Cars being keyed / wheelie bin

[Sara249]

We live on a main road. When we have family to visit, they have (legally) parked outside our house with two wheels on the curb and two wheels on the road. As buggy users ourselves with young kids, we are sure we always leave enough room for prams.

a few months ago, my parents stayed over and noticed their car had been keyed. I wanted to think it was perhaps just an accident and someone had scraped the car going past. But then a few weeks later, my sister stayed and parked in the same place (but again leaving space for a buggy) and her car had been keyed. So now we thought this must be deliberate. A week or so later, our car was on the curb this time as we had my parents staying to help with the baby and we woke up to our car being keyed. So that’s 3 cars now that have been keyed, all having parked on the same place.

this has made us feel pretty cross and upset, as our guests are always parked legally. It’s a busy main road but street parking is legal and we don’t have alternative parking for them.

this morning again my mum had stayed to help with the baby (we have a newborn and toddler so hence us having a bit more family help at the min!) and had parked on the road, and we woke up to a wheelie bin sat on her car roof and all the rubbish had fallen off onto the ground on the road.

my husband found it at 7am and took it down, but did take a picture.

it’s so frustrating as clearly this local person HATES us parking on the pavement, but it’s not illegal for our guests to do that. And what they are doing in response with the keys and now this is illegal and is surely criminal damage.

we have no evidence of who has done it though but my hunch is it’s clearly the same person each time.

part of me wants to continue to park there, but I equally don’t want any trouble with this anonymous neighbour as with 2 young kids we don’t want a local enemy! But a petty small part of me wants to set up a camera on our drive way (on our property which directly backs onto the pavement) and try and see if we catch the person doing it when our guests next park there. But this feels like the smaller person route!

I will just get our family and guests to park on a side street off the main road and walk to our house, but it is slightly frustrating we feel we have to do this as they often have lots of bags and stuff to stay over.

would you try take it further and get evidence etc? Or just choose the easier option and stop people parking there?

also please let me know if you agree with this neighbour, happy to hear the alternative view but we genuinely think we always leave enough room for a pram and / or wheelchair. And clearly this person isn’t a wheelchair user to have got the full wheelie bin onto the roof.

do they need to park with wheels on the pavement given it’s a legal space?

and we woke up to our car being keyed.

so you witnessed it?

Don't park on the pavement.

one of your neighbours will surely have video cam?

i can’t understand why you all persist on part parking on the pavement given what has been happening

very odd

Do you have to put the tyres on the pavement? Does anyone else park like that?

If you're in London it IS illegal to park on the pavement. Outside of London it isn't, but you're making a judgement on how people use the pavement - wheelchair users need more space than buggy users and motorised scooter users need FAR more space than buggy users. If on-road parking is fine then why aren't all of their wheels on the road? That's the right way to park surely?

I think keying cars and the wheelie bin thing are both horrible and unacceptable by the way, but I do wonder if you are all assuming that your parking is fine when in fact it's actually obstructive to other people. Why can't you park on the street?

Regardless of whether parking on the pavement is the right course of action, keying someone's car and dumping a wheelie bin on the roof is not an appropriate response. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Unless there’s signage saying that you must park on the curb, which is relatively rare, then you aren’t supposed to do it and could be fined. So presuming that isn’t the case on your road because I’m sure you would have mentioned it in the OP if it were… then they’re not legally parked and are in the wrong. 2 wrongs don’t make a right though and no one should be keying cars and throwing rubbish everywhere. But the whole issue could probably be avoided if they stopped illegally curb parking.

Edit: sorry think this is a London centric response! Didn’t know it wasn’t illegal elsewhere. But still I wouldn’t park up the curb unless signs told me I needed to, especially when you know it’s pissing off the neighbours who may have a wheelchair or enormous double buggy. It’s not necessary to park like that and after the first incident it’s just inviting confrontation.

It's really not ideal but can they park up and drop off their stuff and then move the car, mostly to protect their cars.

I'm totally with you on this one. They should be able to park anywhere legal. As long as they aren't blocking a dropped kerb and leaving enough space. My mum stayed at mine a few weeks ago while I was poorly to look after my 11 month old and had a note to not park in front of our neighbours house. It's a free road and when she arrived I was most worried about crawling back into bed than anything else.

Because in many places parking on the pavement leaves room for pedestrians on the pavement, while also leaving room for cars and emergency vehicles to pass in the road.

Obviously.

No idea why it causes such ire on here, it's a perfectly normal, legal thing to do.

how long ago did you move there?
is it a row of terraced houses? semis? detached?

well unless it’s happening to all the car parking on this main road…. then it must be something about the way these cars are being parked

As others have said, you may be leaving enough space for a buggy, but is it sufficient for a wheel char of mobility scooter?

I live in London where it is illegal to park on the curb unless there are signs saying you can. When I am elsewhere I am very reluctant to park this way unless it is really necessary, as you really don't know who might need to get by.

OP, the only thing I think you can do is get a dash cam and set it up in any visitors' cars, along with a note in the window saying it's there and recording. That may deter whoever it is, or give you evidence if they do it again.

surprised no one heard the noise if a wheelie bin being dragged on top of a car and emptied! would have made on heck of a racket

We all know there's people who will take against someone parking legally outside their house as they feel they own the road.

If this person had a reasonable objection, they could come and knock on the door and explain it.

Why on earth are they and you parking on the pavement. That is not acceptable. They shouldn't be damaging your property but I understand the frustration.

Great there is space for a pram, what about a double pram and toddle on a scooter, a mobility scooter. Don't be dicks park on the road or park elsewhere and walk.

Well it's not 'legal' in quite a few places. In Dundee for example they are now enforcing the 2019 Transport Act legislation that says even one wheel on the pavement can be treated as a fineable offence outside of streets on an exemption list.

But I agree that it's obviously irritated someone and perhaps impeded them getting around. Your buggy doesn't mean every mobility scooter, buggy etc can get past easily.

Rule 244 of the Highway Code states that you must not park on the pavement in London, and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it.

Are you and your visitors the only people who park on the pavement on your street? If so, how do other people park in a way that they don't need to, if not are other cars being damaged too? If everyone parks like this and it's only ones outside your home that get damaged, that sounds more like a personal vendetta. It's worth getting a camera set up to catch them next time they do it. We had this once when someone ripped the windscreen wipers off our car every time we parked outside our house (on the road admittedly, not on the pavement).

How does everyone else park? Is there room for a mobility scooter or wheelchair? I'd be surprised if people are doing this if the parking isn't causing a nuisance.

Parking on the pavement not only causes obstruction, but also damages the pavement itself causing further problems. Where I live, many pavements have pot holes and trip hazards due to people driving on them, and where there are grass verges, these get ruined. It may not be strictly illegal to park on the pavement, but it is socially inconsiderate. I'm sorry your cars have been keyed (that's not ok either), but just park somewhere where you can be fully on the road.

Are you allowed to pavement park on your road?

It's legal in most of the UK. OP has clearly stated that the car is legally parked, which suggests she knows that laws on this vary and so she was trying to avoid the "It's illegal in London" posts.