Driveway wars - awkward petty neighbour

[Tarytino]

We live on a shared drive way (shared with 3 houses). We’re in the middle. Yesterday we had a friend over and I told him to park just outside of our house (on the shared driveway) as house 3 was out. An hour or so later house 3 arrives home - instead of simply asking him to move the car they sat there honking on the horn. It’s a short driveway, they could have parked at the end and walked down to their house (plenty of parking on street at end of driveway) but no. Friend went out and moved his car - no thanks, no acknowledgment. Once they had got passed friend moved his car back where it was.

10 mins later - horn honking outside. House 3 had decided to go out again. Friend goes out to move car. 20 minutes later more honking outside. I went out and approached neighbour asking why she is honking her horn rather than using her words. She said “I need to get to my house and there is a car in the way” 🙄 I said “yes, but you don’t need to honk the horn, just knock”. She said “can’t be arsed getting in and out of car”. I left her to it and friend moved car. Needless to say, 20 mins later, more honking outside.

now it was very obvious that neighbour was deliberately going in and out of driveway to make some kind of point. So we played her game and this went on for about 2 hours before she eventually got bored.

Today, we are having gravel delivered and they will be parking on the shared driveway. Normally I’d warn neighbour to let her know to get her car out of driveway so she doesn’t get stuck but because of yesterdays performance - I’m not going to bother. This isn’t the first time we have had issues with this neighbour btw. AIBU to let her get her car stuck? Chances are she won’t be going out anyway but no doubt as soon as she sees someone parked there she’ll suddenly develop an urgent need to go out 🙄

She often gets Tesco deliveries which block the shared driveway but we don’t complain, it’s just what you get with a shared driveway

You are having a laugh?

Your unreasonable-ness is so enormous it could be seen from outer space.

Grow up and be a decent neighbour.

Sorry OP but your 100% in the wrong here. You cannot block access on a shared driveway. Not your neighbours problem that you only have a drive for 1 car. Your friend should be the one who parked at the end of the shared drive, not your neighbour.

People who merrily block their neighbours from parking in their own spaces and say "Oh, they only have to knock" are serious CFs.

Why on earth should they have their ability to freely access and use their property dictated by somebody else? Why should they have to factor in several minutes in knocking and waiting for you to move your car - and that's if you're in, not in the shower, haven't had a drink etc. - before they drive anywhere?

Even worse when the people doing the blocking find 'solutions' for them, which invariably mean them giving up their rights and conveniences, so that the CF doesn't have to put themselves out in any way when assuming priority over somebody else's property.

It's easy to be envious if others have more parking, a bigger house, more money, whatever than you - but that doesn't give you any moral right to help yourself to some of it.

I had this once with a neighbour's builders. They clearly thought I was being petty objecting and said I "just" had to get out of my car (blocking the traffic) wander around the site looking for them, attract their attention, wait for them to stop drilling/whatever, hang around whilst they they came down the ladder and the relevant bloke found the keys and then reverse out of their way whilst they moved the van.
Every. Single. Fucking.Time.
I lost my shit in the end (sleep-deprived with a baby, although I didn't even need that excuse) and they stopped doing it.

Unanimous YABUs often turn out to be reverses.

It doesn’t matter how big her driveway is if she can’t bloody get to it does it? I’d prefer to honk too and wake the whole bloody st than get out of my car to politely approach the neighbour who’s blocked my car out or in and ask them to move it. I’m not at all surprised she was deliberately going in and out and I won’t be surprised if there is a pallet of bricks in front of your door one morning to see how you like not being able to get access to your property. You are not only being unreasonable but a total jerk.

If you know a guest is coming (or gravel!) move your car to the parking spots further down the drive so that the friend/gravel can use your tiny drive. It’s common sense/decency/basic manners!

I think your friend should of parked elsewhere or you should of parked down at the bottom of road and let them have your driveway. I think blocking off for deliveries is different. I’ve had gravel delivered and it’s just ten minutes to crane off those massive bags or even less to tip out a loose load.

Why on earth should someone have to come knock to access their property?

You sound like you’re the problem 🤷🏻‍♀️

But the op isnt reasonable, considerate or polite... she's the one who set the level!

Its the poor neighbour who is the wronged party here

Tesco deliveries take a few minutes not several hours.

Your neighbour shouldn’t have to keep knocking and asking permission to leave and enter her home.

You’d think you’d have gotten the message after the first couple of times but apparently not.

You are being so unreasonable. Nobody should have to ask you, let alone thank you, for allowing them to get in and out of their own house.
A shared drive will have a no parking/no stopping on it. We have one. Neither our neighbours nor us ever park on it. That's called being a decent neighbour.

"It’s a short driveway, they could have parked at the end and walked down to their house (plenty of parking on street at end of driveway) but no."

Erm.. why couldn't your friend park at the end or on the street and walk to your house? Your neighbour should never be blocked from accessing their own parking!

Surely this has to be a reverse??
Your visitor blocked access to her driveway and then parked there again after they'd had to move once. You are the dicks.

Why the fuck should she have to ask anyone to move off her share of the drive?
You and your friends were petty and bloody awkward. Why wouldn't friend park on the road to be begin with? Then fuck wit friend keeps parking on your neighbours part of the drive, just why??

But why should she have to get out of her car to come and knock? What if it was raining, or she had young children in the car, or she'd just got back from an exhausting night shift?

If the car wasn't familiar to her, she didn't even know for sure which house the driver was visiting.

This.

Its your neighbours property. You wouldn't park on someone else's driveway, so why do you think its ok to park on their space because you have a shared driveway.

If you really want to do this, you ASK PERMISSION BEFORE and you are willing to hear a no.

You are being a CF.

Your level of entitlement is staggering OP. Who tf do you think you are to keep blocking your neighbours access to her house? You should have told your friend to park elsewhere. Your neighbor can drive in an out of her house as many times as she wants. It's not for you to police. You sound like a nightmare neighbour. I feel so sorry for your neighbours.

Very curious as to why you think your neighbour is unreasonable not to park on the street but this was unsuitable for your friend? You’re unreasonable, not to mention entitled.

I suspect the reality is that, after years of asking nicely every time you and your friends wrongly block the driveway, they've not unreasonably got fed up with it. Work it out, if it's a shared driveway your friends do not have any right to block your neighbours in. Try a bit of basic consideration.

I had a neighbour who used to do similar. We had a garage block out the back that was shared access and each house technically had one space they could park in front of their own garage. One household continuously would allow their guests to either park in front of other houses garages or just park on the access drive (which was one car width so you couldn’t get past it. Even walking past it was tight). I spoke to them and they just used to give me blank looks and say “well there’s no parking around here”. I’d explain there was, in the form of visitor permits for the road outside that could be ordered online for a small cost. They’d say oh right. But they obviously never bothered.

So if someone was blocking my garage or access to the space what did I do? Repeatedly go in and out and get them to move the cars. Once they had a party and had 6 cars blocking other neighbours spaces as well as the entire access drive. I think I went to “Tesco” about 4 times that day. They had to move 4 cars each time I went out and came back. Petty yes. But I wasn’t doing anything anyway so yes I made life as difficult as possible for them. Pretty sure another neighbour did the same thing that day as I saw them come in and out 3 times in between me doing the same thing.

You know the other way they could have prevented this? Ask. Never once did they ask me and or any other neighbour if we minded. If they did, I actually would very likely have said it was fine to block me in if I wasn’t going out. Plenty of other times neighbours did similar with friends or deliveries. But we always asked each other first.

Doesn’t matter she had the biggest drive.

You cannot park on the shared drive and you certainly cannot even consider parking on her driveway.

Yep, you are the petty neighbour and CFer here. No wonder she was fed up yesterday and kept honking her horn.

A Tesco delivery van will be there for a few minutes. It's hardly comparable to your friend blocking her all day.

Must admit I'm waiting for the drip feed from OP or at least a diagram.