Why do some people think that they own the road outside their homes?

[Isitafullmoon]

I'm trying to get my head around the mentality of people who do this.

Once dh and I had to pull over somewhere, we weren't even getting out of the car we'd just pulled over to take a call sort of thing. We were outside some houses but not blocking anyone's drive or obstructing the road. We weren't parked illegally or on the pavement or anything like that.

No sooner had we pulled over but a quite aggressive man came out knocking on our car window and told us that we can't park outside his house and to move on. He wouldn't go until we left so we just moved and pulled over further up the road.

Another time we drove into a cul de sac to look at a house that was for sale, as we drove into the road, a woman came out shouting at us that we were 'not allowed' in here. Again this wasn't a private estate or a gated community just a normal cul de sac.

Then today I was turning around in a cul de sac when a woman came out shouting at me to go away and waving her arms. Again I was simply turning round not doing anything illegal or blocking anyone.

Are there people who spend their days waiting by the window just to go and shout at random people?

i stopped along a b road to make a call
a man drove by and said i shouldnt park there,
he could get by no problem so i dont know why he thought he should say this, except he lived on the road, prick

We haven't had this where we live now as parking is fortunately usually easy, but I did once live in a road where some neighbours were very particular about parking exactly outside their house (no driveways). I once parked outside a house a few doors down as someone else was outside mine. The woman who lived there knocked on my door and asked me to move my car. Her reasoning? She was taking her dogs for a walk (presumably to a nearby open space) and needed to get them in the car (so they can walk but not along a pavement to get to a car?) I thought it was the most ridiculous justification, which is why I've never forgotten it. Can't remember if I did move my car - probably did as I was young and more easily intimidated in those days.

Yes. My ex neighbours a couple of doors down were like this. They were a nightmare, not just about parking, and hardly left the close we lived let alone took holidays etc, spending their days curtain twitching looking for their next victims. Just feel for these peoples' neighbours. We stuck it for a couple of years but are now thankfully free.

People are by nature extremely territorial and protective of space. It's in our DNA.

I do have a bit of sympathy for people thinking of they own a house they have an unwritten right to park outside their house if for nothing else to increase security of their car.

the real problems where I live is narrow terraced housing with multiple car owners causing a horrendous parking situation with the council reluctant to bring in residents parking schemes.

many people trying to get parking bays through being disabled to an extent but again council are reluctant to do this.

The fact is though you don't have any right to that turning space. Residential driveways aren't really suited to parking big trades vans on the drive and you can't assume a certain amount of space will always be guaranteed outside your property to be able to maneuver a big vehicle, it's just something you have to accept. People can park there legally.

This is a different issue though if they're blocking you in which is inconsiderate at best. OP is talking about parking just outside a house on the pavement not blocking anyone. And you, OP you're right it's weird and annoying people get so weird about it

I've had this and just told them I was legally parked and they can jog on.

There’s a woman near a school who has not paid to drop her curb, yet she mounts the curb and drives over the pavement to park next to her house. If anyone parks outside her house, and traps her car in, she plays merry hell. When the police have been called they tell people not to block her car in, so not to park there, even though they are parking legally.

But twice I wasn't even parking.

Yesterday I was literally just turning my car around.

The other times we only pulled over briefly. We weren't even parking up to leave the car.

My DH is a bit of a curtain twitcher about parking, but he doesn't actually go out and say anything (I would never let him live it down !). There's a lot of it on our road as parking is a nightmare. I've had several people give me grief. I just laugh usually

It also always makes me smile when I see those 'NO TURNING' signs on cul de sacs. What are you going to do, call the police?

I moved from a road like this.

It was a road, not a cul-de-sac, but some of the people had been there since the houses were built and they were the ones who did it. No one else cared but my NDN (who wasn't quite as bad but had also bought the house at that time and so was included in the conversations) said that some of them felt they were the custodians of the road or that it was 'their' road because of this.

There had apparently been a 'conversation' when one of the families bought a caravan and kept it on their driveways for holidays over the summer in case it lowered the house prices (it didn't). There was a similar conversation when a Muslim family moved in to the road (that didn't lower the house prices as feared either). No one else cared about either, obviously.

Most of the houses had driveways for 2 cars so residents rarely parked on the road but mine only had room for one. It was a wide enough road to not cause problems but I had comments from the neighbours about visitors who parked on the road outside my house. They didn't like cars they didn't recognise stopping on the road.

Eg after we split up, my exh changed his car and had a passing neighbour approach the car telling him he couldn't park on the road outside my house (when he came to pick up/drop off the children) because he didn't recognise the car. When he changed the car again a few years later, I was asked who was parking frequently outside my house because it was a car they didn't recognise - "We've noticed a different blue car has started parking outside your house a couple of times a week..."

I was also asked once about who was visiting my house because they had seen two different men visit in a week and they didn't want "that sort of thing" going on in their road (one was my boyfriend and one was my friend's husband).

Eventually, I came to realise that these people also had an issue with a single parent living on their road and that they were making my whole life their business. I'm pretty sure my life wasn't half as interesting or salacious as they imagined!

But yes, there really are people who behave like this.

I have a neighbour like this. He goes out and keys people’s cars. If I ever actually get video footage of him doing it I will report him to the police. I had a young girl crying on the street “some one” had badly keyed her car. She had only had it a few days and she was parked perfectly legally and not blocking anyone

The times this has happened it wasn't those narrow roads either terraced houses and no driveways.

The first example it was a wide leafy road with large semis all with driveways.

The time we went to look at a house it was a cul de sac, again with large driveways. We weren't even stopping. We'd seen a house for sale and were going to look at the road before booking a viewing. We only drove up into the cul de sac and the woman came out and actually told us we weren't allowed to come up here.

The third time it was but not like a small one, more like a long road that ends with a dead end. I was literally turning my car around.

How quickly all of these people came out they had to be waiting by their window.

Our cul de sac is made up of (like many new build estate) private roads, you can tell ours when it changes from tarmac to block paving, leads to 4 houses. I wouldn't mind people turning their cars around quickly (so long as carefully as kids usually around) but people walk onto our property and literally wonder down the side of our house to either short cut across the nature reservation opposite our house, or to get a close up look, that annoys me! I'm not sure if anyone has successfully managed to park because I think our neighbour's husband literally stands in the window keeping guard 😂

This is purely an emotive response because YES you’re ‘entitled’ to park there and no I don’t own it but…

It’s really fucking annoying!!!!!!!!

We have on street parking because we can’t afford a house around here that has a driveway or garage (they’re either semi detached or detached and cost a fortune). And with a toddler, having to park 3 roads away in the rain because somebody has decided to park on our very cramped road to avoid paying for the car park is insanely irritating.

They also park really inconsiderately, right in the middle of space for 2 cars.

I've got a neighbour like this, he knocks on everyone's doors to find the person who has parked perfectly legally outside his home.

However, last night I came home after a 12 hour day to find huge vans parked either side of my drop kerb and right up to the drop and directly across the street, the street is quite narrow meaning it was hard to park on my drive. To say I was furious is an understatement. They did move eventually and I was able to park. Whilst I quietly seethed, I didn't say anything due to not wanting to look a complete twat. 😂

Before we had digital residents' permits, I lived on a road where a very cumudgeonly old man would walk around peering at windscreens checking the validity of all the permits, and then knocking on doors to see if anyone knew whose car was parked without a permit (despite the fact that you could also pay and display and that is what they had done). Thank goodness the digital era thwarted him!

I do understand the annoyance for those living on narrow road with terraced houses, or when people park either side of your drop curb so you can barely pull out.

But I wasn't even parking.

I think I need to do a diagram of the road yesterday. It's like a long road with a public playground on one side then further up there are houses and flats, it eventually comes to a dead end in a square with houses and flats.

I drove up then turned around, I was actually going to park next to the playground on the correct side of the road. It further up is where the woman came out shouting at me to go away.

Isitafullmoon

I grew up in a cul de sac and it was very much like this.

Every time a.car drove up the cul-de-sac, one of my parents would look up to see who it was. We lived at the top but, due to the shape of the road, it wasn't obvious on the approach that it wasn't just the road turning and there was no sign to say it was a cul-de-sac either but there were a lot of conversations in the street about people driving up, turning at the top and driving out again because they hadn't realised.

I'd just take it as a sign that it was a road you wouldn't want to live in.

when was a kid we got in trouble if we made any noise passing one house, certainly couldn’t play outside.

My NDN thinks she owns hers but if she had visitors etc it’s perfectly fine for her to park outside other peoples houses and block people in. She screams if anyone parks outside hers. She was going away for a month and I said, oh I’ll park outside of hers, she was very unhappy. She wanted it left empty whilst she away (not sure how). Thankfully don’t speak to her now.

Guy in our village used to do this. He then started vandalising cars but there was never any evidence. Until he was filmed on dashcam smashing a vans mirror. Not long ago he ran out of his house to yell at someone, tripped over, knocked himself unconscious and has never come round.

My neighbour is just like this

She can park anywhere she likes,but god help us if we park outside our own house

We've created a driveway and she's still bloody moaning and is pulling her own car further forward so we can't get on our drive

She also thinks she can police what time people can leave their houses/come home/use their garden/turn their lights on/put their bins out etc

We just ignore her which winds her up even further

I call a personality disorder of some kind but could just be because she's a stupid bitch

I know someone near where I work who not only thinks she owns the road but also the bin (on street public litter bin, not her own bin). She watch from the window and if anyone put anything bigger that a sweet wrapper in it she out complaining and filming people from the window. She roots through the bin looking for 'evidence' of things she thinks shouldn't be in there and then tries to drum up local support for her 'campaign'. She is worried that people 'not local' are putting stuff in the bin including people not from the England (all her words) who work in the local food factory. She wants the bin removed and replaced with a dog poo bin (she has a dog).

She wasn't well a little while ago, just cold/flu, and so her husband was charged with keeping up the bin surveillance , he wasn't as diligent has her though. I sort of missed hearing the latest in her mad anti bin campaign while he was on duty.

Why on earth is it an issue for your visitors to park five doors down? And it's not other drivers' fault that your driveway is too narrow for your husband to back in his van.

I will never understand this mentality.

Yes! There are. Sometimes people get it into their heads that only they can park outside their own house or some older people are unsettled by strangers parking outside their house.
An elderly man once confronted me, my toddler and newborn and told me I could be ‘casing’ his house for all he knew. As I was putting the crying baby into the buggy while the toddler was yelling to be set free from the car seat I told the nice man had neither the time nor energy to either move the car or rob his house.