly annoyed that my doorbell didn’t work. But then told me I needed to move the car as it was parked between two spaces. I was genuinely confused because there are no individually marked out spaces on the street. Both left and right side are both marked as one long continuous parking area.
I said this to him and he said there was a half car space either side of mine but this is just the way other cars happen to have parked after me.
He then said he knew the car was registered to my daughter who is studying abroad this term therefore it is abandoned and needed to be moved.
He added that he was fed up of coming home and having to park up the street and to park outside someone else’s house.

But what upset me was he kept saying “ I am asking you this nicely” I felt it was being said in a threatening way.

I just said I would think about it and closed the door.

My phone immediately buzzed with a text from a neighbour about a man acting suspiciously at our house and was everything ok?

Anyway spoke to neighbour after he left and decided to say it to police because I felt threatened.

Police said because the threats were not explicit it wasn’t an offence but they would call around and speak to him.

I am now worried that I over reacted. I could just have moved the car. I have moved it other times when people have asked me to if they are getting a delivery or something and want the space outside their house clear. I always move straight away.
I am also worried that I will have antagonised him and made it worse.
Car isn’t actually outside his house but it close but neighbour I spoke to said she thinks he has multiple cars so needs more than just the space outside his house.

Was I being unreasonable?

And yes I will add a diagram.

Fine - so next time you do something perfectly legal, which I happen not to like but which you're perfectly within your rights to do, I (someone you have no real pre-existing social relationship with) will come around to your house, act visibly angry at you and imply that if you don't change your ways, there'll be no more Mr Nice Guy.

And you'd be OK with that?

Sure you would.

I don't care what the police said, I cannot see them sending anyone around to him just because you overreacted and got them involved unnecessarily.

He was unreasonable because he should've been more polite.

You were unreasonable to tell him you'll think about it, and then get the already very busy police involved.

I don’t blame you for letting the police know OP, after how he was with you. He sounds like a prize bully.

You went to the police because someone asked you to move a car?

He is a man so of course everything he does is wrong, even if it is not wrong it is wrong we all have the memo

Move the car and stop being dramatic would be the best thing

And people wonder why their real crimes are delayed being investigated, it's because the police have to deal with absolute wastes of time like this!

Legally yes your car can be there, but it's annoying as fuck having someone park outside your house for that amount of time. The neighbourly thing to do would have been to move it once in a while so it's not just effecting one household the whole time.

This

I’d move it to directly outside his house, and if he came back I’d make a big deal of how welcome he was because I knew he really really wanted me to move the car.

Park the car you aren’t using on your drive, and use the street parking for the one you use regularly.
but then they wouldn't have a guaranteed parking space every night! Have seen update re the regular car needing charging so why not park long-term unused car miles away where it won't bother anyone and drive over and check on it sometimes? If daughter hasn't even got a test booked it could be months of you occupying a valuable residents' parking space - it may be legal but definitely not neighbourly.

Maybe she’s the kind of person that does the shouting at people. Or maybe she just has the nerve to do it online to get a thrill.

It probably is. I doubt it will start after being dumped on a street for six weeks and not moved

No wonder the Police are over stretched and don't attend burglaries.
He doesn't sound aggressive, I would've grabbed the keys and said..so sorry I'll move it to another spot now. Sorted

YABU. For multiple reasons.

If your DD is studying abroad then why are you keeping a car for her that is going to lie unused for months at a time? Is she still planning to use this car after she passes? I’m guessing not.

The diagram you drew does look like the car is over 2 spaces.

Involving the police was unnecessary in this situation.

YABU

MAKES very the car even once a fortnight, it's hardly onerous.

The police have done nothing, don't blame them. If you're still oh so worried what are you going to do?

YABU to leave the car for 6 weeks without moving it. That would be really annoying even if you have a right to park there. I don't know why you wouldn't just have de-escalated the situation by saying, 'oh I'm sorry, yeah the kids haven't used it much lately. I'll pop around and move it later today. ' Job done. He wouldn't have gotten more worked up, you wouldn't have been shaken up. No you don't have to, but it's the neighbourly thing to do. It sounds alike he was a bit unreasonable as well but not sure what it achieved by saying 'i'll think about it' when he asked you to move the car other than antagonising him.

The car will be screwed anyway if it isn't driven every few weeks, may as well sell it before it turns to scrap. That aside, I don't understand why if it's awkwardly parked you wouldn't just move it a bit. Sure you don't have to but I don't get the problem, going to tbe police is wild as well. Move tbe car for its own sake or sell it ffs.

(BTW, there is a really clear implied threat here: that if you don't do what he wants, he'll stop asking you nicely and behave more aggressively instead. I'm not quite sure why so many people on this thread are refusing to acknowledge this - to me, screamingly obvious - fact. Maybe they've been lucky enough not to deal with a lot of agression in the past?)

I've experienced aggression and violence resulting in hospitalisation in the past. I wouldn't have read that as an implied threat, more a reminder that he is asking politely and asking you to also stay calm and respond in kind.

If it’s taxed and insured you’ve done nothing wrong, I understand the frustration of the man but he doesn’t own that piece of road that you’re entitled to park your car on. I wouldn’t have spoken to the police but I think I would have told him that I wasn’t insured to drive it, only my daughter and so I couldn’t move it and he’d have to wait for her to come back.

He had no right to call round to your house, if he had a problem with a car on his street he should contact the police.

Totally out of order to be knocking on your door, totally out of order to demand you do something

leave it to the police. For all you know he maybe accessing peoples data illegally, calling at several peoples homes unsolicited and causing upset over where cars are parked

Would at least add some sense to the situation! And he's same street as a school too, is that why the clearway?
Parking must be horrendous!

I can understand his annoyance, when cars are parked badly you think oh well they will move it tomorrow but to know it’s there for months. He could have handled it better but total over reaction to go to the police as someone said ‘I’m asking you nicely’. Just move the car, it won’t do it any good just sitting there anyway. Move it weekly so it’s not annoying neighbours unnecessary

OP wouldn’t want to do that as it would mean them finding a space daily, like the neighbour is.

It would appear abandoned if it's been there 6 weeks. It would need to be driven at least weekly so it stays mobile and battery charged. Sounds like you have other kids so ask them to use it

Until the rules about car storage on roads changes, there is no unreasonable about purchasing a car & leVing it in one spot.

infact it’s often suggest on threads, as it’s legal.

if car storage on public roads was charged at the same rent as local authority social housing, then renting a spot to park a car would be approximately £100 a month.

Yea it is legal no one is saying it isn't, its pretty low standards though isn't it to think ah it's legal so it's fine who cares about anyone else. Most people would happily move it surely which wouldn't take long at all for the sake of others- it's hardly an onerous task.

Depends on vehicle, we used to leave a vehicle between drives and it’d start without issue 6-8 weeks.