New neighbours and parking?

[soorty]

I shared a driveway and my lovely neighbours have moved out. The new people seem nice but they’ve parked their car on their side of the driveway and parked their second car behind it. They’ve parked like this every day so it’s not a one off.

It makes it so difficult for me to leave my driveway, I have to manoeuvre around their car and 9/10 times a car parked on the opposite side of the road to my driveway and a huge tree (on the pavement) on the other side of me. It’s a very narrow old street.

I know the solution is to talk to them but I really don’t want to have to put in a complaint to them after just a few days. Aibu to say something? Would you react ok to this?

if they are parking over your side, then they ARE blocking your driveway, tell them not to!
Or park a couple of times blocking your own driveway so they get the message.

thank you for the diagram, because it's nothing like they’ve parked their car on their side of the driveway and parked their second car behind it.

when they are just parked on the road and blocking you!

Explain the situation and ask can they not park as far forward hopefully then you can drive on/off

It's illegal to block a dropped kerb even if its your own driveway. If it's a public highway keep reporting them to the council, if it's a private road the management company.

Just talk to them, it doesn't have to be a "complaint". Maybe they don't even realise it's difficult for you to get out.
How would you react if someone came to you with the same issue and you had no idea? Friendly and helpful? Well assume that is how they would react as well. It doesn't have to be a big thing.

If you won't want to knock and chat about it, I would park your car on the driveway so it's closer to the road, rather than up towards the garage, but not blocking any pedestrian walkway. That way it's obvious how much room you need to drive off the driveway and should make them realise they can't park your car in. Or could you consider power washing/cleaning your half of the driveway, so that it's obvious which half is yours and which half is theirs?

Park outside your house on the road and when they have difficulty getting in, you tell them THEY are blockingbyou ao you have no choice.
They know what they are doing.

I had exactly the same issue in our last house but not a great relationship with the next door neighbours (they only got the second car a few years after we had been living there and began parking it exactly the same as in OP's diagram) I think because they have just moved in it would be worth just having an informal chat with them about the issue it causes you in pulling your car out as I remember how much this used to annoy me, and wish I had spoken up.

Fortunately, the council made our road residents parking only in the end and put double yellows all along our dropped curb meaning that anyone parked on it even if it was across their own drive got a ticket. I think even without the double yellows you are still not technically allowed to park across a dropped curb though?

Yeah no yellow lines but it is a dropped curb.

It’s just very frustrating because I have so many issues with parking without this (numerous vans and cars just blatantly parking across my drive). And my previous neighbours never did this - and I never did it to them.

Appreciate on street parking can be difficult but if you bought a house with a single drive then you just have to suck it up.

Whats behind the car they park on the road? More cars or anything?

Is there anything stopping them from parking it a couple feet further back?

This is where you gain nothing by being a good driver. Yes, you can get your car past them, but it is awkward. And they barely know you. So, from now on, you are sweet cheery neighbour lady who's not the world's best at reversing. 'So sorry, lovely new neighbours, I can't get past your car!' And repeat, over and over, until they get the message that it's in the way. If you need to throw in a wistful 'yes, I never was a ninja at reversing!' then do it. If you need to act slightly bemused when they say you could just about squeak past if you took five minutes, act bemused.

They will find it really boring and will probably decide it's less hassle just to park normally on the street.

I’m in a pretty similar position. All houses I’d previously lived in were lovely wide roads so even if numerous cars were randomly parked close by it just generally wasn’t an issue. But my current home, I didn’t even think about how much narrower the road is but it unfortunately does have quite a detrimental effect on the ease of getting in and out of your own driveway.

I generally however since passing my licence have always reversed into parking spaces and find it’s easier to navigate the obstacles in this manner. It’s not perfect as sometimes the car parked opposite my driver is one of those huge Chelsea tractor things and almost half of it is in an already narrow road and add to that my drive has quite a narrow opening and so I can sometimes struggle to even reverse park and sometimes my engine revs as it hits a raised bit of kerb 🤦🏻‍♀️ and I see next doors lace curtains twitch 😭

Since they’re new I think a friendly chat mentioning how hard it is to get out of your driveway and could they please just back up a bit so that maybe they’re only blocking 1/4 of the drive way is more that reasonable. They likely don’t realize they’re causing you difficulty.

Picture please or it's so difficult to imagine

Sorry op can see that being an issue. When I lived at home my dad told me to park my car on the street rather than on the drive behind his to ensure our neighbour was able to reverse in and out without issue. My parents old house shared a drive which didn’t even narrow out the way yours does but it’s all about being considerate. This was done without even discussing it with our neighbour, dad just wanted to make sure everyone stayed on good terms.

Tbey should recognise that you’re unable to reverse out and do something about it, park in a manner that allows you to use your drive too. You may need to have a chat with them.

If you can’t sort it out you need to start reversing your car onto your drive not off it into the road.

Go and talk to them. They are not going to know it bothers you otherwise. They are new neighbours and you will most likely have to deal with them for several years.
Just say something like."I'm sure you don't mean to, but could you park your other car just a little bit further as I'm having trouble getting out of my side of the driveway" And then invite them for a cuppa.

Is it a dropped curb? I don't think you're allowed to block a dropped curb, even if it accesses your own drive. Your local council website probably has the exact rules.

I'm sure they must see you struggling to get out and could be more accommodating. They could think you're managing fine or just be selfish? Xx

Surely it would be reasonable to asked them to pull forward slightly so you can navigate easier? Looks like half a foot would solve the problem without then really moving anywhere?

Perhaps take part of your wall down to widen the driveway?

Don’t say something…they will hate you as you have no reason to complain.

Except then, the neighbours can drive/reverse out from one side; whereas OP is boxed in between their car and the tree!

Is it actually a shared drive or just two drives with no boundary marker between them?

Beautiful though I'm sure it is, it rather sounds like the tree is the main issue here - quite probably planted before there were many/any cars around for it to ever cause a problem!

Ive posted a similar situation on here before and mumsnet will always say it’s your fault. Just talk to them as they might not be aware.