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?

I have been known to hit things that I had left in my own drive (e.g. kid’s toys, lawn mowers, buckets, our other car, etc.), and I have got used to looking really carefully to make sure that where I am going is clear, so that I don’t crush DD’s bike or whatever. Given the foregoing, it seems a bit rich to assume one can back into someone else’s drive and be completely confident of not hitting something!

It's called humour. You should try it some time.

I think your next move would be to paint smiley faces on your rocks, preferably facing his house

Lol it was a big car and a low wall that I just didn’t see and yes she was lovely about it. And no she didn’t inconvenience me in any big ways. Of course there were small things but nothing enough to make an issue of.

What a remarkably obtuse and stupid comment.

He's not got a leg to stand on but it does seem a bit petty to put them there.

Whati think is strange is the posters who think that she intended to damage his car with her rocks. It would never have occurred to me that he wouldn't have noticed them before he reversed into them - because I tend to look in the mirror before I reverse somewhere (and if I was the neighbour I would be having a look at the OP's drive before I got in my car, if only to make sure OP's car wasn't parked in it).

If I was the neighbour I'd have spotted the rocks and thought either
a. she's making a rockery, or
b. She's pissed off with me going onto her drive. My reaction to that would not be to rant at her but to apologise for having assumed that she would be OK with my trespassing on her land

Yes the OP is incredibly petty and small minded
Be grateful you don't live on that street

This is bonkers!! I wouldn’t think less of anyone for doing this.

what the hell are you on about 😂

Big Jim the car twat wasn't unreasonable by just reversing into his drive? You keep posting about OP but big Jim gets a bye ball?

I think you fancy big Jim

😂😂 I know, scary OP putting h things on her property

Question does the OP have to declare a problem with her neighbors if and when she moves?

Not at all! He should have had the common courtesy to explain his purpose and ask if it was okay to keep on reversing his car onto her driveway. Thats whats wrong nowadays. People are becoming so entitled. Its her property. Let him reverse his car into his own driveway then he can drive straight out.

The patriarchy strikes again, or tries to. He’s doubtless more furious that OP didn’t quail before him and apologise, than about the flipping rocks per se.

Don't be daft. If posters are going to be pompously dour about others using sarky humour, they're going to get a response like that. Some people are responding as though OP has committed some kind of crime! It's ridiculous.

Yes, beware of the rocks. Which are not invisible

Could be because they are rendered nauseous whenever they are advised to ‘use their words’!

Maybe 🙈

I'm not convinced. But even that is kind of irrelevant. Really it's an argument between people saying, "You should talk to your neighbours, try to resolve things through words, because you have to live in the same place for a long time and it's better to make friends than enemies. Or at least to try. And it's kind of weak to not even try." And other people saying, "Fuck anyone who imposes on me in any way, they don't deserve a conversation whoever they are; plus he's just an entitled MAN (a MN crime) and everyone knows that having conversations with men is far too scary and dangerous to ever be contemplated. Oh and who the fuck needs to get on with their neighbours?"

Depends if it escalates! Let's wait and hear updates!

Then very generous of her, sounds like you had a good relationship and that’s lovely. Pretty different to the man over the road from OP who hasn’t said hello in three months but shouts at her when she adds rocks to her own property.

Tell me more!

But the 'humour' doesn't make any sense, because it's not related to anything pp are actually saying. It's only related to what OP and her pals wish they were saying, I guess because it's easier to take the piss out of imaginary comments rather than the actual comments, which are perfectly reasonable and basically saying, "you should have had a conversation with him," and "neither of you have been good neighbours." So the only way it's actually 'funny' is if you're like a childish little clique trying to mock others into agreeing with you. Which, yeah, I guess is kind of funny. But perhaps not in the way you think.

Quite surprised by how many people think it's fine for him to get mad at you for damaging his car with your property! Honestly cannot believe his gall in coming to complain to you about it!

What if it was a kid playing on the drive? Would he just not see them and run them over instead?

There's probably not much he can do about it. I think there is a villain in this story and it isn't the man reversing his car.