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 🙄

YABU. Your visitor should not have parked on the driveway and blocked your neighbour’s access. I can’t believe you think that’s ok.

I understand how this works as my sister has the same arrangement. She has two spaces outside her house and a shared drive with a house at the end - so when I visit her, if either her or her OH’s car are not there, then I will park in their vacant spot. If both cars are there I won’t and I will park on the street. Otherwise I will be blocking in the neighbour at the end (who also has 3 spaces on their land).

Ridiculous behaviour from the OP.

For those asking for a diagram, this is our setup. Red car is a visitor car.

In one image it's OK as there's room to get past in our situation. In the other it's not OK in the slightest.

I agree with the PP that said if it's OK for the neighbour to park on the road and walk, then that's exactly what the visitor should have done. Or OP moves one of her vehicles onto the road so the visitor can park on the drive - we do this if we have lots of visitors. We have a permit scheme, so cars on the road need visitors permits and it's easier to just input my car into the permit app than it is trying to get registration numbers off of visitors.

I have a neighbour like OP. She is also a boundary creep saying I owe her a few ins of my drive because mine is wider and I don't need it. Our drives are not shared but they join via an invisible boundary.She tried to claim the whole of her other neighbours drive saying the deeds were wrong. Work that one out. My new house has its own demarcated drive with fences and a gate.
Wtf is wrong with people

YABVU you have a shared drive and your neighbours and a reasonable expectation for their drive to be accessible 24/7.

So very entitled OP.

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

blimey

can anyone be that rude and entitled in real life? And smug about it?

And rejecting the blame on the neighbour who got blocked? the OP is a CF on another level.

Even if you weren't blocking your neighbour in, parking on a shared driveway (ie. you don't solely own the land and/or there are access rights for other vehicles) is shocking selfish. That sort of behavior never ends well and almost always leads to frustration and resentment.

Stop being an arse and tell your visitors to park on the street.

Yesterday both you and neighbour were a bit petty but technically you were in the wrong. If you block her in with the gravel delivery or risk gravel hitting her car you would be extremely unreasonable. You are escalating trouble unnecessarily.

PLEASE warn her about the gravel delivery. She hasn't done anything wrong. We used to have a similar situation with neighbours regularly blocking us in, and getting out the car and knocking and then waiting for them to move could add 5-10 minutes onto our journey, and regularly made us late for things like our daughter's swimming lessons. It's extra faff nobody needs. And the stress of not knowing whether you're going to be able to actually leave your house on time or whether you need to factor in an extra 5-10 minutes... It's extremely aggravating. You're 100% in the wrong here. You shouldn't be blocking the drive. I can understand doing it on the odd occasion as a one-off, but at least have some humility and recognise that you are the one being a bit cheeky here, and just move the car without question as soon as you are asked - however they choose to ask.

And as for the suggestion that you could use their drive 😳The entitlement!

But if I've understood your description correctly he may not have parked on number 3's driveway but he did park outside your house on the shared driveway leading to number 3 - in fact it seems you told him to park there, thus blocking access to and from number 3.

You haven't bothered to explain but I presume the shared driveway is not wide enough to allow access to and from number 3 if a car is parked on it outside your house. If that is the case then telling your friend to park outside your house was daft - you should have told him to park somewhere else where he wasn't blocking the shared driveway.

You neighbour must have a legal right to pass and re-pass over the shared drive outside your house (and outside number 1) and you were preventing her exercising that right by telling your friend to park where he did.

I'm so glad you're not my neighbour, I bet you still think you're in the right even after reading everyone's responses.

Which makes you an entirely reasonable and considerate human being 🤗 - unlike OP and her friend. 🙄

I’m feeling sorry for your neighbours. You and your guest were being completely obnoxious.

Wow you say your neighbour could have parked in the road as there's plenty of space ... then why couldn't your bloody mate do that! I'm lost for words!

The clue is in the name "shared driveway" rather than "my guest parking space".

YABVU. It was bad enough you told your friend to block next door’s access to their driveway, but for him to then park there again was a dick move.

The top end of my driveway is shared between us and our neighbour - we’re at the bottom - and I definitely wouldn’t expect to have to knock to be allowed in and out of my own driveway when I wanted to

I can’t believe you think you are being reasonable

OP you sound like an absolute nightmare neighbour.

A delivery driver blocking a shared drive for a few minutes is irritating; you telling a visitor to park there and block the driveway is CFery

This has to be a wind up 🤔🤔

Wow. You actually have to ask if you’re being unreasonable? You shouldn’t be blocking their access to parking in the first place and then you continue to do so? Obnoxious.

I am glad you’re not my neighbour. You sound so entitled.

Sadly OP, the world doesn’t orbit around you - have a bit of decency will you

OP disappeared on page 2 and doubt she'll be back as she's been well and truly given her arse on a plate.😁

100% this! Op did not get the response they were hoping for here at all. I feel sorry for her neighbour if the access driveway to her property is constantly being blocked by CF OP and her visitors! I would honk my horn too.

"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."

That's when I started internally screaming.