Neighbour complaining about my parking

[nightmareparking]

Diagram attached, it’s shit sorry!

I moved into my flat in October. It’s a block of flats. There is off street parking available, but it’s not allocated to anyone and is on a first come first served basis. Some families have several cars and others, like myself, only have the 1.

Shortly after moving in, I encountered difficulties with parking. I usually finish work later, and by the time I get home, most of the spaces are taken. I began parking on the street adjacent to the flats, but it got damaged in February (likely by a group of kids as other drivers in the village have experienced similar issues). Subsequently, I resumed parking outside the flats again.

Occasionally, I find myself parking on the corner (highlighted) when there are no other spaces available. I understand that reversing past can be challenging for some people, but with careful and slow driving, it is possible. I have done it myself. When I returned home on Sunday, the son of my neighbour approached me and asked if I could avoid parking on the corner because his elderly dad has difficulty reversing past. I apologised and explained that I typically park there because there are often no other spaces available when I get home. I also mentioned that I can no longer park on the street because my car was damaged the last time. He agreed and asked if I could avoid parking there when possible.

I returned home this evening and he approached me again voicing his complaints. I proposed that his dad could park on the corner if that worked better, and I could take his spot (highlighted) at the front. But it seems he wants / needs to park closer to his flat. I’m feeling a bit lost about what to do and he refuses to talk to the other neighbours, even though they have several cars. It feels like I’m being pressured to park on the street. I’m 26 and he’s in his 40s (I know him a little through a friend), which makes me feel a bit intimidated.

Should I just go ahead and park on the street, even if it risks my car getting damaged again? AIBU to park on the corner if there are no other spaces available?

A fire engine may not need to drive down there depending on where the closest hydrant is.

Suggest the gentleman reverses into his chosen space and wont have an issue getting out then.

it sucks but maybe the older person needs to hand their licence in if they aren't fit to drive anymore. My grandparents were not fit to drive but there is no check on ability so long as eyesight is ok!

There aren't restrictions. Can the complaining person park where you park then no reversing needed.

Oh haha, needed a top-up? 😀

Looking at that you are not on the double yellow lines, so can't really see an issue. If you were parked on the double yellows then yes it would be wrong, but as your not, it's fine.

Why not suggest to him that you’re happy to have a conversation about the parking with his dad?

Im not sure the ambulance having to reverse out/fire engine thing is the gotcha some folk think it is.

Lots of off-the-road parking areas will be inaccessible to a fire appliance or ambulance if everyone is home and parked - on the estate I live on, every single one will be. The fronts of the terraced properties face each other with a grassy area between. Each row of properties has a rear parking area which, when full means you have to back out and an ambulance or fire appliance would have to do same or would not get in - however they can access the fronts of the properties by driving on the grass down the middle.

So this does not demonstrate that anyone is parking obstructively, its just how the lay out is.

OP's parking area appears to be set up so that everyone would have to back out and there is never going to be easy access for a longer vehicle, regardless of where she parks herself.

Even my own house (and ive had many an ambulance here) the parking area is not, when everyone is home and parked appropriately, somewhere a fire appliance could turn around in. It'd have to back out and it would struggle without going on the grass.

We used to have cars parking right up to the corner like you have shown. Refuse truck often couldn't get round the corner, and it was to access a cul de sac of about 40 houses. The local authority recently painted double yellow lines around the corner on both sides. In fact they did this in about 30 different locations around the borough, so this parking up to the corner business was obviously causing a lot of issues.

I don’t think your supposed to park on a corner

If you're parking legally then tell him that if that's the only available space when you need to park then that's where you'll be parking, but your opent to any mutually agreeable alternative suggestions otherwise nitbto bother you about it again - "sorted"

Two questions:

1. Is it allowed either within the law (if part of the public highway) or within any rules they have for residential parking if a private road?
2. Can drivers still safely pass your car to access the road when you park there (i.e. you are not causing an obstruction)?

If the answer to both is yes, the issue is with the lack of manoevuring skill of the elderly driver, not with you. I agree with the suggestion of reversing into the spaces, this is the recommended way to park in general as observation is so much easier when driving out forwards.

The Highway Code states that you must not park within ten metres of a junction unless it's in a designated parking space. There don't have to be yellow lines in place.

Do other people park there if you don’t? Or avoid the space? What happens if you get one of the better spots?

It's not a designated space but it's also not illegal. I can predict possibly some double yellow lines being put there soon due to complaints. I wouldn't have a problem with it bit it clearly makes it a bit more difficult for others. Also, some people are OTT and don't give any grace to others unfortunately. Xx

I own a flat in a small development of about 46 flats and am a director of the management company running it. I and the the other two directors get no pay or perks but we were the only ones to volunteer. We have just arranged to have all the parking spaces clearly marked and numbered according to each flat, one space each, no extra cars, as it used to be war over who parked where.
Your management company could do the same, and restrict parking to one car per flat.

I would say ‘’I’d love to park somewhere else off the road and near the flats, if you can arrange that I’ll happily move.’

Done. You’re doing nothing wrong.

Its hard because you dont want people to lose their independence, and not being able to drive is really hard. But if you cant maneuver your car, you should not be driving. I go to a meeting once a week where I am regularly expected to back up along a drive onto a main road because people coming the other way cant cope with reversing their car. Its ridiculous.

Dopamine on here? Are you having a laugh?

I’m confused by your use of quote marks on ‘space’….. it is a space

Yanbu. The selfish f'ers with multiple cars are causing the problem if they're using more than their share.

If anything, you're the injured party here.

It sounds like Victor Meldrew will have to eotger park in the corner space or live with it. You've given him the choice.

@nightmareparking his dad can reverse into the space, that will solve the problem. From your diagram, I can't understand why he has a problem with your parking.

???
Strange thinking here

Should I just go ahead and park on the street, even if it risks my car getting damaged again

???

You ARE happy to drive your car on the road - do you KNOW the HIGH number of RTA`S - Just driving ON the road IS, a risk of your car getting damaged - but you are HAPPY to take THAT risk - LESS risk if your car IS stationary

It reminds me of something not the same, but sort of similar to your predicament. I don't have a car. My four wheels are a chair. My next door neighbour had two cars - one each. For a while she parked in front of my house, but in the road.

When both cars were in their drive, which was a drive and footpath size, DW didn't have enough space to open her door, and she wouldn't reverse in because she didn't like reversing.

DG wouldn't let them widen the drive under her window. One morning my late husband and I woke up to find they had laid concrete on our garden to make their drive wider. They absolutely refused to remove it. My late husband was a retired vicar and didn't like to row about anything, and we could have informed the house insurance, but were convinced they would see what a daft thing it was. Their drive ended up with three different colour cements.

In front of my house we had a statue of the Mother of Jesus, which was in a small bed.

One day, a gang of Irish navvies turned up to tarmac their drive to make it all one colour. When they came, they saw the Holy Mother in the garden and asked if we were Catholic. We explained we were not, that my husband was an Anglican Priest.

We were asking what they intended to do, and they said they were tarmacking the drive. We then explained to them that the concrete strip by our garden was actually ours, and that they had no permission to make their drive wider by taking a strip of our garden (it was a flower bed, a triangle between the drives, about 10ft at one end and narrowing).

At that, the Irishmen, bless them, sat down and refused to start on the work until the neighbour had given them permission to dig up the concrete strip, which they eventually did. They were furious, but we got our flower bed back.

Is it a turning circle? ie specifically there as it's a tight corner? Are you sure it's not for fire engines etc?

Is there a tenants' group. It seems that the main problem is the number of cars per flat. There should be 1 marked space per flat.
Somebody's poor driving/manouvering ability is not yr problem.