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.

I feel bad for him having to park elsewhere when he lives in the street and your daughter is not even here.

Why you spoke to the Police for? He never made any threats, this is you overreacting

You are BVU and inconsiderate. You were upset? He was probably as well after putting up with your car not moving for so long.

I am not so sure that the OP is u.

The neighbour was worried about the about the man which would imply he seemed heated.

She has a permit and is not parked illegally.

She is doing nothing wrong.

Why does she need to move a car that is legally parked?

I really do not understand.

(The police thing maybe but the car?)

She has a permit that allows here to park there though.

Low standards, 🤷‍♀️ Of what? If I go abroad for a few weeks and leave my car parked then it’s not low standards - not going to arrange insurance for some else to drive my car to move it - that’d be ridiculous

If your daughter is waiting to take her driving test, why isn’t she using the car regularly to practice in the meantime? Or is this the child who is studying abroad? I do think it’s irritating for it just to be there for weeks on end, not illegal but annoying nonetheless.

I know someone who had the police knock on their door to tell them off for leaving their car parked legally outside someone else's house ... and that was just for a week!

I'm personally amazed by many aspects of your story. Obviously people report all kinds of ridiculous things but you actually have an open police station (we have one per 100 000 people and it isn't manned at the front desk) and spoke to a person and they have the free time to go and speak to this other person about this non crime. Perhaps that is also why you reported it and the neighbour was concerned ... does this pass for a scary event in your area? Where do you live as it sounds idyllic.

If I abandoned a car for six weeks on a neighbouring road where I live noone would bother to knock on my door. They would just slowly trash the car.

Low standards of being a considerate person. Well sure but that's not the same scenario is it? OP could move the car so it's not the same as being on holiday is it. Its fine to admit you'd happily just leave it there even if someone made a reasonable complaint that it was awkwardly parked meaning less spaces along the road- but just own that it's a selfish attitude.

Go back to the police and say you've calmed down now and that you think involving them will damage neighbour relationships so you would like to withdraw your concerns.

No I don't think you were. I had an immediate neighbour who was a similar sort of prick who kept blocking my back gate and using my parking space on my property. I ended up calling the police. They had a word. He ended up moving out shortly after. Win/win. Bullies don't listen to reason.

Leaving the car in the middle of a row is very inconsiderate. Leave it at the front or back. Or better still, take it to long term storage until your youngest has passed their test. Do you have a relation with space on a driveway for a while ?

Personally I’d would if just said sorry I didn’t realise then moved it

bring uncooperative never generates a positive response

@ShatteredPeace you are joking right ? 😂

Our town has introduced permit parking due to be people parking second cars or cars they don't use alot in nearby streets for months on end. It has caused alot of anger in those resident streets. The councils answer was to introduce permit parking (£200+) a year and then give it out too many.

So now, because of people parking their 2nd cars etc in our street we have to pay for a permit £200 to park in our street and still not near our house.

Prior to this, I would often finish a busy shift and spend up 20 minutes driving around looking for a space and then have 10 minute walk back to my house.

No, not joking. I think, like others, she's overreacted.

She may have a permit but that does not excuse her inconsiderate parking or leaving it unattended for so long.

Yabu I understand it's a road but really shitty to park outside someone's house for 6 weeks and not move to at least give them a chance. We had a lodger who bought a second car to tinker on and we said he needed to park it several streets away where there was lots of free parking not directly outside of someone's house so he wasn't inconveniencing anyone. You should be doing the same if you aren't regularly using the car or at least moving it around.

There is room for two cars outside my house. One of my neighbours has a daughter who drives an older Mini One. So it's small.

Every single time she visits she parks it slap bang in the middle so there isn't room for another car.

It's incredibly inconsiderate and totally avoidable.

I haven't said anything because it's only a visit but it does irritate the hell out of me when I have to park elsewhere when there would be room if she just gave a seconds thought for other people - and it always seems to be when I have a car full of shopping. If it was six weeks I'd be raging.

Legally parked? Yes.

Inconsiderate? Also yes.

Six WEEKS? Shitty selfish behaviour.

Move the car.

I read "I'm asking you nicely" not as a threat, but as him letting you know that what he actually wanted to say was a lot less nice.

We have cars appear in our street every now and again and we might wonder who they belong to and might even go online to check it’s taxed and MOTd which they always have been and so we leave it at that, we don’t try and find out who the owner is as we accept that they are entitled to leave their car there. I’m not saying saying that it hasn’t annoyed me when it’s been outside my house but as a rational human I understand that I don’t own the piece of road in front of my home. How is one car being there the whole time any different from coming home to a different neighbour’s car being parked there each day? You still don’t get to park in front of your house?

As others have said, just move it to the end of the parking area when there is an opportunity.

However, if you felt he was threatening towards you of course you should have reported it to the authorities. He may have had a point about the car, but if he was being intimidating that is not an acceptable way of raising concerns in any circumstances.

As for the car, there is no limit on how long you can park a car legally on the street. It seems lots of people aren't aware of that. Also the OP clearly stated that as the road was made a clearway the authorities issued permits to residents with the full intention of them parking on adjacent streets thus making those street parking areas just as much belonging to the residents of the clearway street as the other streets around.

It seems that lots of people are labouring under the misapprehension that they have any particular rights to the highway outside their properties. Unless a car is blocking the entrance to your property (i.e. a dropped curb) then there they are free to park legally outside your home. I'm quite shocked to read that another poster had a telling off from the police for parking their vehicle legally for a week on the road outside another property. Unless there was something more to that story that is an overreach by the police as no crime was committed.

How is one car being there the whole time any different from coming home to a different neighbour’s car being parked there each day?

Different cars would park according to where others were parked so you wouldn't end up with the one car across two spaces situation like with a car left for weeks.

Don’t talk rubbish! You inform the insurance company where your car is going to be parked during the day and overnight. You chose to say ‘on the driveway’. Your choice!

As for the car, there is no limit on how long you can park a car legally on the street. It seems lots of people aren't aware of that.

No one has said its illegal, just that it's selfish and inconsiderate if its causing issues.

What would you be complaining about? And to whom?

My point was that regardless of whether it’s the same car or different cars you still can’t park outside your home.

And looking at the diagram it’s not even outside angry man’s house. He’s a busybody and needs to get a hobby.