Neighbour parking dispute

[Calismom]

We live on a road where all leaseholders are part of a committee who manage the land including the road out the front and make agreements regarding parking (not sure this is legal but I’m assured it is).

At the last committee meeting (which neither me or my partner were able to attend) it was agreed that all residents would park only one vehicle on the road to leave enough space for everyone. Fine. Also agreed no family/friends to park on this land. There is free parking on a road close by so not an issue.

Not all residents have vehicles, and we are the only family with two, meaning there is plenty of space for our two vehicles plus all the other residents vehicles. Have lived here 5 years, thus far no issues.

Recently, elderly neighbours with no cars, son has been staying the odd night, and they have had an electric charger installed so he can charge said vehicle when he stays. He is not a permanent resident. They have been saving his space with bins when they know he is coming, and recently several days prior to ensure space is there. Again not a problem per se, we can just park further along the road.

This afternoon, another very angry neighbour accosts me as I am getting out of my car telling them I can’t park there as we already have a vehicle on the road. I explained that there are plenty of spaces for residents and perhaps the issue is this non resident taking up a space to charge his car and the space being saved by bins. He told me that the man had more right to park there than I did and when I queried this he had no response.

I then told him that if he felt I was committing a crime then he should call the police. He then told me to fuck off.

question is- who is being unreasonable here? Me or angry neighbour?

I fully accept that we have two vehicles and if another resident purchased a car and there was no room then I would happily park around the corner, but at present there is plenty of space for residents.

It's such a tough one.

On one hand it was agreed one car per family.

It was agreed no family or friends park - but yet 1 car per household so that's contradictory to no car households who could nominate a car as "theirs" for visitors.

But importantly it just seems a rule for rules sake if there are plenty of spaces for the cars the residents currently own including the elderly couple who's son stay.

It's when you get management/ neighbourhood groups making rules for rules sake you get this conflict.

Surely "residents only" would have worked and allowed enough space and they could even have made an area for "visitors" which if full - could have parked around the corner.

And proof is in the pudding with this thread that when you set rules for rules sake you then get the people splitting hairs to find reasons why you are wrong for "breaking the rules" but others aren't!

You need to get out your deeds and check what they say, they should clarify whether it is an adopted road, or whether the residents are responsible for the upkeep. If you don't have acopy, then you can download from Land Registry.
If it is a private road, then the decision at the AGM probably can decide 1 vehicle per house, if it isn't a private or unadopted road, then there isn't a legal basis for the restrictions.
Count yourself lucky- my son lives on a cul de sac built in the 1930s only 1 vehicle wide but still gets people parking outside their houses, sometimes half on the pavement, and get aggrieved if asked to move to let neighbours get past.

Nope, one space for your car, no space for friends or family. Not an assigned space per household. An agreement made before we even moved in when people were allowing friends to park up and commute to tube or even go on holiday (joys of London)

You don’t know who legally owns the cars though! One space per resident not 2!

Ok thanks

Welcome. Glad you now understand you can’t justify parking two cars when you all agreed on one car. Not difficult to abide by if you respect your neighbours. You moved in knowing the one car rule so not sure why you think for you 2 cars should be allowed?

Ok thanks

Always here to help with the basics of human decency and not demonising elderly neighbours.

Ok thanks

Welcome 👍

You said it was agreed that it is 1 car per family parking. Neighbour has given their "spot" to their son. You are consistently parking 2 cars on the road when the agreement was one so of course someone is going to confront you about it as you are in breech of the agreement. As seen on MN, people love and live for parking drama.

Seeing as these meetings seem to be where some strange decisions about the place you live are made. I would highly prioritise attending these meetings so you can put your arguments across. Had you been at the meeting you could have challenged the 1 car "policy". As you were not you are now subject to a batshit policy and been accosted by those enforcing it.

It seems more of a gentleman's agreement rather than a proper in law agreement. Perhaps at the next meeting you can say, let's all just park wherever and it's first come, first serve. You however forfeit your right to complain if you cannot park outside your house.

There is free parking on a road close by so not an issue.

I'm also keen to know whether there are any residences on this road close by. If there are, presumably, as you don't go by the standard rules for normal council-owned roads (is your road private?) they would have their own rules for their road?

If it is a standard council-owned road with no official restrictions, none of you can do a single thing to stop outsiders from parking there - and if they aren't visiting residents, you can't even harangue the people at the house they're visiting. You could well find that, whilst you're arguing and ordering residents not to park their vehicles there, all of the spaces get snapped up by complete strangers who couldn't care less and are doing nothing at all wrong.

Whatever the legality of it, it does sound a bit off to make a rule that only happens to affect one household - especially when there's no actual shortage of parking.

Effectively, it's not really any different (only very slightly more subtle) from the vast majority of the street agreeing on a rule that 'only people with a house numbered 1-24 or 26-100' are allowed to park there!

I do hope that your buyers only have one car - and never have visitors!

Its not enforceable.

If anyone committed a crime it was the neighbour who swore and verbally abused you in the street.

But why the need for the rule if there's more than enough space for everyone's cars and spaces left over?? Are they pissed off at you and see the only way to get back at you is through you owning 2 cars ? It's all so weird that you're expected to street park to leave space for a potential visitor

This rule has been around since before we moved in. I don’t think it’s personal, but it does just affect us as the only two car household.

it’s really never been a problem. Neighbour son EV charging and space holding with bins has also not been a problem, I didn’t even realise there was a problem until I got a mouth full from an angry man whilst I was attempting to get my toddler out of his car seat.

All the residents will vote on the preferred option. You can’t just say things don’t apply to you because you weren’t at the meeting 🤣

It’s never been a problem for “you”. It’s obviously been a problem for your other neighbours if they have decided to bring up parking at the residents meeting. If you need two parking spaces buy a house with 2 or park a car on the public road. Don’t take up other residents spaces

Well he cursed at her, so sounds like that elderly neighbour was rightfully demonised

Ok so you’ve not read the post, so thanks for commenting anyway, super helpful.

Simply put it doesn't matter what the other residents decide. It matters what the lease says.

In the absence of the lease saying anything its first come first served if you weren't party to the agreement

Of course they can. The lease will either state what the position is in regard to the parking or if it doesn't then its first come first served.

To be honest you are moving anyway. I would keep my head down, perhaps park elsewhere sometimes and avoid any escalation of a neighborhood dispute just as you are about to sell and move elsewhere.

I don’t see what your neighbour’s son situation has to do with the fact that you are breaking the rule and got called on it. Stop including irrelevant information about others. You are breaking the rule and someone has a problem with that, end of. Either work to change the rules or stop breaking them.