To want the car to move!

[honeyandbutterontoast]

Looking for honest opinions here because I’m aware this may make me seem like an AH.

I live in a road where the majority of houses don’t have drives. We park on the road. I knew that when I bought the house, it’s not permit parking but there is usually space for two small cars in front of my house. It has never been a problem in the time I’ve lived here, occasionally if there’s a local event I’ve had to park up the road for a few hours if I’ve been out, or for an evening.

Four weeks ago I came home from work to find a big car taking up both spaces outside. So I parked elsewhere. The car is still there.

Nobody has been to it, or moved it in that time and frankly I’m getting annoyed. I have to now park a long way from my house (else I’m in someone else’s space), which has been annoying with heavy bags of food shopping, or if I’m going out with the dog/DC. It’s meant if my mum has visited she’s also had to park elsewhere, again not ideal.

But what can I do? No point leaving a note as nobody has been to the car in that time (it’s right outside my window so I would see). None of the neighbours know who it belongs to either. It seems a stupid thing to get stressed about but I just want to be able to park outside my house!

It doesn't matter what you're fine with, there is no exclusive right to park outside your own home or anywhere else that is public land.

The threats on this thread of scratches, windows put in, butter/flour to stick notices on the windscreen are pathetic. That happened once on our street (similar to other narrow streets mentioned) - car was parked, a resident didn't like it, went out to do something to the car the owner turned up and punched him. I saw it happen, refused to be a witness for the resident because he asked for it.

If you decide to go down the lawless route yourself (general, not aimed at you), take the consequences in good grace.

Incidentally the police can move cars parked legally with tax, MOT and insurance if they want. A family friend was a policeman with a traffic unit, and they were tasked with towing a whole street of cars once because the Queen Mum (gawd bless her) was visiting a local hospital and (for obvious reasons) the route had to be cleared. There had been a decision to not inform the houses in the street in advance.

This was in the days of mirrors on sticks.

a hose 5 hours later and no one is none the wiser. But you find out of anyone is watching the car. What's your suggestion?

In that case which you're right, it is very unfair luckily you have recourse.
In OPs case it's not breaking the law.

And there is not a council in this land that has its own removal service. All towing is done by licenced companies. There is not a single one that would remove a legally parked vehicle without the instruction of police. They are now heavily regulated.

You've no more right to park in that space than anyone else. It's the downside of having a house without a driveway. Nothing to be done at the moment unless you know who the owner is.

The police won't give a shit about a legally parked car and despite some nonsense being talked, the council will not instruct a car to be removed for no better reason than it's not been moved for a few weeks.

But why would you leave your car in a residential street you don't live in for weeks on end whilst you went into hospital or to uni or on holiday?

Why wouldn't you leave it in your usual parking place?

Some of the replies here are hilarious just to be able to say YABu.

Let's face it we all would be annoyed by this. It's annoying. Maybe not illegal and maybe it needs to be sucked up.

But it is annoying!

I live in a one way in and out road (estate) which have some little nooks in it like mini cul de sacs but is all the same named street iyswim?

Everyone has 1 space or a driveway.

Behind me in one cul de sac type arrangement is a guy who owns a tow truck company. He basically has a huge flat bed tow truck that takes up 4 spaces. Sometimes complete with a transit van on top.

He parks it anywhere he can find the space - sometimes that's opposite my corner space and although his wheels are legally off the dropped Kurb behind me the flat bad bit sticks out so far over I cannot get off my drive easily.

The management company keep threatening to make it permit parking due to the number of works vans that park here. I wish they would!

But until then as much as he's a dick (bought a house without parking outside it so doesn't inconvenience himself or block his view) I have to suck it up and continue parking on the corner on the road if he's not there when we get home so he can't park there

Then don't expect - It is not your road !

I totally get where you are coming from OP. I live on a street like yours and we often have cars parked outside for weeks on end. The record was 4 months earlier this year. It is stressful. I understand. These people are morons. We needed a skip to go outside of our house for building work - thankfully the car was moved in the nick of time, otherwise I'm not sure what we would have done. We have a garage at the top of the street and the owner sells cars - he will leave his cars on the street for weeks/months. There are also two pedestrianised streets feeding onto ours, so parking is crazy. It sounds petty but I always check to see if these inconsiderate cars are taxed, and if not I report them. They seem to move fairly quickly after that. I have been known to leave notes, but people don't seem to care. I really should move as it winds me up!
Sometimes cars park so close to my house that they make access in and out difficult. That's another story though!

I’m not going to vandalise the car. I have reported it to the council and will see what they say. It’s not something that’s happened down this road before apparently.

If it’s still there in a few days I will join some local Facebook groups and ask on there.

Thank you all for the advice.

A car was towed by the council on my street after being left for around 6 weeks in a similar situation. Victorian street, big houses but lacking drives!

Taxed, MOTd and insured ?

Yes but you can’t have it both ways…the car there is annoying and possibly dumped but if you have the choice of parking elsewhere near your house but decide not to take it then you can’t really complain about the issue of having to walk from that other place. Yes I’ve lived on roads with parking like this before you say anything and whilst people tended to park outside their own houses it’s not a hard and fast rule and people are free to park on a road wherever they want.

Who the hell knows? Maybe someone is parked in the usual space. Maybe parking is in such short supply that there isn't even a usual space. Maybe I'm walking to the hospital or station. Maybe I just don't give a shit. The point is it doesn't matter what the reason is. Anybody has the right to park there so getting annoyed by it is ridiculous.

Yanbu although by law they haven't done anything wrong it's very selfish behaviour Iv lived in multiple houses with on street parking and their is kind of an unwritten rule about where everyone parks im guessing the people on this thread saying they can park where they want have drives

Getting annoyed is human nature!

We are designed to be annoyed by others being inconsiderate in a way to make sure we are socialised into being considerate of others.

Clearly some people aren't as evolutionalised as the main population and this nice bit of human nature bypassed their dna!

Luckily most human beings don't go out of their way to explain why they'd be an inconsiderate twat just because they can. 🙄

OP,
I totally understand your frustration.
We are a household with more than 1 car, so we can park on our driveway, but cannot assume we can park the other car outside our house. We'd like to but it's not guaranteed.
This is all @Whammyammy was trying to tactfully explain to you..
We happen to live near a train station, and we had a car parked outside our house for 5 weeks, turned out she was doing a tour of the middle east & couldn't be bothered to pay for station parking 🙄
It is so frustrating though....😫

Only takes amn hour or so to replace a window once a brick has been thrown through it, where does it stop? Wasn't a guy stabbed to death a few years back in his own home over parking?

Damaging or tampering with people's cars whilst they are legally parked could quite possibly end very badly, once you escalate it's difficult to come back from. Certainly when you don't know who you're playing with

Well they obviously don't have a driveway, like you don't. Public road, first come, first served, even if you 'expect' to get parked outside your house.

And yes, I do have a drive, indeed it is a corner plot so has space for 6 cars. Which was one of the main reasons for buying. I wanted my own private space.

Would you seriously behave like this? What kind of person would even think this way? I’m very glad I don’t associate with people that think this is a solution to a trivial annoyance.

We are designed to be annoyed by others being inconsiderate in a way to make sure we are socialised into being considerate of others.

Well maybe some are. Whilst a few aren't in order to ensure that as a whole the clan/tribe/species doesn't fall into a single point of failure ? That 1 in 20 figure that pops up everywhere in human groupings ?

That's right! Only males can be inconsiderate twats! In fact, I've never met an inconsiderate female ever.

The local authority you work for and all other LA's are entitled to tow ABANDONED cars. They do not tow road-legal cars unless they're causing an obstruction. Why do you find this so hard to understand? You've posted all these links and yet you seem incapable of understanding what the information tells you. LAs would be inundated with law-suits if they towed road-legal cars that were parked correctly on the public highway.
It is still worth OP reporting the car's details to her LA (as she has done) so they can conduct their checks to see if it has been abandoned, but if it hasn't, there is damn-all OP can do about it (apart from fume, obviously).