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?

Well you've "won" but it's hardly an achievement.

Also, you are not correct that you can do what you like on your property, you have to make sure it's safe even for trespassers. Occupier's liability if you want to look it up.

If it was a pedestrian cutting the corner and you put the rocks there to stop them and they broke a leg in the dark you'd be on thin ice legally.

Not sure how it applies to damage rather than injury though.

Good job it wasn't a cat that he ran into with his car, he needs to look where he is reversing when driving

I wonder why he doesn't turn around in the cul-de-sac, it looks quite big in your picture.

Never answer your door to this ‘neighbour’ again!

What codswallop.

Its not like the OP laid fucking landmines and the CUNT NDN's car blew up?

OP can indeed do whatever the fuck she likes on her own property,

JFC.

He should be reversing into his driveway anyway:

https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/using-the-road-reversing.html#:~:text=When%20using%20a%20driveway%2C%20reverse,drive%20out%20if%20you%20can.&text=check%20there%20are%20no%20pedestrians,in%20the%20road%20behind%20you.

If it's that tight for space on the street I'd imagine his visibility is not great when reversing out, so even more reason he shouldn't be doing it.

And as for hitting the rocks, bit of a concern that he didn't see them - he could have hit any other property, a child or an animal.

Have you got a door camera? Be good to have a recording of his aggressive rant. What a fanny.

@johnd2 why would OP be on thin ice legally, if she put something on her private property? The pedestrian would have no proof that the stones were put there to deter trespassers. OP could argue she thought they looked pretty.

He can call the police and a solicitor then. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’ve only called the police once in my life. My daughter was witness to a racist attack on another child at school and was asked to make a report. The parent of the child who attacked the other child got my daughter’s number from his son’s phone and threatened her via WhatsApp. So I reported it as harassment and intimidation of a witness. The police could not have given less of a shit about this 45 year old man making threats against my 12 year old child.

They will not care one bit about your pile of rocks. I hope you laughed in this cockwomble’s face. 🙄

I agree with this. I know that its your drive and you can put whatever you want on it. However it seems that you have put rocks on your drive in a place that you knew would damage his car. Then you say you didn't speak to him about reversing onto your drive as you didn't know how he'd react. Well obviously hes not going to react well when he reverses into the rocks. I understand that it was probably really frustrating seeing your drive being used each day but i don't think you've gone about this well at all. There were so many other ways you could have dealt with it before starting neighbour wars.

Pretty crappy driver too!

He should be embarrassed to be fair. I wonder if he is hence the aggression?

well that s is on him then - not his land so should be asking the owner

Ive come out on to my empty drive and found a driver about to drive onto the area where im stood with a fair bit of spee, stop suddenly - they have even waved me on as if im waiting for them before I move onto the pavements - when really what they want to do is pull not my drive to turn around. Ive not moved, as they shouldn't be manoeuvring onto my drive, Its dangerous as if they didn't see me they'd knock me over and shouldn't be there or on the pavements.

My neighbours park on my drive when needed - but I know them and we have that type of agreement

He asked why I didn't tell him I was putting them there so he could avoid driving over them

Have you suggested a visit to Specsavers?

I once swerved a lovely bungalow I really wanted for precisely this reason - it's all very well people insisting "someone else" ddidn't mind, but those someone elses can move and then the issues start (and I don't even drive so it was visitors I was thinking of)

So he made a mistake and is now trying to blame it on you? I believe the word for that is "tough"

Why should she have to talk to someone trespassing on her property because they can't drive properly. This is not the OPs responsibility or problem. If the dickhead was driving properly it wouldn't be an issue. What if the OP had been in that corner of the garden knelling down whilst gardening? What if a pet had been there? Or any other number of possibilities.

It ALWAYS comes back to the driver's lack of due diligence.

How, exactly? The neighbour was not amenable, and she shouldn’t have to speak to him anyway. Plus she didn’t know the ricks would damage his car- she would assume he had noticed them. It’s very worrying that he didn’t!

The rocks are quite big!

can we have a photo of the rocks he failed to see? The diagram is A*

No idea how you went off on that just from my post but clearly you didn't read about occupier's liability

I would upgrade to something that would inflict more damage to this wanker's car 😉

The defence of Contributory negligence and the principle of volenti would apply. No way on earth is there a claim here.

And you don’t have to “make sure” of anything. The test is reasonableness. Which will turn on its own facts.

The onus was on CF neighbour to check with the new homeowner if it was ok to use the drive.

They would be on thin ice due to occupiers liability, they can argue what they like in court but it would be better to avoid the risk in the first place

Stop suggesting that the OP is at risk of legal proceedings. That is not the case.

I really dont see why, if he insists on driving onto his drive, that he cant reverse off the opposite way and turn around in the cul-de-sac!