People with driveways parking on the street

[Hellskitchen24]

I live in a long row of terraces. Most roads are terraced here, as I live in a fairly working class town. This means that the only people with driveways are the end of the terraces. I live a few doors down from the end.

My neighbour has in the last 6 months or so decided to mostly stop using their driveway. It’s a relatively fit retired couple. They probably only use the car a handful of times per week, and instead park it on the road outside our houses. They’ve got this thing now where on the odd occasion they do have it on their drive, as soon as the person moves from the space outside our house, they are up and put their car on it. Even if that’s at the crack of dawn; I’ve seen them peering out at the window at 6:30am, on the rare occasion I’ve got that space and I leave for work. They will be loitering by the door waiting for me to leave.

I don’t quite understand the logic. They are only one of two houses on the street with two dedicated parking spaces, with a perfectly wide accessible drive. I get back quite late at night from work and have to park several streets away when I’m heavily pregnant. So admittedly it does wind me up a bit seeing their empty driveway while all the other residents struggle to park. I know legally they are doing nothing wrong at all. But would I be unreasonable to put a note through their door asking them to possibly use their perfectly accessible driveway to free up more space for the majority who don’t have off road parking?

Notes through doors just get people’s backs up. You could be brave and have a conversation with them. Position it as a plea for help during your pregnancy.

They use it when it suits them. It’s just not very often. It’s a nice wide driveway.

This

Its likely a case of cars parked too close to the driveway (sides and opposite) making it near impossible to actually get on or off it.

i recently moved house cause i had an end terrace with a driveway but i was constantly being blocked in so could hardly use it. I would go out early and move my car in to the street so i could definitely get away on time. So many times i couldnt get out to go to work/school/doctor etc cause someone had parked half over the entrance.

I have a driveway which is large. It currently has two cars on it (waiting to sell them!) and I've parked outside on the street although technically I could park on the drive. But in my instance, parking isn't an issue in the street and there's plenty of room. If parking was generally a bother I would park on the drive. I do at nighttime, but when I'm in and out for school runs and club drop offs it's more hassle (not easy to get on the drive as the entrance way is small).

I get the frustration OP though, I've been in your situation before having to park 3 streets away with shopping. I'm sure if you asked to use their drive they'd start parking on it! 😀

What would your note say?

“Please stop parking on the road despite having every legal right to do so because I want to park there”?

They owns driveway. They have the option to park there, not an obligation.

There is no parking opposite as it’s double yellow lines. One side is the corner of the road, the other is where they have their car on the road the majority of the time. So they aren’t being blocked in.

I would be more inclined to knock on their door and ask if there’s a reason for it and explain why.

We have one of these on our road. In fairness, he is an absolute tool of a man in a ghastly Range Rover, clogging up the road whilst he has plenty of space on his driveway. I can’t understand it tbh. It looks such an inconvenience for him, having to walk to and from it every day rather than just popping out of his door, even more so when de-icing it on cold mornings. I feel for you OP, it seems the world is full of strange people who behave inconsiderately.

Ask them if you can park on their drive as they’re not using it any more 🤣

I do it because my dickhead neighbour parks his massive van right up to the edge of my dropped kerb making it impossible for me to safely see the traffic roaring past at 40mph (despite limit being 30mph). Don't fancy having the front of my car ripped off as I edge forward at a snails pace. Generally I just park across the dropped kerb.

They are THOSE people who think they own the area outside their house and can't stand people parking there. It's frustrating and slightly baffling, but there's not much you can do about it really. If they are obsessive enough to loiter by a window at 6.30am, I'd leave them to it. It's surprisingly common. People are very protective over parking.

You can't block somebody's driveway, that is really poor advice.

Leaving aggressive notes is also not going to achieve anything but contempt.

Perfectly reasonable to feel slightly irritated by it.

Completely unreasonable to put a note through their door or complain to them about them doing something completely legal.

Completely unreasonable to think that you have more right than anyone else to a space outside your house. The only way to guarantee your own reserved parking is to pay the extra to buy or rent a house with a driveway or private allocated space.

I used to have to do this if I needed to be sure of getting somewhere as I was blocked in so bloody often! Always by someone who was only being 5 mins, but it was multiple times a day as we had one of the only drives on the road (and therefore one of the only places to pull in and stop if there were no spaces available on the road.

Maybe you could ask them if you could use their drive?

If they were struggling to get in and out of the driveway, they could just park in front of it could they not?

You could write notes 24/7 on that account...

Infuriating and stressful, but there's nothing you can do unfortunately.

I live in an area of selfish parkers. One family have enough space on their drive for four vehicles and they own six cars between them. I came back from visiting relatives over Christmas and found that they have also got themselves a camper van, which was now parked in the road taking up three spaces.

Incandescent!

I was approached by an old neighbour once, very upset that I wasn't using my driveway and had parked in "her" space outside her house instead. It made me really angry, she came across as so entitled. I wasn't using my drive often because it didn't have a dropped kerb (so technically not even a driveway, just a frontage!) and my car at the time was such an old banger that I often feared hauling it up and onto the drive would finally finish it off!

If she'd politely asked why I wasn't using my driveway, and asked to use it on certain occasions to help her out, I would absolutely have agreed - to be helpful and to be a good neighbour. But she didn't, and so it just got my back up.

@LyingWitchInTheWardrobe

I was being tongue in cheek tbh.

But I bet they would soon come knocking on the door for op to ask why they don't use it.

It's not illegal to block and empty driveway just an arsehole thing to do.