Neighbours have decided that myself and NDN park some of our cars in another street to make it fairer for everyone. AIBU to ignore the request?

[SumoFarah]

I live on a street with unrestricted parking and few driveways. I know it might sound excessive but my family and NDN family have 7 cars between us. I can’t get a drive out in as the street is really narrow so I would need the space opposite to be empty in order to exit.

A neighbour on the street knocked on my and NDN to explain that our six cars take up too much space and means that:

1. neighbours who finish work late can never get a space so have to park on another street and walk
2. their weekend visitors can never get a space
3. on weekends they sometimes have to park in the middle of the road to unload their shopping and then go and find somewhere else to park

We we’re told that ‘they all’ think everyone should agree to use a maximum of 2 spaces to use as they wish and any further space needed should be used in the free car park about 1/2 mile away.

Also that the two teenagers (one mine, one NDN) don’t need cars as they are still in school so should have no need for cars anyway.

I get that parking spaces are at a premium, and can be frustrating when all the spaces are taken, but I don’t want myself or my dc to walk 1/2 mile in the dark (or the light, for that matter) just to placate the neighbours when there’s a space available. All our cars are pretty much used on a daily basis.

NDN told the messenger neighbour that it’s first-come-first-served. I do understand the annoyance but don’t agree with the suggestion because some houses only have one car and some houses don’t have a car, so should balance out in theory, but obviously doesn’t in practice.

Would I be unreasonable to ignore the ‘request’?

Suggestions welcomed.

I don’t know why you are bringing your next door neighbour into this?

Why are you even talking for your ndn?
You should've just said you have 3 cars!
I don't think 3 is overally excessive.
So just ignore them.

It was the complaining neighbour who did that, rather than OP, wasn't it? Presumably to use the cumulative effect to make their case seem stronger than it was.

Magazine articles do exactly the same thing, where they'll have a massive headline shouting something like "We lost 20 stone!!!" - and then it turns out that the 'we' were 50 people combined!

I think you're being very generous to your neighbours, OP. It's an unrestricted road and your neighbours don't have any right to demand that you don't park on it if there's a space available. It's first come first served. Absolutely this can be frustrating - I used to live on a road with unrestricted parking where several houses had 3 or more cars and we weren't one of them! - but I think it's a bit of a cheek for them to try to penalise you because there are three people in your house who have a car.

PS we have one car and I do very slightly judge households with two or more but I also appreciate that I do not own my street!

So you don't want your teenagers to walk half a mile when they get in from school but you are fine for an elderly lady or a woman with a toddler to have to walk it in the dark, when they get home from work.

Wow, not only are you extremely selfish but you are teaching your dcs to be the same. I'm glad you don't live on my street.

You’re not unreasonable to ignore it, but it isn’t ‘nice’ I also assume if they had more cars they would do the same. Having 3/4 cars per household is irritating as hell (my neighbour has 6 alone due to kids and parents) but ultimately whilst it’s frustrating not to get a park I’m not entitled to one so quietly seethe when I can’t after a late shift. Impressed with neighbours balls to ask for reasonable accomodations for all, but they’ll never get it.

For a year or so there were 6 cars at my parents' half the week,4all of the time and they live with a green directly outside their house so no ability to put in a drive, there is unallocated off street parking. It was my parents me DB and then at weekends now DH and now SIL.We all worked and all needed our cars for work. Try buying a house in or around London at 21 or saving any money paying market rent. At the time I worked in corporate b2b sales so was literally on the road, my mum was a regional manager so don't to different locations over quite a distance , daily, my brother is a tradesman and my dad had to leave for work at 5am long before any local public transport kicked in. It's reality.

So your teenagers are old enough to drive, but not old enough to cope with a ten-minute walk?

I’d carry on parking where you need to. It’s an unrestricted road and no neighbour gets to decide how many cars another family should have. I do see why people are irritated, but expecting you to trek to a car park half a mile away just isn’t realistic. If the council brings in permits one day, fine, but right now it’s simply first come, first served. I’m just not sure what they expect you to actually do here though… am I missing something?

You are missing neighborly spirit. Technically the OP could park an entire corporate fleet of cars on the street, but that would also make her a lousy neighbor, though.

I think the decent thing to do would be to acknowledge that you live in a community and, as such, minimize the kind of behavior or activity that impinges upon others in that community, as far as reasonably possible. In the case of on street parking, that means restricting the number of cars one owns to reflect the limited parking available.

Selfishness and solipsism are the bane of modern life.

IfI was parking my cars outside other people's houses I would be worried in case something happened to them. People have parked their car in a street - too mean to pay for airport parking - and returned from holiday to find a wreck and no one saw anything.

Ignore said cunty neighbour.

They can go and park in the free car park - the road is free to use by anyone. Residents and non residents alike.

I would have laughed in their faced and told them to get to fuck before slamming the door shut!

We have adult children in work living at home and have 3 cars , sometimes 4 here .
Two park on our private drive and two park elsewhere so we don't block the neighbours spaces
I think your neighbours must be very frustrated,and don't want their DC walking a mile in the dark from the car park either

Exactly. You’re being a selfish dick here OP.

We live in a permit area. You can only get a permit for 2 cars max per household and the second car permit costs 3 x what the first car permit does. Anyone with more than 2 cars has to park the extra cars on the nearest unpermited street which is about a mile away.

You are a nightmare neighbour!

Yabu

It’s not very neighbourly if you move into a house without adequate parking for your fleet of cars, which unfairly impacts others. Even worse if there are two neighbours like this. Obviously? The other neighbours are being impacted? Not rocket science.

Ludicrous amount of cars, I just don’t think anyone needs that many. We have two and both fit on our own driveway so we have a little space off street for a visitor. If we had 4 cars and no driveway to accommodate, on our street this would be a nightmare because most families have 2 cars or a van and car. I can see your neighbour’s point.

Unfair to criticise the OP.

Its a road where anyone can park - so even if the OP+NDN didnt have that many cars, anyone else could freely park there, denying others the opportunity to do so.

Would that CF neighbour go round telling people to move their cars?

Wholly unreasonable. No one owns the road - ergo anyone is free to use it.

…no one owns it, and by that measure no one should treat the road as if they own it.

You have only got 3 cars though, loads of families have 3 cars, it's not your fault if your neighbour has more.

What a load of tosh. Working class women have been working for hundreds of years, in the fields and in the cities once the Industrial Revolution came brought the factories. Women in my family have been working for generations.

This sounds so greedy! The whole street is taken up by you and the NDN’s cars. How awful and frustrating for the other neighbours. And you so uncaring about it. Very un-neighbourly.

Yabvu