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.

So anyway just to add, angry neighbour has come to apologise for being so rude. Alls well that ends well

You are right.
Either all the rules apply equally to all, or the games off.

you don't even KNOW if the agreement is enforceable? In any case I have some questions.....Assuming that the agreement is enforceable do all residents have to agree or is a majority enough? Where are the "rules" of this management group written down? Worst case is that the group is legit, that the agreement is legit and therefore you can't park more than one car in the road tout court BUT it would be odd to say the least for a council to allow rersidents to decree who can park where.

I mean this is mad and the rules are mental but they’ve been agreed by you all so in simple terms, you’re being unreasonable.

the agreement is one car outside and unfortunately you have two, so you should be parking your other car in the other road - which you’ve already said isn’t a problem.
The neighbour is probably using the bins knowing you’ll park there and now, unfortunately for you, it’s needed for charging and they want it back.

I know the other agreement is visitors park elsewhere but they need to charge the car and given the resident doesn’t have a car they can take ‘their’ allocated space.

everyone’s agreed to the batshit rules and you’re breaking them and complaining about being pulled up about it.

Not complaining about being pulled up, complaining about being accosted. I would have been more open to a reasonable conversation.

why does the family member automatically get the residents space? People park outside my house and I have an EV charger, I suck it up as I don’t have an allocated space. I fail to see why a family member should get priority over a resident, but anyway as another poster summarised better than I can- all the rules apply to everyone or none of them do.

You're both in the wrong

Son should be parked in the other road, already fully charged
You should start parking in the other road irrespective of spaces

This is fair and balanced. Thankyou

One car per household seems fair, it shouldn't matter if it is a car of the household or a visitor as long as it's the only car. I read no visitor or family cars as being no additional cars to one already parked.

@Kalevala i agree

And why do you get two spaces?
Seems more logical all residents get one space - that’s what I understood it as.

You say you were open to a reasonable conversation but you made the sarky remark about the police? 🤷🏻‍♀️

It seems like a fairly batshit rule if there is plenty of space on the street.

I also wasn’t aware that management committees had any rights over public highways. I’d have thought you parking perfectly legally on the street was fine, whereas bin blocking EV neighbour causing an obstruction was the one in the wrong.

But I guess you live and learn!

That may be what you understand but that is not the agreement.

again, all rules apply or none do.

Surely the only response to verbal abuse is to contact the police? Am I to stand and accept a man shouting at me?

@Calismom ok perhaps stick to them then?

’This afternoon, another very angry neighbour accosts me’

The elderly neighbours and their son OP is talking about aren’t the ones who swore at her . Read the post! Of course the man was out of order swearing at her but that has nothing to do with the elderly neighbours she decided to bring into the disagreement to justify her behaviour.

I have no idea what I've just read. No-one has the right to tell people where they can park & if they do the person being asked doesn't need to comply.
That said I love a parking thread (laughs wickedly)

An awful lot of these disputes would be instantly resolved if people realised that cars and houses are completely separate things. Yes, most people have both, but they are not actually linked.

The tax that you pay for your vehicle (as long as it is also insured and MoT'd) qualifies you for first-come-first-served rights to any unrestricted parking space on the public road. If you own 10 taxed vehicles, you are just as entitled to take 10 spaces on the public road as your neighbour with one taxed vehicle is entitled to one.

It's always convenient if you can find a space right near to your house - and that is obviously less likely, the more vehicles your neighbours own - but the price you pay to buy/rent your house is one thing and the tax/costs that you pay to use/park your vehicle on any (unrestricted) public road are an entirely different thing; they aren't linked in any way.

It's human nature to feel aggrieved and irritated when there are more people wanting to use spaces than there are spaces available; but I will never for the life of me understand the many people who reject every single other exciting and productive hobby in the world available to them in favour of actually caring and obsessing over who has parked where, when there's always plenty of space for everybody, and looking to start arguments and make enemies with their neighbours over nothing whatsoever.

I had misread a later post where it was said they are the only family and the rest are old or single. I missed the single but. But she is justified in bringing them into the argument, they are blocking spaces with bins. If the car park spaces are so precious then that should be complete no go also

So if the neighbours were to tell the HOA that the son were driving their car; the transfer of ownership to the neighbour parents, it's the neighbours car simply being driven by son. That'd be ok?. The son needs to charge the neighbours car and can't do that across the road. They still only take up one spot.

You're still taking up 2 spots.

Well if the rule genuinely is that non car owning neighbour's aren't allowed to let their guests park on their street by their houses, then that's a really rubbish rule and doesn't make sense. The rule was obviously brought in to try to stop second (or more) cars using up the spaces in the road. One car per house space is fair - if you go down that route. Despite what OP said initially, this obviously has been as issue or they wouldn't have brought it in.

Decent of neighbour to apologise. He was in the wrong. Some people get very hot under the collar about parking.

YANBU your neighbour is an arse and since you weren't at the meeting, you didn't agree to these terms. They don't have any legal standing.

OP
It would be awfully nice if you updated us.
Many thanks!!