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?

...'the previous owners didn't have an issue.'

So he knew full well there could have potentially been an issue with you being the new owner, BUT HE chose to carry on regardless.

Why on earth the lazy man didn't just reverse onto his own drive in the first place is ridiculous, but some people really do like to encroach onto other people's property.

Ignore the twat.

What business was it of the neighbours what the OP does on and with their property ?

The idiot needs to learn to reverse park. This is not the OP's problem. I'd have just laughed at him.

I think the above is spot on. It is not that neighbourly to put rocks there. If it is annoying and you don't want him to reverse there just say so rather than being underhand

They hadn't spoken before the op took action with the rocks. I was suggesting a reasonable conversation before escalation.

So you’ve been letting him do it for 3 months and then decided to put a load of rocks in a place where you knew there was a good chance of him hitting them? And you never mentioned it to him? Crazy.

We let our neighbour use our drive to get on and off theirs as it’s pretty tight for them because of parked cars. Would never occur to me to object, what difference does it make to me and it makes his life a little easier.

Now you’ve gone and started a war, somewhere I presume you are intending to stay a while. Madness.

The entitled driver speaking to the drive owner first was the only correct way to start off on a decent footing. He didn’t.

Daft
why don’t we all go do just as we like on other folks property…..then make it their fault when we don’t like what we’ve been doing 🤷‍♀️.

The problem with being nice is that lots of people see it as a weakness and take advantage. We've had similar and were nice about it, and just let it go, but when it needed relaying after a couple of years as it had cracked badly over the bit they constantly used, they refused to pay anything towards it and were aggressive about it, and became quite petty. They also got nasty when we only paid to redo our drive as it made theirs look tatty (they were joined at 1 side but not shared, and had obviously been done as one big area previously).

They also regularly parked their cars on our large drive, but once when we parked on theirs for a few minutes to move cars around, they were out like a shot telling us to move, so it only worked one way, as it often does with people like this.

Wouldn't want you as a neighbour! If you can’t see that such behaviour is trespass, entitled, disrespectful and aggressive, apart from the point that he’s an incompetent driver, there’s no hope! It’s ok if the OP takes her dog and allows it to poo on the neighbours lawn, then?
if people allow others to use their drives, ok, so it probably won’t damage the drive. Then oil gets spilt, they may hit something, others will take advantage and use it too. The OP has every right to protect her property . Don’t get how some are making it her fault!

There's always one 🙄.
Actually the real issue is the neighbour's poor driving skills. If he reversed into his own drive there would be no issue for anyone.

It's not his business but to put rocks in a location where she knows he is likely to hit them rather than simply having a conversation with him is pretty crappy behaviour.

I thought he would notice them! I didn’t intend for him to wreck his car, but I get why it looks that way. The rocks are quite big!

A war? If he starts a war it will also mean he’s a vindictive bastard as well as an entitled one.

Sorry, but this is classic FAFO. If he can reverse on to your drive he can reverse on to his own from now on, can't he?

Time to buy some more rocks!

Why doesn’t he use the big turning circle at the end of the cut de sac?

If the previous owner had no issue with it, and the op hadn't mentioned it in the length she lived there, he may not have seen it as something that required discussing.

Really 🤔

He needs to learn to drive better or reverse on to his own drive

Stupid old fart. Lol, let him call the police

That's is a very good anti precis of "entitled"

This isn't relevant. He should be looking where he's driving every single time he gets in the car and reverses. Otherwise he could hit something like a rock unexpectedly. Or worse a toddler.

He should be grateful it wasn't worse. It's his own lack of due care and attention that's the issue.

Still, always best to make sure. Only takes a minute. He managed to go and talk to the OP when he was angry, funny that.

It was on him to make sure she didn’t mind. It’s not rocket science