Just had a blazing row with a builder

[musicthroughthewall]

Not working for me, he keeps parking across my driveway. I’ve asked him again to move it and he said all I have to do is be polite and ask.l each time.

I responded with I was polite the first time and how about he just doesn’t do it. And wow did it escalate. He was screaming that he pays road tax and can park where he wants, I pointed out it’s a dropped curb so no he can’t.

Honestly. It got so much worse, he called me a fucking bitch. Now I feel vulnerable in my own home.

Aibu? I shouldn’t repeatedly have to ask someone to stop blocking my car. I’ve noticed he doesn’t block the driveway of the people he’s working for.

We always tell our biulders to park on our drive as its big and at times the odd one parks willy, nilly and we tell them to move their vehicle - at times during major works and when we are not hope they may block someones drive and what we do is tell next door to tell us is any probs with builders - usually works

I would park across the neighbours driveway every single time you come home and find the builder in your way. Make it their problem.

I live in a small cul de sac and came home last week to find neighbours builder in a truck blocking me out.
I wound down my window and politely said ‘you’re blocking my drive, can you move please?’ To which he looks down at me as he raises a mug of tea and points to it as if to say ‘when I’ve drank this’.
it was at that point I drove right up to his open window and leaned on the horn. He swore at me and moved.
never did it again.

There IS "ROAD TAX" and we pay loads

Pedants love to point out that it's technically called 'vehicle excise duty', but as far as most of us are concerned, it is a compulsory tax for you to be able to use your vehicle in public - ON THE ROADS - which does make it to all intents and purposes a road tax. Yes, it's levied based on emissions, but not a single one of us buys a vehicle for the sole purpose of watching and enjoying the emissions that it makes.

Just like, if you told your pedantic young children to "make sure you cross with the lollipop lady", they would smugly berate and belittle you, as she is actually a 'school crossing patrol' and, officially, there is indeed no such thing as a 'lollipop lady/man'.

Even though this builder is a nasty entitled idiot for other reasons, I don't think it really makes you superior to try to stop people from using commonly-understood everyday terms that might technically differ from the official ones.

Interestingly, I don't think I've ever heard a pedant cavil at people routinely referring to the test itself as an 'MoT' (as opposed to the authority overseeing it); nor even at 'to MoT the car' being used as a verb. It always seems to be 'road tax' that brings them out screaming!

watching and enjoying the emissions that it makes

What is it with builders and being foul and aggressive? There’s a bunch of contractors doing work on my neighbour’s property and every other word out of their mouth is “fuck” screamed across a distance to each other as they’re up heights etc. If they weren’t so loud, obnoxious and annoying I’d find it funny

I had this attitude from a guy in a flat bed van who had just stopped in the middle of the road instead of pulling into the side, blocking the street. There was room to pull over. I was trying to get to an appointment. I pulled up behind and waited for a minute, thinking he would see me and pull in. Just continued to sit there. So I slightly sounded, not blared the horn. He pulled over, but gave a rude gesture through the open window. What the fuck is wrong with these guys? Imagine if a woman driver impeded them.

I'm sorry that happened to you. He sounds like a bullying asshole, definitely call his company and complain, or tell your neighbours his real character.

People like that little B that was blocking your drive are often big-mouthed cowards and hypocrites of the highest order, ie they park in front or part of other peoples drives but get hot under the collar when some parks outside their sht house that may not even have a drive

I call these types, prized S....

That's exactly what you would hope any responsible householder would do: tell them to use or block in YOUR drive, as YOU are the ones who have commissioned (and are benefiting from) the work.

I will never understand the rank entitlement inflicted upon innocent people who have no part whatsoever in an agreement or transaction, yet who nevertheless find themselves forcibly put out to enable and solve the problems of the people who did make the agreement.

True - the Americans do call a kerb a curb.
At least he wasn't parked on the sidewalk 🙄

Call the police and tell them you felt threatened and intimidated . He cannot block you in .

I think you just have to report it to the police if he does it again and hope they'll come out and ticket him (as you've seen them do in your area). I wouldn't advise parking over the dropped kerb yourself, in case you find you're the one committing an offence.

Your neighbours need to make sure he’s parking considerately. Why can’t they move their car off of their drive so he can park there while he’s working.

That said, he’s obviously an arsehole and should he taught that there are consequences. I’d be tempted by some kind of direct action.

Also can’t you just notify the council so they can send round a parking warden?

@musicthroughthewall Well I called the non emergency and they said there’s nothing they will do

When my neighbour reported a car blocking her drive so she couldn't get out to go to work, the police came out and called out a tow truck to remove it. Not sure why your police won't do anythng about it.

Its an offence to block access to the public highway

I admit I made a mistake are the 6 most difficult words in the English language to say.

You should practice them, @VolvoFan

I suspect they’ll come in very handy over your lifetime.

Said he didn’t threaten me so won’t be anything.

He’d moved the van so they wouldn’t do anything.

I don’t know… maybe if this was the case the neighbour could allow the builder to use their driveway instead of inconveniencing the OP. Or even park across the neighbours drive. In any case… not OPs problem.

He's an idiot. You can't block a drive it's an offence.
Ask him how he would like to be blocked in.

Have you contacted the local council? Round here it's the council that does dropped kerb/parking enforcement, the previous community enforcement officer might have have been sent by them. As he is persistently doing it in several places, you could club together with other neighbours and pursue it together as anti-social behaviour. Keep a log of each incident. And definitely film each time someone goes to tell him to move. Check if anyone has a video doorbell that caught this incident.

A builder really needs to have his van/truck close to where he is working.

This is very true. So it is up to the client and the builder together to ensure that this is - or can be - the case, before deciding whether the work can go ahead.

The issue is in builders who assume that everybody else will prioritise what suits them and put up/shut up/do without themselves.

If it is so imperative to block/use somebody else's drive, for the work to go ahead, whatever is forcing you to just take that liberty? Like with any goods or commodity, if you want something that somebody else has, you approach them and strike a deal, so that you can have what you need. That might be a polite request, it might be a 'sweetener' bottle of wine or box of chocolates, or it might be an agreement to pay them £X per day for it, as just one of the necessary costs of doing the work.

I might be in, say, Leeds, and need accommodation close to where I have a series of meetings - but that in no way gives me the right to take over a room in the Premier Inn without booking or paying for it; nor to just pitch a caravan on the drive of a random house that I decide is in a handy location. On the other hand, either of those options will/might be available to me, if I show the most basic respect of speaking to and negotiating with the people whose facilities I want to use, rather than just assuming that their wishes don't matter at all and that I can help myself to their goods/property/rights at any time without even saying a word to them.

Agreed. I got back from a morning out to discover a joiner's truck parked across my driveway.

The joiner immediately offered to move it. I told him that I was happy to park elsewhere to make it easier for him to carry materials to his client's house provided he moved the truck later that afternoon. (The client didn't have road access - there's a terrace of 4 houses at right angles to the terrace that I'm in and materials have to be carried up a footpath.)

If he'd been stroppy, I would have made sure that he couldn't access the area the next day. Given that he was perfectly polite and willing to move, I was happy to be amenable.

. What a bell end.

If he does it again please record the encounter on your phone, tell him you’re recording it as he was so misogynistic last time, you want a record of what he says to you.

He wasn’t going to cooperate anyway. His temper is the problem.