Neighbour damaged his car on my drive

[lghtnght]

I moved into my new house 3 months ago and after a few weeks, I noticed that the neighbours across the street were reversing onto my property when they left their house. The road is pretty narrow, so they can't really turn around without reversing onto my drive. Plus, another neighbour parks his car (in blue) on the pavement by their house, which makes it harder for them to pull forward and turn around.

It would be much easier if they just reversed onto their own drive and drove out from there. I don't know why they haven't done that yet. I didn't want to start any drama or fall out with them. I had never talked to them before today and wasn't sure how they'd react if I brought it up, so last weekend I decided to put some garden rocks in the corner instead. Just to clarify, they're on my drive, not on the pavement, in case anyone wonders. So, the neighbour knocked on my door earlier and said that his car got damaged because of the rocks. He insists that they were half on the pavement (not true) and half on my drive.

He asked why I didn't tell him I was putting them there so he could avoid driving over them. He said if there was a problem, I should have just talked to him. I told him it's my drive, on my property. Why would I need to inform him? His car wouldn't have been damaged if he wasn't using my drive… He got really aggressive with me, saying that the previous owners never had any issues and that he's going to call the police and a solicitor about the damage to his car. I haven’t heard anything since. I can't believe I'm even writing this. I’m not sure what to do now! I do feel a bit intimidated by him. Am I being unreasonable?

As an absolute minimum you should have used a very large rock painted white to make it highly visible. He will naturally feel that you deliberately brought about the damage to his car. Doesn't mean he has a legal case, but it does justify him considering you a total bitch.

Did he damage your rocks ? You might want to bill him for those ….

It feels like this was the likely outcome of your decision to put the rocks there. Unless the rocks were large and, assuming he's done the same manoeuvre for years, of course he's driven into them. And he's likely to be surprised and upset to realise they are there. Is it ok for him to use your drive in this way? I mean, it wouldn't bother me, but obviously it's your choice. However, I think your decision to put rocks there could only end this way, really, and I think it would've been better to talk to him face to face.

That's all fine and dandy, but how am I supposed to prove that? And how would I get him to pay if he refused?

It most certainly doesn’t! What a strange and hostile attitude!

He trespassed on your property and damaged his car doing it.

And wtf would you want the hassle!

Op, why aren’t you bending over backwards for this shithead of a man?

I mentioned earlier that my drive is a cream colour and the rocks are like a dark grey so they are visible

Did you not read all the posts? He’s an aggressive man, he’s not going to respond amicably!

This is crazy. He damaged his car on your property, when he shouldn’t have been there. The police won’t care!! To be honest, maybe not the best to put the rocks there, but I can see why you did. Could you put something more obvious / less damaging there eg your wheelie bins?

Yeahs, there was no need to insinuate the OP is a bitch.

No idea why you're so fired up about it all!

I did refresh myself and in my opinion it doesn't negate anything I said in my original post.

The only unclear thing in my mind is whether there's an existing agreement with the previous owners, obviously in a court all the facts would be presented and they would make a finding, in all honestly I think the neighbour is embarrassed and annoyed and there was no agreement, but that's why we have legal "Advice" and courts rather than random angry people on the internet.

By being a normal human being and talking to him. If I damaged something on someone else's property and I would let them know and pay.

YANBU-you own the driveway, you can do with it what you wish, including placing rocks on it. The facts of the matter are that your neighbour damaged his property whilst trespassing on yours. It’s his own silly fault that he is in this predicament. I’m sorry but I have zero sympathy for him.

Could he claim that you’ve in essence ‘booby trapped’ your driveway and intentionally caused damage in a similar way to how it’s unlawful to booby trap a parcel so it causes harm to the person who nicks it?

The least OP could do is leave her garage open so he can service the car and repair the damage🙄

He's probably enough of a stupid cunt to try this.

But that's you. Surely you realise that everyone is different, and just because you would take responsibility and cover any damages, it doesn't mean others would do the same. Right?

So what if he did have an agreement with the previous owners? That’s nothing to do with OP. It doesn’t pass on. There is no legal bearing on OP here.

Not OP’s fault the CF can’t do a standard manoeuvre.

Can I just check?

You deliberately put rocks that you fully expected to be suitable for preventing a car from driving over a space, into a space you knew a car regularly drove through?

At a time of year when we’ve had headline worthy bad weather which impacts visibility.

And didn’t think to tell the driver if the vehicle ‘because you thought they might get annoyed’.

You’re a proper Wally.

Decent human beings start trying to deal with an issue by having a conversation.

The neighbour had no reason to know there was an issue, so no reason to talk to you. As the thread has demonstrated plenty of people think turning on drives is standard practise .

Anyone who thinks it’s ok to drive over someone’s property on a daily basis is highly unlikely to stop when asked. The male entitlement gene is strong in the OP’s NDN.

How many more times! The onus is not on OP- it’s her property. The onus is on him to drive properly, and respect his neighbour.

"Could he claim that you’ve in essence ‘booby trapped’ your driveway and intentionally caused damage in a similar way to how it’s unlawful to booby trap a parcel so it causes harm to the person who nicks it?"

It's not like she has out hidden spikes on the drive. These are clearly visible stationary objects and he only has himself to blame for his poor driving and or lack of effective observation.

The fact that he is so entitled to make routine and unagreed use of someone else's drive says it all really.

I’m going to bet with certainty it’s because it’s the sort of thing they would do themselves.

You could replace rocks with kids bike, or bin or really anything at all. You drive up someone’s drive and hit something, it’s on you.

So did you put the rocks down to stop them using your drive, expecting them to notice so not use it? Of so this has backfired.

Of course they shouldn't be using your drive but with the tight situation it's awkward and yes they should park forward facing.

Not your problem for the damage but it's a shame you couldn't tell tell them it was bothering you before it came to this.

Something more obvious like plant pots would be more visible and send the same message.

Also, we lived in a narrow cul de sac and were all in agreement about others needing to use each other's drives. It was actually bloody awful with people parking over them but that's another looooon story. Xx