To buy a cheap car and park it infront of my house so no one else can

[originalsst58]

Yes I know I don’t own the road in front of my house, but I’m sick of selfish people parking right up to the dropped kerb, making it difficult for me to get in and out of my driveway. And I’m also sick of neighbours parking there while their own driveways are empty. The latest annoyance is my neighbour leaving his van outside my house and parking his car in front of his own house. What a fantastic view I have now, a huge van blocking most of my window. His driveway is also empty. I wouldn’t have minded if he parked the car there, but clearly, he doesn’t want to see the van from his own house. Selfish prick!! There’s a back story to this. I don’t get on with him or his partner and won’t ask them to swap the vehicles around. They wouldn’t anyway. So I’m considering buying a cheap runaround, getting it taxed and MOT’d, and just leaving it there for a year. If people weren’t so self centered and thought about others, I wouldn’t even think of doing this!!! Has anyone done this before??

OK I am going to add in my experience of a similar situation here because OP is not contradicting herself, you are just not getting the nuances.. Whether a car is parked outside is not the issue, if they park responsibly and not on the dropped kerb blocking the drive ingress and egress. Anyone can park there but it is annoying when they leave their own drive empty!

The OP shouldn't have to ask them not to park on the dropped kerb, its the highway code and common decency.

However when a large van parks outside your drive, even avoiding the dropped kerb it can be an issue because you can generally see oncoming traffic (from some angles) over or around a car whereas a van obscures the entire view and you are pulling out with no idea what is oncoming. This is one of the many valid points the OP is making and its particularly annoying when the van driver has an empty drive and so he is putting OP at risk for no good reason.

A skip might be cheaper? Possibly your own skip?

OP have you seen the thread …AIBU to park my van on the road??
Could this be your neighbour?

And I fully sympathise… I really think that if one has a van, it’s so selfish to dump it outside someone else’s house so bad to keep one’s own view.

I get it OP. Some previous neighbours of ours had a huge van and they always left it outside the house, completely blocking our view from our living room window. And made it darker as the living room faces west, and made it difficult getting off our drive.

If you had enough money why not consider also buying the shittest most massive van you can find. When they go out shopping park it outside their house. THEN deny you have anything to do with it. All they can check is that it is MOTed and taxed. Thry can't check the registered keeper.

We chose not to buy a house just because the house next door had a van like this. Bad enough pulling up to your house and seeing it.

I have every sympathy, someone used to do that outside my old house. Blocking the view of a lovely green/ trees area that was part of the reason I bought the house.

Great idea. Although we had to put a skip on the road once and it was a bit of a nightmare with the council. We had to have a skip licence (another money spinner for the council). Eventually you ha e to remove it and deal with people putting their rubbish in it.

Wouldn't a motorbike work better OP?

Would a scooter / moped be better? One you can drive on a car license. Big enough to park to protect your dropped kerb, would push the van along a bit and there look to be some cheap ones.

Wondering if all the people who gaslit me on my thread , claiming that “I’ve never seen people shuffle around cars or not park on their driveways, you sound unhinged OP”

…

could come in here perhaps and see the reality?

I think the previous suggestion of a trailer is the best, but buy two trailers and wheel clamps. Park one outside their house and one outside your house. Fit the wheel clamps and never move them again.

Do it, buy the car.

Our neighbourhood had this problem, everyone has good size drives & a neighbour decided to park their van outside of anyone’s house but their own.

For those who don’t think it matters because its legal to park on a public road, you’re right it is, but looking out daily to the side of a van (which in our case was often half on the pavement too) is horrible. Especially when you know the owner has an empty driveway, and chooses not to use it, despite knowing he was annoying pretty much everyone on the road. (Which I think made him do it more!) .

If it’s a work van, can you speak to the company?

Buy the car OP, pity you can’t buy two, one for outside your house and one for outside of theirs! 😉

Do it. What colour though? You’re going to have to clean it otherwise it will look dreadful.

We did this, maybe 15 years ago.

It was a tiny old mews house and the layout was odd - our bedroom was ground floor and the road wrapped around the house. One of our neighbours took to parking right beside the bedroom, coming and going at all hours, slamming doors, reviving the engine, peering in our window, working on the car on the road at 4am etc. We spoke to him about it and he said that he wasn’t going to park in his own driveway as the noise would disturb his girlfriend. Total twat.

We were trying to protect our peace not a view so bought an old van, then used it for storage.

Can you park your car outside your house next time the van moves?

Even if it isn’t a long term solution, it might get them out of the habit of parking it in front of yours.

I don’t think you’re unreasonable about objecting to a big van blocking light and the view. If you’ve got a big work van you should be considerate about where you leave it.

Why not park your own car in the van spot when you get the chance? You don’t need to park it in your driveway

Ask your council for a planter instead. DD did this because vans would pull over outside her house in a quiet road and let the engine idle for ages while driver had a break, whatever. The noise was extremely irritating, plus fumes.

Yes absolutely do it.

I live in Yorkshire - but old cars are still worth a fortune! If I sold my ancient diesel Skoda today I could get more than I paid for it ten years ago - which is absolutely ridiculous.

Get a large skip instead. It will be much cheaper. Depending on your window level, it may not be visible from your ground floor windows.

I fully support this. I wish we could too! Parking in our street is a bloody nightmare, and for some reason right outside our house is everyone’s favourite place to park.

Well I think it's obvious that some of the people that would park their van in front of house are posting on here. It's just common courtesy not to, and that seems sadly lacking these days.

if you can still get out, YABU. Just reverse in so you can go forwards getting out.

I don’t spend a lot of time looking out of the window so couldn’t care less what is parked in front of my house.

This is utterly pathetic

Except you are being wildly selfish. Planning to block a spot on the public road on purpose, simply to inconvenience your neighbour who is just parking on the public road which is perfectly reasonable. You're doing it out of spite and selfishness. Find another hobby.