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?

It's more than likely because cars parked either side make it tricky to get out. Hard to see left and right perhaps and hard to swing out?

Or maybe the drive is subsiding a bit because it wasn't laid well and they are keeping the weight off it?

Or maybe their car has an oil leak and they don't want it on the drive for long?

Or maybe they are finding having the car on the drive is blocking out light or the view from their window?

What ever it is i agree it might be annoying, but if the parking is in that short supply that you're having to park 'streets away' then one car less occasionally isn't going to make a difference.

Depending on where the driveway is, Maybe they don’t want to see a vehicle in close proximity when they look out if their living room window. I know I wouldn’t

Me, DH and ds live with my parents who have a large drive for 2 cars.
Dh parks on the street.
My dad and mum are elderly and my dad has cancer.
My dad has lots of hospital appointments and it was a nightmare having to call DH if he was wfh to move thr car again as parents were off out again.
Asked NDN if they didn't mind that we were parked outside there's (legally it's a public parking spot) and they don't mind. I do hope people don't think we're being dicks by doing this but it's only for my parents sake and ease and God forbid anything happened to either of them, then an ambulance can park on the drive with ease.

I'm not sure if that's what your neighbours are doing but not everyone who does it is being a prat.

It's annoying but are they doing anything wrong? We used to live in a terrace with street parking and some households had 2 or 3 cars, some not used that often. That annoyed me.

NC as we’ve told this story to everyone we know.
Retired, able bodied couple in our road have two cars and a driveway that can fit four, easily. For some reason the woman of that couple likes to park her car in a little “lay-by” area of our street opposite their house, even when there’s loads of room on their drive.
When we were having building work done last year, we had a skip on our (small) drive for a few months so parked our car in that little area where our neighbour likes to park - it’s public road, not designated to anyone. We rarely moved the car as we both wfh and use our other car for nipping out and about most of the time.

Our neighbour was outraged about this and said we were “morally wrong” to hog the space and not let others park there. She and her husband came round and had a go about it on a few occasions.
a) we literally didn’t have space on our drive but had to park somewhere b) they didn’t need the space, they just preferred (for some unknown reason) to park there rather than their own driveway. Some people are just inexplicably illogical and bonkers about parking! Yanbu.

And it’s your attitude that makes life unnecessarily difficult!

We had one like this on our street, drive would probably fit 3 cars, they had 2 but only ever parked one on the drive despite parking on the street being limited. They even spread their bins across both sides to make it look like another wouldn’t fit rather than put them in a row, or use their bin store!! Everyone hated him.

Thankfully his wife kicked him out and her new bloke parks both cars on the drive like a normal person.

You’d go to the expense of buying a car and keeping it taxed to put it on a road?

I've learned that some people "don't like" reversing. Especially to park. (Some people also don't like doing right turns.) Maybe the neighbour is one of these?

No - you do not go around to someone and TELL them how to conduct their lives - you can ask politely, which was not what you suggested. You suggested telling them to park where you dictated. If you did that you'd be lucky if all that happened is that people took to parking outside your home. You do not own the street.

Old banger £200 tops. Don't have to pay tax - I am disabled and exempt. Which anyone reading my previous post would have known. When threatening someone, be sure that they can't threaten back.

Maybe whilst you are at work they rent their driveway out

I think face to face is better than a note if you want to raise it with them. Perhaps ask if you can use their driveway, to unload shopping, while you are pregnant? They may have just been blocked in once and no longer want to risk it.

You should be reversing into your drive so you don't have to back out. It's much safer to drive out when you are crossing a pavement and going into 30mph traffic.

I would wear your most bump-hugging outfit and knock on their door looking exhausted and sweetly ask if they could consider parking elsewhere as you are having to park several streets away.

You could be describing my street.

We have a drive but only use it if we have guests. Several reasons:

• We are frequently blocked in
• People park directly opposite us in the road making getting out (or reversing in) difficult
• People park very close to the drive opening making getting in and out very difficult.
• a combination of the two above can occasionally mean we're blocked in as there's insufficient turning space in the road.

To look at our house you'd think the drive was fine to use, but when the street is full of other parked cars it's really not.

Exactly! Surely it affects the insurance as they ask where car is kept, night and day, and if in the road it’s at risk of being hit. Wonder how owners with drives who do this answer the question!

I've found it more expensive to declare it as parked on the drive than on the road. The broker said its because any thieves would easily know where the keys were.

You would probably hate us then. We have a driveway for 2 cars and if the space on front of our house is free we use that for 1 car and then park the other on the drive. Main reason is that I don't have to keep swapping over cars if my car is on the inside and DHs is on the outside and I need to leave. Also leaves space for visitors that might come. It's lazy I agree but we prioritised buying a house with a drive (and didn't build over it as others in the road have done), I have every right to do it and I definitely would rather look out into my car than the van from 3 doors down from my living room.

Asking them to park on their drive and not on the street is bonkers - don't do it. They are free to park in any available space on the street as are you.

If they did start parking on their drive you are still not guaranteed a park on your street, or near your house.

This couple have become your focus, but they aren't actually causing your problem. Your problem is you don't have off street parking and are in a scramble with the rest of the neighbourhood to park your car.

If off street parking is important to you make sure your next house has off street parking.

There's not getting around it - other people are very annoying.

Are you mistaken for another poster? I don’t remember advising anyone to be rude to their neighbours or to dictate where they should park! IIRC I said about a polite note!

I'd just knock on their door and ask them very nicely if it would be OK for you to park on their drive if when you get home there are no spaces available on the street. Just say politely that as you are pregnant it is a bit of a pita to have to park several streets away. Hopefully they'll get the message or explain to you why there is a problem parking on their drive.

Why are you watching them in their house at 6am?

Also some people aren't great drivers.
I have been shouted at for parking opposite someone else's driveway but there was plenty of room. I've also had people
park opposite my drive and to the sides, it's more effort to manoeuvre but not a big deal.

Tbh I'm glad I had to learn to park in busy terraced streets, it honed my skills!

This is very inconsiderate of the elderly couple but they are not actually doing anything wrong. They can park their car on the road providing they do not block any one else's access. It might be that when they have parked on their drive someone has parked across is and made it difficult for them to drive out. OP could try talking to them and understand their motives - maybe a discussion is needed amongst the neighbours to get this resolved to suit all concerned.