Neighbour using my drop kerb!

[mykerb]

A new family have moved in next door - not attached we are a row of two semi's each and so on..
I have a driveway and a dropped kerb. So it goes my drive, pavement and then the dropped kerb.

My next door neighbours have a make shift drive (from previous tenants) but NO dropped kerb, it doesn't help that their neighbours have 4 cars and two permanently parked outside their garden so the new neighbours have nowhere to park except down the road because of it but again not my problem!

They have started driving over my drop kerb to park in the make shift drive, I have started parking on my dropped kerb to make a point of it and I did block them in, to which the woman politely asked if I could move my car so she could reverse out, I told her I don't appreciate her using the kerb to park in, to which she replied that she is going to be getting the curb outside hers dropped but it will take a while due to getting planning permission etc and it's hard to walk down the road with 3 kids and a newborn so it's just been more convenient, but she won't do it again if it bothers me.

Tbh she hasn't had a chance to park there again as I have started parking in front of my drive, on my dropped kerb but my sister has said I'm being petty for no reason and making her life harder and it's not a big deal! And it's really irked me because now I don't know if I'm being unreasonable or not!

Op leave this alone, you are being petty and starting a neighbour war over nothing..just relax

Please apologise to your poor neighbour for being such an arsehole. It’s everyone’s nightmare to move home and find they have a petty neighbour next door who’s out to make your life difficult for no reason.

I agree

Time to eat humble pie, admit you have been an arsehole and let the poor woman use the fucking kerb without her feeling bad that she might have made a bad start with her new neighbours. The fact that she can use it and tell you to jog on but hasnt, suggests that she is a far better neighbour than you deserve!

It irks you perhaps as it’s a change and you liked it before with neighbours with less cars but not much you can do about any of this so let it go, be kinder here and buy yourself a treat once they get the other kerb dropped.

Grown women need to buy themselves treats as a reward for letting their neighbours use a (public) kerb? I’ve heard it all 🙄

I was thinking something similar! When did "buy yourself a treat" become a common thing? I have noticed it more often on MN, but also in general. Like you cant just do a good thing just because its a good thing to do, there has to be some tangible reward in it. Or rewarding oneself for taking on a unwanted chore from a partner by "using his card for a spa day!" or some such....

It saddens me so much that life, even at the most basic level, has become so transactional. Where so many people wont do anything without some sort of pay off.

From your picture, your neighbour must be driving over some of your land to get to their garden. IMO that was a CF thing to do without asking you first. ( unless it’s an extremely wide pavement and she doesn’t actually drive over your land at all). You were being ott blocking her in without having a chat first. Best solution would be for neighbour to chat to the family with 4 cars and ask them to leave your neighbours drive clear in anticipation of the dropped kerb. In the meantime it’s up to you whether you want her driving on your land or not. I don’t think it makes you a CF for saying no, but don’t expect a card at Xmas.

I definitely need a diagram. I can see how it could cause damage and that would bother me.

This has to be a reverse. You can't honestly think this is normal. If it is, you're an unbelievably petty individual who needs to have a long hard look at themselves and question why you've ended up like this.

Wow! Yabu.
Try just parking in your own driveway and stop curtain twitching at your neighbours actions. She is parking on her property not yours. So what if there’s a manoeuvre to get there.

Sort of. The proper criminal offence is preventing access to the Queen’s highway, and is only committed if you block a vehicle in. Access is not prevented if the block is moved (immediately) on request, so you can’t illegally block your own drive. (You’d have to decline your own request to move yourself!)

It’s a civil parking infringement to park on a dropped kerb if there is no vehicle on the drive. But my council couldn’t give a flying fig and I’ve never succeeded in getting it enforced, despite daily occurrences (I lived opposite a school. Parents blocked the drive literally every day, despite a dropped curb, an H-bar and signs)

OP, I can’t believe you’re this upset that a neighbour is driving over your dropped curb. How does it affect you in the slightest?! We all have our quirks, but that seems a real doozy.

I’d see the point if your neighbour was rude or demanding. You say they have been nice and polite. I think you are being unreasonable and not very neighbourly. Why not try to help out and possibly make a good friend/neighbour?

YABVU. Please apologise to your poor nieghbour for your pettiness and entitlement. Her using the dropped kerb doesn't affect you in any way (I've seen your diagram).

I can't believe your entitlement to think you own the pavement outside your house. You don't. She didn't need your permission. You didn't have any authority to tell her not to do that, nor to block her in.

What a welcome for your poor new neighbour - who has a newborn. She must be deeply regretting moving into her house. You've behaved terribly.

@mykerb

Ok, I think I get it. The dropped kerb leads to OP’s driveway, not the makeshift driveway next door.
The neighbour is using the driveway, mounting the pavement somewhat to get in to her driveway.

Personally, I wouldn’t do this if my neighbour had dropped their kerb and I hadn’t. It’s a potentially risky manoeuvre - I’m guessing there is a divide between the houses, could damage the pavement more than necessary - and it’s not what it’s designed for (I don’t think the council would allow it either).

They decided to take their house, knowing the situation with the drive, and hopefully this will speed up their own kerb drop rather than over relying on the kerb outside your house.
Ok it’s not technically ‘your kerb’, but people can’t drive up it to mount the pavement and go to wherever they like.
If neighbours asked, and I could see they were struggling - I’d probably say yes (for a month) until they sorted their own kerb. If they didn’t sort it, then I’d start declining.

And I think you can park over the dropped kerb if it’s your access point - I park over mine!!

Neighbour needs to get her own kerb dropped, by driving across a non-reinforced section of pavement, even at an angle, she may be damaging it. Whether you turn a blind eye to her doing it or not is up to you, personally for neighbourly relations I probably would, unless it became clear she had no intentions of getting her kerb dropped.

Parking blocking your own dropped kerb is basically ok if your local authority is ok with it - hence the wide variety of answers.

Some areas won't be, some will require you to register your vehicle as belonging to that property, some will have agreed to a drop kerb because it also fulfills their need to provide wheelchair/buggy access/improve access locally(mine does this, effectively relying on the public to pay for access upgrades!!), some areas agree to drop kerbs for the sole reason that it takes cars off the road, so you get the dropped kerb.. but then you cannot park over it. You need to check.

Blocking someone in, whether its legal to park over your dropped kerb or not, is twatty and a good way to ensure you fall out with your neighbours!

But would you own the kerb in the first place? even if you paid to drop it (or not)

if it is not on your land is it yours?

Wow you must be so pleased with yourself ? Why are you going out of your way to be sooooooo mean ? Looking at everyone’s comments I think you have your answer to what everyone thinks ? In the grand scheme of things do you really think what you are doing is right ? WOW

No it isnt.

The cost to drop a kerb is the parts and labour to actually drop it. She asked, the council agreed it was an appropriate place for a dropped kerb, and she paid the costs for them to do it.

It is still owned by the council. She paid for the convenience, not the ownership.

Unless she has deeds that state she owns the section of pavement and road outside her house, she has no more rights over it than I do.

Stated with confidence as we have a dispute in our street over "parking outside my house!!!!!" Interestingly, those of us who have lived here for years (me 25, next door 30+) accept that sometimes we may have to park further away or move to buy a place with a drive. The renters seem to be at each others throats about it! They seem to think that living in a house means you have rights over the bit of road outside of it (all in their early 20's if that makes a difference_......although the arsehole middle aged bloke who owns three cars and barely drives any of them is pissing us all off.

Your sister is right.

Also, I don’t think you own the kerb just because you paid to have it dropped.

So the op is complaining about something they do not own nor have any control of?

so what is the point of this thread other than adding it to a 'things that annoy me list'

I told her I don't appreciate her using the kerb to park in, to which she replied that she is going to be getting the curb outside hers dropped but it will take a while due to getting planning permission etc and it's hard to walk down the road with 3 kids and a newborn so it's just been more convenient, but she won't do it again if it bothers me.

Tbh she hasn't had a chance to park there again as I have started parking in front of my drive, on my dropped kerb but my sister has said I'm being petty for no reason and making her life harder and it's not a big deal! And it's really irked me because now I don't know if I'm being unreasonable or not!

Petty is putting it very mildly indeed. You are being a complete ----.

Another vote for petty.