AIBU to expect neighbours with a drive not to use shared parking when they aren’t using all their drive?

[Bogasphodel]

So, we live on a row of 5 houses, the two houses at either end have drives. The rest of us share a lay-by that fits 6 cars between the 3 houses. The two houses with drives can fit 2-3 cars on their drive. The nearest parking except this is a 2 minute walk away.

The people at no 1 never park in the lay-by and neither did the old people at no 5. The rest of us share the lay-by and are considerate of each other (ie if you’ve got visitors etc park one car a few mins away). New people have moved into 5, they can only fit 2 cars on the drive as they also have a caravan. Before they moved in they left an untaxed mot’d car in the lay-by which took ages for them to move. They have been better but have started parking a car in the lay-by and only having 1 car on the drive. This is a nightmare for us in the other houses as they will just leave it there for a few days.

We end up having to speak to them about this and it stops for a few months and then starts again….

mainly a whinge about neighbours but AIBU to think that we shouldn’t have to keep reminding them act in a way that doesn’t piss off all the other neighbours?

So I don’t drip feed, we aren’t the immediate neighbour, but the immediate one had to scream at the son at 10pm one night to turn his music down as the mother wouldn’t tell him to after it had gone on for multiple nights up to midnight.

Is it public parking? It sounds like it’s not actually part of your development, I.e. not designated so anyone could potentially park in the lay by?

The parking is only for the houses.

Are the lay-by spaces allocated parking for just the middle houses or all 5? If the latter, sadly I don’t think there’s anything you can do but I completely understand why it’s frustrating.

Well then yes you should have allocated spaces in your deeds. This would annoy me quite a bit. Do you have a residents group or something along those lines that could prompt a conversation?

If there's two houses with parking for 2 cars off road, and three houses sharing 6 on road spaces then its obvious thats 2 each fir those three houses. But if technically they aren't restricted to those 3 houses , then technically they can park there. They're clearly being selfish but people are inherently selfish.

If it’s anything like the newbuild site we lived on then the lay by is for anyone- not just the houses with no drives, it is not allocated parking and so you can’t tell them they can’t park there.

Is it clear that the lay-by parking is only for the 3 houses without devices or is it for all 5 houses?

If the spaces in the lay-by aren’t allocated on your deeds they have just as much right to park there as you. If you want guaranteed parking buy a house with a driveway

Hi! So the houses all used to have garages as well. But then house 1 built house 5 on the garage plot. So even though it isn’t allocated parking the lay-by has only ever been used by the middle houses. The houses are v rural so we can’t “park on the road” as it’s so narrow either side.

So the houses all used to have garages as well

So the houses that had garages converted those garages into living space and want to lay claim to the communal parking?

Sounds a bit CF on their part to be honest.

It'd be nice for the others to use their drives but I'm assuming they're long and narrow and require shuffling of you have multiple cars on there. Would that be right??

If the lay-by spaces aren’t allocated, they aren’t yours. If it’s a long drive where one car would need to move to let another off, then I totally understand why they wouldn’t block themselves in. But regardless, they’re not your spaces.

House 1 built house 5- but presumably houses 2,3 and 4 sold their garages to allow this to happen? House 1 couldn’t have just bulldozed someone else’s garage.

Sounds like they are perfectly within their rights to park there.

Sounds like my close. Though everyone has a driveway and my neighbour got pissy because I park in the shared area which is right outside my house. I park there as the road is private and indicate to those in the next road it’s not for them to park there. We’d move our cars if requested for guests.

You know the rules - diagram required

Diagram please

So not long narrow drives, but wide ones where you can easily park 2 cars side by side, as well as a third car. So until 5 changed hands (it was still owned by the builder who lives at no1 till he sold it 2 years ago) 5 had never parked in the shared parking area used by 2-4. The garage development was pre my time, but from talking to neighbours was agreed as the shared parking would still allow 2-4 to have to spaces each. I’ll try and draft a plan.

If they have legal rights to park there they have legal rights to park there there is no yeah but needed

Diagram please.

Red/orange is houses, purple is drives, green is laybay, I’ve tried to show the orientation of parking with the cars in yellow. So 1 and 5 have the drives that they can pull in and out of and fit a few cars (up to 4 but more 3 with front garden layout and 5s caravan). 2-4 share the lay-by that is only wide enough to parallel park a max of 6 cars if we all park considerately. There’s a bank up from the lay-by with a path that leads to 2-4.

It sounds like it was just an agreement between neighbours that only the middle houses parked in the layby.
If there is nothing on paper then unfortunately house 5 aren't doing anything wrong.
When the garages were knocked down to build house 5 perhaps this is when something should have been drafted by a solicitor to state a change in parking.

Jesus, does everyone on here go straight to a solicitor rather then just trying to not piss off their neighbours 🤣🤣

Nothing to discuss here. Regardless of previous arrangements, previous building on existing properties etc etc.

The current situation is only 2 houses have guaranteed parking and they have every right to park in the PUBLIC parking too.

As with everything else in this country these days, doing the right thing by your neighbours comes a distant second if you have no laws to back it up. Unfortunately you either all join together and bully the neighbour or you bite your tongue and get on with things.

How important is this to you?

Well it seems strange that all houses initially had a garage and then happily let the original builder/house number 1 knock them down to build house 5. There would have been a payment towards this which should have been legally presented.
If the houses that lost their garage and therefore parking had raised it as a concern over where will we park now, this is likely to have been addressed at the time.

It sounds like your solicitor when purchasing the home may not have dug deep enough into parking and you accepted it at face value.

It isn’t public parking, it’s parking created by the original developer of 1-4. Also everyone else goes out of their way not to be unreasonable about the parking, ie 2 have 3 cars so park one of them 2 minutes down the road.

I don’t park on my drive as I can’t be bothered and my kids like playing there. I am legally allowed to park on the street so that’s what I do.