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.

It isn’t a street 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ as said we’re really rural, there’s no curbs or road parking. If we can’t get parked there then it’s a walk down a single track road for a couple of minutes.

But unless there is something that documents the parking is only for the middle houses then there is nothing to prevent house 1 or 5 parking there too.

pop a car on their drive if they’re in the communal spots if you’re not blocking them in by doing it. “Sorry I thought it was all communal”

Ok but would you go out of your way to annoy all your neighbours? Especially in a really rural small community. I’m asking if it’s unreasonable to expect your neighbours to make an effort to not be unreasonable and act respectfully to your neighbours? Like the rest of us make an effort to be normal.

The most important factor is why they do it, if they've got plenty of space on their drive, why do they need to park in the communal spaces at all?

I know you've said you've spoken to them, but have you asked them why they do it?

Our neighbour has started to do that when they leave the car in the lay-by. It’s not that we’re all NIMBYs if it’s like for an evening or a few hours then fine, but it’ll be left there for a few days and we both can’t all get parked but it’s never parked in a way that makes it easy to fit 6 cars on.

Have a look at the original planning permission for 5 on the planning portal or your council's website. There may well have been a planning condition relating to the amount of parking needed for houses 2-3 if their garages were lost

I don't think it matters what the previous owners did. It was an informal agreement. Really it should have been made formal when the garages were turned into houses.
If 5 are legally entitled to park in the lay by, they can do that.

I get how annoying it is though. I have a car that parks opposite the end of my drive, leave it there weeks on end. It takes up one of the few spaces we have for visitors (as its annoying for reversing on the drive) but its public parking so there isn't much I can do about it

of course it’s not unreasonable to expect neighbours to make an effort to rub along together - however this is MN so you have to expect some weird responses like - consult a layer for a mildly annoying neighbour dispute 😂

They’re a bit oblivious, the police is round quite a bit about the son. He’s not a bad kid but the mother disappears off and just leaves him and siblings there. Some neighbours have had to fetch him home a few times after finding him lost and stoned on the mosses. They used to live near a friend and they had similar issues, they aren’t rude just sort of oblivious to the rest of society. It’s ironic really as no 1 when they sold it went on to us all about how middle class they were as she works in a “responsible job” (in a cringey snobby way) and how they were cash buyers. It’s that we have to remind them every couple of months to be normal, a bit bizarre.

Love the diagram OP.
It is inconsiderate of them to keep parking in the layby but at least they stop when you ask them. They may need constant reminding.

I dont undetstand WHY they would want to park there. It seems much less convenient for them than oarking on their own drive right by their house. There must be some reason op?

They aren’t necessarily doing it to annoy neighbours, they are just doing what they want to do or what is best for them.

I don’t understand tbh, they’re just odd. When they park there they often park across the gate to the path to our houses and we have to explain that that how we get to our houses as well… it’s a bit like they’re on a different planet.

Does it appear anywhere on your deeds as part of your property? If it is private land someone is responsible for its upkeep etc. If so and it is split equally between all the houses as some kind of private land......guess what, unless it states who owns a 'section/part' this person can legally continue parking there.

You need to clarify if you have any legal right to tell them not to use it other than its inconvenient.

Legal or not, it's just ignorant. And sadly those type of people tend to have very thick skins and don't understand normal social etiquette. If I was in the car that couldn't park, I'd just park over their driveway. And annoy them instead.

Okay, so if it’s not public parking, it must legally be owned by someone. That’s a requirement. Who owns it, as someone has to? So, if it needs repairs, re-surfacing etc, who has that legal obligation? The answer to all of this tells you who is able to park there.

Are they allowed to park a caravan there?

I wouldn’t, but I’d also get quickly irritated by my neighbours trying to micromanage how I legally park my car(s) and apparently thinking they “had to” scream at my son.

On the deeds, who owns the land?

I imagine they are shared parking spaces, and everyone has equal right to use them.

Honestly, if having guaranteed offstreet parking was a priority for you, uou should have stumped up the extra cost for a house with it's own driveway or allocated parking spaces. You can't just lay claim to exclusive rights over shared spaces, that's just CFery.

Yeah totally micromanagement shouting at someone after they’ve kept you up past midnight for a whole week and won’t respond to any other interaction…. I forget on mumsnet that we need to maintain complete selfishness against any sense of neighbourly-ness.

I think it’s very obvious this reply was about micromanaging parking and the screaming at son was a separate issue, maybe read it again.

Noise complaints can be reported to police or council, really no need to scream at anyone, in the spirit of “neighbourly-ness” eh😂