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?

Bloke over the road says the previous owners didn’t mind, but HOW DO WE KNOW, EH?!

Maybe, he’s the reason they moved, due to a bitter, ongoing & escalating feud because bloke over the road wouldn’t respect boundaries.

Best nip it in the bud, I say.

😬

Berating a stranger on the internet about their drive arrangements and then calling them a ‘saddo’ is somewhat of an irony.

Yup! I won't trample your flowers or grass. I'll just walk across your garden because I feel like it. And you can't complain, because it isn't inconveniencing you!

Not that important but how big are these rocks. Did they hit them in daylight?

I get they are not used to them being there but surely when reversing you check around you.

i am wondering where you would draw the line. Does the OP need a sign on the off chance a delivery driver might hit them if turning in the road. After all they weren’t there last week.

If we are blaming people let’s blame the blue car. After all if it wasn’t there neighbour wouldn’t have gone onto OP’s drive hitting the rocks.

He could have avoided the deliberate damage by not using OP's drive.

Calling someone a bitch for what they do on their own property says quite a lot about how you view women.

Er … OP said there is a turning point nearby, plus the neighbours apparently don’t reverse into their drives anyway. They’re just too lazy and arrogant to drive properly.

It's the truth

The rocks in question (not my drive btw) mine is cream / light coloured

He won't be parking on YOUR property now! Maybe he could get some reversing lessons..

I’m concerned that you might have forgotten your username

She knew that he would almost certainly damage his car. She probably set it up deliberately. Certainly as good as. If that's not a bitch then I'm not sure what is? But to use a unisex term then I'll say that she's a nasty piece of work and extremely petty. It won't make her life on her new street any easier. That neighbour will now loathe her and her behaviour will probably get round the neighbours.

Actually OP, I am with you. My children used to play on the garden & our driveway, it was obviously safer than the road. That wouldn't be the case with neighbours reversing onto the drive. Observation skills aren't his strong point.

Looking at your diagram, he could have reversed into the turning circle, or turned first and reversed into his own drive. We have to do similar when people park opposite and outside our house.

If he was a considerate neighbour, he should have asked you if it was OK, not just assumed that because the previous owner let him, then he is fine to continue. The onus was on him, not to you to approach him and ask him to stop.

Well, as someone else said OP, taking this attitude will make people despise you.
Being proud of that? Well, it's your life.
I'm just glad that I'm a giving person and not at all like you.
Mumsnet actually depressed me - to become aware of how many people with this sort of mind set there are out there.
I'm retreating to my blissful ignorance where I assume everyone is as forgiving as me.

But the neighbour shouldn't have been on the OP's driveway.

Why is he so pathetic that he can’t knock and ask if she minds him using her drive? And why is he so precious that he can’t use his own driveway properly? Drives are for reversing into for this precise reason, among others. Personally I’ve never needed to use someone else’s property for that purpose. Perhaps he’s a shit driver and not capable of reversing into his own drive, and now he’s got his knickers in a twist because he’ll have to learn.

Literally nothing in your previous posts makes you appear ‘forgiving’.

Anyone who thinks that someone putting stuff on their drive to stop it being used by others does so expecting people to drive into it instead of avoiding it is a shockingly poor driver.

What a twat. If he wants you to know you’re doing stuff on your own private property Od make sure I told him every time I was doing anything. You could pop a note through the door if you get fed up ringing the bell -

“Because you thought I should tell you about things I’m doing ON MY OWN PRIVATE PROPERTY, I thought you’d like to know I’m weeding my garden at the weekend / decorating the front room / mowing the lawn / having visitors / tidying my wardrobe / adding more rocks TO MY OWN DRIVEWAY etc.”

Every. Single. Time.

What an absolute dick. Good job it wasn’t a child or a pet sitting there and was only rocks (get some more)

I thought highway code says you are not supposed to reverse into the street??

OP id get sine surveillance cameras up just in case. Also did he actually damage his car, or made up/exaggerated so that he can have a strop?

Apparently not as spikes could not be seen to have any other purpose than to cause damage - although I personally believe there are some cases where that's perfectly justified. Fortunately for cheeky fucker neighbours everywhere, I am not a neighbour dispute judge... Rocks however can be used decoratively or to mark boundaries, as they were here.

Are you suggesting if a grey cat is on a grey driveway and therefore harder to see that it's unfair to you if you don't look properly and run over it? Similarly a child in grey clothes? Yes, it can be harder to make out some obstacles in certain situations but someone with such poor powers of observation should reconsider if driving is for them, really. A car is a form of deadly weapon, it can kill people. You can't be careless and make assumptions that a space is clear without checking thoroughly.

YANBU

It doesn't matter what he thinks, what he wants, or what has happened to his car.
He damaged it when he was on your property uninvited.
And you dont need a reason not to want him to use your drive, its yours, so you get to decide.
He sounds like an entitled dickhead.

I would go out and get bigger boulders or massive planters

This.

Great - the clue here is helping ‘each other’. In this case, the neighbour drove on OP’s property without asking and then abused and threatened her when his trespassing caused damage to his own property. Don’t see how that’s ’helping each other’.

Clearly, I was joking!

While I haven't let this man to use my driveway, how can you be sure I don't help people in other ways? Just because I haven't allowed a stranger (and let's remember, this man hasn't said a word to me since I moved here) to use my property, does that really make me a bitch / nasty piece of work? If so, I can make peace with that …