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!

He shouldn't have been driving over the pavement in the first place.

I

Ooh I know, why don’t you charge her a fiver a go to use your special private kerb?
that would be entirely normal.

Council aren’t able to do anything about driving on or parking on pavements. We have trouble with cars parked completely on the pavements and fully blocking them and council say it’s a police matter but police aren’t bothered. Council can only apparently enforce parking restrictions such as single and double lines.

So you didn't mind him breaking @Rosscameasdoody 's rules then? What's different about new neighbour that makes you want to give her a hard time?

And don't say the dropped kerb. It belongs to the council, same as the one old neighbour kept driving over illegally.

Would you just calm the fuck down?

I don’t understand how this impacts you in any way at all. It’s not like she’s parking across the dropped kerb outside your house (which you have paid to have dropped but does not belong to you) and/or restricting your access.

It’s not like you could even claim she’s contributing to wear and tear and should give you some money towards the maintenance, because it’s not even yours - if it needed work doing, the council would be the ones paying for it!

She has 3 kids plus a newborn baby, and you’re going out of your way to make life more difficult for her for no apparent reason, when all she’s trying to do is make the best of the hand she’s been dealt in a way that isn’t even a minor inconvenience to you - it’s no inconvenience at all; you are just being petty for the sake of being petty, and negatively impacting someone else’s life in the process. Have a word with yourself

Wow, just wow. I can’t believe your entitlement - it’s not your dropped curb! Even if you paid for it originally it’s on a public pavement. She doesn’t need your permission to use it.

You sound like a bitter, spiteful person. Why are you being such a twat to your new neighbour? Glad you’re not my neighbour. Here’s hoping you don’t ever need any kind of favour from them.

I hope she does have to rely on the neighbour for a favour, and the neighbour tells her quite rightly where to shove it…

Yeah I see your point. TBH to keep peace with a neighbour I’d allow it as long as it isn’t blocking you in etc.

All this commotion over one day ull need a favour...I've lived over 10yrs in my house never needed to ask my neighbours for help or a favour 🤔 what favours are people asking of their neighbours

My neighbour has done me a few favours and vice versa

Taking in parcels
When going to the shop picking up something for each other
When her middle son was rushed to hospital, the other two were in bed, so sitting with them.
When my two were young, the eldest was at nursery, youngest was sick but just got him down for a nap, she sat in while I picked up eldest.
The odd cup of tea, when needed.
Putting out/taking in bins when on holiday.
Lending a set of jump leads.

I could continue.

Gosh you are at risk of becoming one of those grumpy nuts old neighbours OP. Life is too short to be this selfish! She has a newborn!

You speak as though your proud you have a lot of responses but they are mostly negative about your responses...have you apologised to your neighbour yet to redeem yourself a little ?

No, it’s primarily about being a decent empathetic human being, and not making a mum with 4 kids, including a baby, traipse down the street to get to their car simply because they dare to spend all of 5 seconds traversing a dropped kerb that is in front of the OP’s house.

I despair of people who can only see the world in purely transactional terms. It’s a classic sociopathic trait.

OP, your general attitude, and lack of empathy (or even the concept of it), are consistent with being a sociopath, even if I obviously don’t have enough information and background to diagnose you as such.

Is this consistent with other aspects of your life? Do you jealously insist on “your rights” irrespective of the situation or impact on others?

For example, you and a frail person wait in a queue for a bus. You’re ahead in the queue, and get on first, and there’s one seat left…. Based on what you’ve written, it feels like you’re the kind of person who would grab that last seat as it’s your “right” (first come, first served after all!) being oblivious to the other person and their needs - they don’t even register.

Exactly !!!

Sociopath ? Really ? You can ‘diagnose’ that from an internet forum ?

FFS

Not my rules. Couldn’t care less - just pointing out that regardless of OP’s wishes regarding ‘her’ dropped kerb, it’s illegal to do what the neighbour is doing. And if you agree that the former neighbour was doing it illegally, what makes the current neighbour any different ?

OP is right in regard to the use of the dropped kerb. The council charged for and provided her with a dropped kerb for access to her own property only. If it was a facility for the rest of the neighbours to share, why is the financial burden on the OP ?

I’ve seen a couple of similar threads on MN where the exact opposite view has been taken - as in, ‘no, you paid for it and they’re CF’s’. But as always with MN, the first couple of posts set the tone and the sheeple follow. Here, once it was picked up that the neighbour had young children the whole tone changed. Suddenly it’s fine to do whatever you like. Regardless of the law. Because you have children. I live opposite a school. I see awful, entitled behaviour from parents every day. Because they have children. They’re entitled. Clearly MN thinks the same. This is the stupidest thread l’ve seen for a while.

If I was your neighbour, I wouldn’t bother paying for the drop kerb and find a new house…sounds like they are sandwiched in between some not very nice neighbours!

@Rosscameasdoody if it's illegal, will the police get involved?

It's been pointed out by so many people that the pavement is not reinforced.

I have had two dropped kerbs "installed". Neither involved reinforcing the pavement, merely lowering the pavement.

Because you have children. I live opposite a school. I see awful, entitled behaviour from parents every day. Because they have children. They’re entitled. Clearly MN thinks the same. This is the stupidest thread l’ve seen for a while.

I see awful entitled behaviour from everyone in all walks of life, I see reasonable behaviour from everyone on all walks of life.....

Being a parent doesn't mean you are on or the other, you had that trait anyway.

@mykerb

It's kerb not curb, you strangely go between the two.

It's a Nissan Qashqai not a Nissan Quash car.

Just to stop you making yourself look even more silly!

I think when it’s next door, it has zero effect on the op and she doesn’t even own it it’s utterly peevish to break the law in order to stop them from using it.

She has written that she can’t in the first 5 lines of her post…

I explicitly stated that I obviously couldn’t diagnose sociopathy from a few internet posts. You’re accusing me of something I clearly said I wasn’t doing!

I merely said that the OP’s behaviour and attitude were consistent with sociopathy.