AIBU to think people should park outside the house they are visiting?

[UnsocialBat]

Most of the houses on my street are terraced and don't have driveways, it's mainly on road parking in front of your house. There's a car that has been parking in front of mine quite regularly the past 2 or 3 months, sometimes leaving it there for 3 or 4 days at a time. They aren't visiting the neighbours either side of me, they go across the road to a house which has road parking on 3 sides plus a driveway.
I know that no one has any right to public road outside their house and they are parked legally. But I feel like 4 days of leaving your car in front of someone else's house when there is plenty of space to park at the house you are visiting is a bit rude.
AIBU or are they taking the piss?

You bought the house not the road 🤔

I live in a cul de sac with residents only parking . With a bit of juggling we can all get outside our houses. We do have a pass for visitors but I ask my visitors to park at the end of the cul de sac where there is more space as the houses are bigger and have drives . My neighbour just lets her visitors park outside my house . Sometimes for two days and I am not happy at the end of a long shift to have to reverse all the way out as no room to turn and to then find a space !

If it actually REALLY makes getting out of the driveway awkward I would pop over and say you find it makes it harder and in a friendly way note that you would really appreciate them parking elsewhere ( or st least mixing it up a bit).

I too think it's not a big deal but admit it would annoy me.

I'm also intrigued as to what their thought process is...there must be a reason they choose where they do!

I'd also be tempted to start parking directly outside the house they're visiting, but then I am very petty like that.

I was wondering why on earth you'd park a short walk away from the house you were visiting when there were spaces right next to it, but your hypothesis makes a lot of sense. I'd never choose to park under a tree (unless it was a madly hot day and I wanted shade) and would prefer a short walk over a shitty car.

Had exactly this discussion at work the other day. It started over whether was you should park on someone's drive when visiting them, and then extended to the niceties of on-street parking.

A colleague who doesn't have a drive said that because she hates people parking outside her house, she would never inflict that on the person she was visiting, so she always parks across the road from them.

Maybe people who live in houses without parking shouldn't have visitors at all?

It's part and parcel of living in a terraced house I'm afraid. You can let it drive you insane, but my advice would be to not to.

That's actually mad. She would "hate" a visitor who she'd invited to come over parking outside her door?

The problem with that approach is one of two things happens.

Either they don’t even notice you are making a point, in which case the effort is wasted; OR
They do notice, in which case you are outed anyway so it would have been much more grown up and less antagonistic to just say do you mind asking your guest not to always pick our house ( and by then you’ve been guilty of the same thing anyway). I get annoyed by the overuse of passive aggressive on here when used to criticise a low conflict aporoach rather than its proper meaning of trying to provoke in a way that isn’t upfront , but this is a pretty good example of the latter.

Agreed. Christmas is approaching so it will be good to have an idea of what you can do if they park in your space this year.

That's actually mad. She would "hate" a visitor who she'd invited to come over parking outside her door?

Not quite. She hates it when people park outside her door. Generic 'people'. So she thinks she is being polite by not parking outside people's doors. The people she is visiting, that is.

But, yes, actually mad. Because what about the people outside whose door she is parking? "Oh, I don't know them. I can't do anything about that."

It would irritate me as well but that would make me unreadonable too.

My first thought from the title was YABU if it’s a public road, but after reading the post I can see where you’re coming from if there’s plenty of space by the houses they’re visiting.

We have issues with our neighbours over the road who think nobody should ever park outside their house and we’ve been yelled at over a car that actually had nothing to do with us just because we have had visitors park there before so they assumed it must be us. It was actually visitors of somebody further up the road but they didn’t believe us! In my mind it’s better to park their side of the road as there is space for three cars whereas outside us you could only fit one and there’s not space for cars both sides. They actually blocked in a car visiting us once by bringing their two cars out of the drive and parking either side as close as possible! So you’re not the only one that gets irritated by cars parking outside your house, but I assume you’re not taking it as far as our neighbours do!

While it’s irritating you, they likely don’t imagine it being a problem. Until I moved to my current house I wouldn’t have imagined people would have such an issue with a person parking legally on a public road…it wouldn’t have entered my head that it might annoy someone!

But even given her batshit logic, it's not occurred to her that a visitor you've invited is not the same as a generic stranger? Nowt so queer as folk.

It's cheeky. It annoys me too. I hate folk parking outside my house when they can park somewhere else.

Next time, park behind them and block them in. For days.

@orangeleopard report to council and ask if you are allowed to install those parking posts. It’s a faff but at least you’ll get your space. Can you put up private parking sign? You should just go and park on the closest driveway as nothing they can do about it

I know that you are right.

Tbh I am all talk...I would daydream about it and make vague suggestions to DH that I would do this...but would never actually do it in reality. I also suspect many people are the same as me in these scenarios.

Yes we all daydream. For me it’s more about incredibly honest things I would say to people - but never actually do it for fear of hurting their feelings.

For instance I have a friend who can never find anything to wear to something special and it’s because she spends loads on piles of cheap stuff she doesn’t really need for everyday so it all looks worn out and out of shape when it matters. She often complains and part of me thinks I should just say “you would be better not to buy so much cheap tat and save the money to a handful of quality items which would look decent when it came to something formal.” I know this is the problem and it would help her but I just can’t manage it. I’ve hinted, but can’t bring myself to use the wording above!

@Calliopespa it makes it a bit tight reversing out so need to be very careful not to clip the other car and have to basically do a U turn in reverse to get out instead of a normal turn. Awkward but not impossible so wouldn’t go knocking on doors!

It’s not rude and you need to stop letting it annoy you.

@toomuchcardboard the thought process confuses me too 😂 no trees and no overhead lines, the only slight difference is there’s a streetlight right by my wall (although it lights the opposite side of the road too just not as brightly). There’s a streetlight at the back of the other house too which they could park under if that’s what they’re thinking. Who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️

That’s not at all what I was suggesting. Also it’s me who has no parking except the road in front, the house they’re visiting across the road does have parking 😅

@TwistedReads oh gosh I’d never even ask them to move let alone go out shouting at anyone! My being a little bit irritated is my problem not anyone else’s 😂

To wrap this up, I'm in a rural area with very little traffic and where parking outside someone else's house is not common. A car not moving from outside my front window for days (rather than using the available space nearer to the house they're visiting) annoys me a little bit. Maybe that's unreasonable. It's not something I think about daily, only when they were actually there (they're now long gone).
I was never going to say anything to these folk and won't if they're back again. That would very much be unreasonable as they aren't doing anything wrong.

Have a lovely day and may we all manage to get parked near where we're going, especially when it's raining!! 😂