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.

That would just get removed by the council for being on their land/in the road.

Would gather a fast response too as it would be considered fly tipping. Nice fine if someone had proof who put it there say with their ring door bell

After the second experience of keying I would've really considered buying a camera! I can't believe none of your neighbours have said anything about a whole wheelie bin being on your car? They must have heard it or known who has done it. Do they have a ring camera?
Could you be being targeted for race, cultural etc reasons?

Buy some signs from Ebay saying "you're on CCTV" and stick them up by your door. You don't need to buy a camera if

I wouldn't be so scared of pissing them off more !! Who cares, they've already damaged several people's property! Clearly they're unhinged. Maybe report to the police just so its logged? Not sure.

I understand people hate pavement parking but as someone who used to live in an area in Birmingham with back to back terraced houses (that the council have now made into HMOs - increasing cars per household) you simply did have to park on the pavement.

You never have to park on the pavement. There is no human right promising you parking at public space in your street. If you can't park without parking on the pavement, you can't park there. It's that simple.

We MUST have all four wheels off the busy road to avoid a PCN.

The pavement is quite wide. I don't like parking there,but as I said, I don't have any other option.

Ever thought of running for local council? You'd halve the number of cars that could be parked on terraced streets. How would you decide which side of the street get to keep theirs? Or explain the value knocked off houses?

I really wouldn't give a flying fuck, the idea that individuals using mobility scooters can't safely use the pedestrian pavement but a car gets priority. I would eat the idiots that tried that argument.

Parking on a public road is not a right to house owners so anyone who is stupid enough to attach value to a house price is the bigger fool

Honestly, the ableist comments on this thread are a clear indicator of how unreasonable society is today. Cars over people with disabilities!

You can still park on the road at the front, but on the road not on the pavement and I am amazed you think it was acceptable to do so

Highway code states

244. You MUST NOT park partially or wholly on the pavement in London, and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it. Parking on the pavement can obstruct and seriously inconvenience pedestrians, people in wheelchairs or with visual impairments and people with prams or pushchairs.
Law GL(GP)A sect 15

Does it matter which side? The on street parking isn't matched to a specific house.

The houses effectively don't have that value, it's just an illusion maintained for now by tolerating parking on pavements.

People would adapt and find some solution if they have to.

OP, can your family not look for some sort of paid parking space and walk to and from their car? Either a car park of some kind, or someone's drive via the Just Park app, and pay the householder?

I know that sounds like a pain, but it's no different to what public transport users without cars do all the time - we all know perfectly well that the station or bus stop is probably not right outside our friend's house and that we will need to walk there.

It's clear that the way they are parking is causing issues for some people in your neighborhood, even if it is not illegal.

Jesus, I'd be calling the police! Has that not occurred to you?

Canvass the neighbours to see if anyone has video of the vandals.

That doesn't justify criminal vandalism. Anyone with an issue should speak to OP, not commit property damage.

no it isn’t. our entire street has parking with two wheels on the pavement because the roads are narrow

I agree that criminal damage is wrong, but I do also think people should refrain from this kind of parking anyway; it's kind of two separate issues.

Whether or not the parking is legal is irrelevant, some vengeful malicious person has vandalized her property and that of other people parking in the street. It is also cowardly, OP seems a pleasant enough person, if the perpetrator was that bothered they could have called on the OP to discuss the situation rather than go around keying cars in the middle of the night. I wouldn't even call it vigilantism, but anyway it should not be acceptable in a civilized society.

Going on some of the comments here was probably a mumsnetter

Long term, this kind of crap is why the UK needs to demolish and rebuild a lot of its endless streets of terraces (I know that will horrify most people here, but the UK is very unusual in its tendency to keep old houses going - in most countries, these streets would have been knocked down and replaced with more modern housing years ago).

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.

As a Londoner I often see vans do this presumably as they worry about the narrow road. However I’ve never seen one cause an obstruction unless over a dropped curb, it’s often the trees and the surrounding roots that make the space narrow/harder to navigate with a buggy/wheelchair.

you simply did have to park on the pavement.

No. No one has to park on the pavement. It is selfish. If you can’t park on that street, park somewhere else. Or get rid of your car.

It doesn't matter. As pps said, it does not excuse criminal damage. And most likely is not cause anyway as no other neighbour seem to have issue otherwise there would be uproar on a street.

Some streets have wider pavements than roads. And you are supposed to be part on, part and it still allows double buggy through. As much as it causes aneurysms to some on MN, that is how some streets are. Gosh one streets nwxt to our old house had pavement you could park a lorry on and still have space for car next to it (not exaggerating). Road was wide for 1.5 car...

It's clearly not a disabled person, either if a wheelie bin is dumped on a roof.
But it;s so bloody annoying to have cars parked on pavements for many people - often bushes with sharp foliage are overgrowing as well, so a pedestrian with a chair has no chance of getting past.

I can see exactly why people feel aggrieved at having to walk in the road to get past a selfishly parked car.

When you or your visitors don't park there who does? That might be the culprit.

I would get cctv at least it might deter them. Where do you park normally? Is there a drive?

I’m assuming OP won’t be back to justify why they don’t park fully on the road. If it’s not blocking emergency vehicle access and it’s because you have an SUV that is too wide then that’s not an excuse.

Yeah. The solution to this is fairly obvious.

Don’t park on the pavement!

You need CCTV

I agreem it's also targeted harassment so they should take it seriously