Blocked in a car who parked in my space

[2026baby]

To be clear I own my flat and the parking space is part of my lease and is legally mine. If anyone wishes to use it they would need to have my permission as they would be trespassing otherwise. The space is on private land in a secure garage that requires fob access.

I have come home today from being away to find a random car parked in my space, I do not know who it belongs to. I paid to park on the street outside for an hour hoping they would move soon but no one did. Not wanting to spend any more money unnecessarily I have now parked in front of my parking space which has blocked them in. It is not impacting anyone else's space and allows free movement around the car park.

I have left a note on the car and put a message in the block's group chat but no one has responded. AIBU to block them in until I get a response?

I have nowhere else to park and I don't want to pay to park outside as its £4 an hour and I have no idea when they will move (So far it has been 3 hours that I am aware of). The managing agent is closed for the weekend but have been useless anyway when my neighbours have the same problem and as its a civil matter I can't call the police but according to google the car owner can call the police on me for blocking them in. I am also concerned in case they damage my car, again where would I stand legally if they did given that I have blocked them in?

No help for your current situation OP, but could you have a collapsible bollard installed to prevent it happening again?

Yeah or one of those poles with a lock on. Easy enough to do, prevent all the hassle.

Yeah blue badge parking on street is free isn't it.

Under what circumstances?
The OP is parked. She herself says that the disabled person hasn’t been affected.
Calm down, you’ll give yourself a nosebleed.

How on earth is this crass or insensitive? Nobody has been harmed, nobody is in any danger. There is no malicious intent.

The difference between this bit of tarmac and the others is that she has paid to legally own this bit of tarmac. She owns this bit of tarmac and not the other bits of tarmac. The person who parked on her legally owned bit of tarmac doesn’t legally own the bit of tarmac.

Hope that clarifies things.

There's no difference in practical terms. You park your car, go home and get on with your day.

It strikes me that your management company could make the car park far less attractive to chancers if they make it fob exit as well as entry.

I don't imagine too many CFs will tailgate in if they have to wait for a random to leave to let them out!

@2026baby I'd do the same as you (and have done).

Doesn't matter a jot if there are empty spaces. If you take one of them you just shift the issue.

My block is pretty good with space owners who don't have cars agreeing that visitors who ask in advance can use them. However if you don't ask people get shirty.

Best one was Christmas 2024 though. A Zipcar was parked in oursecure carpark blocking multiple spaces. I put a Msg on owners group asking for it to be moved with a picture saying I thought it was ridiculous that one car was taking up four spaces. Unbeknown to me the owner of one of blocked spaces went nuclear about his space being blocked and phoned Zipcar

Zipcar were pretty mystified about how a car they thought was available to rent from an onstreet parking bay was trapped in a secure car park and sent someone round to extricate it from the car park.

It turned out it was one of the "mobile" Zipcars that you could rent and move from acceptable location to acceptable location ie. it didn't have a home base, just on street parking bays. When "returned" to an acceptable onstreet parking bay the charges stop.

There is an acceptable bay just beyond our building and the tracker on it wasn't accurate enough to register it was actually in our car park and not on the street. So one of my CF neighbours had basically moved it for their exclusive use into our car park but only actually paid for the driving time. This basically gave them their own private vehicle for minimal cost.

Unfortuately when zipcar investigated it they realised this is what had been happening and banned neighbour from using Zipcar. I know all of this because they came and shouted at me and the space owning neighbour (separately, but we compared notes)!

There were two delicious ironies - the first was that the CF neighbour actually had their own space in the car park that was empty - if they had put the zipcar in there (as they had done in the past) in all likelihood it would have gone unnoticed but I think they were too lazy to do the manouevere.

Two part of CF neighbour threat to me was that they are a lawyer and they were going to take legal action against me. At which point I enquired if they were worried about whether Zipcar was going to report them as I thought the SRA would take a fairly dim view of their conduct whereas I was fairly sure I hadn't done anything wrong. They stood and goldfished at me for a minute or two and then stalked off.

They have now moved out.

If they haven't moved the car by tomorrow morning can the management company have it towed away? Thanks for keeping us updated OP, I'm now emotionally invested in the outcome of this! Team OP all the way!

This is a cracking idea!

Cheeky fucker Op - glad you blocked them in! I’d not move the car now until you have to go to work on Monday morning!

I’m annoyed and it’s not even my space!!

Updates?

In our block of flats whilst the management company may assist, any costs involved in any solution are paid by us anyway. We are the freeholders who employ the management company as well as the leaseholders.

I’d message friends and ask if anyone has a bomb / old car or big tough car they won’t mind parking at yours for a couple of days to park the fuckers in. They wouldn’t be allowed out until they repaid my parking fees.

You've been polite and patient so far so keep it up without inconveniencing yourself too much. Before you go to bed, leave another note on the car saying that you've been waiting all evening for them to call you, perhaps they didn't realise that this is your space but it definitely is, and that you'll be moving your car at 9 o'clock in the morning, and please don't do it again. I'd take a note of the number plate too in case it does happen again, in which case clamp 'em!

Clamping would be a criminal offence under the same legislation which makes blocking them in one.

I wasn't serious about the clamping.
OP's been quite generous in her response to this and I hope the errant driver would not think of reporting her for blocking them in overnight in her own private parking space when there was nowhere else to park.

This happened to me when I owned a parking space as part of my house in a private car park opposite a railway station. I put a hinged wooden board in the space saying private No X only.

In the end I invested in a post in the ground that I could lock in place when I moved the car. Really inconvenient to get out of the car to lock and unlock the post, but it was the only way to stop people parking in my space.

Although it's a civil service matter, if you park in a way to stop someone moving their car it is a criminal matter because you're not allowing them to enjoy their property - even though they are stopping you enjoying your property.

I've just popped back to look to see if the driver has returned yet.

Of course! I forgot the MN law about answering the door! Now we've established that OP is able-bodied and can walk and use her arms to knock on doors it's still pointless as they will just be ignored. Is there a parallel thread about a crazy lady knocking on multiple doors in a block of flats with a poster wondering what on earth she should do about it???

So invested in this!

Can’t you call a towing company to tow them away? Most parking lots with assigned spaces like what you describe display contacts for towing companies.

Is there an emergency number for the management company?

In the UK we can't do this - unfortunately it's not legal.