To expect people NOT to block my drive? and to ask them to move?

[Triggles]

The neighbours are getting their windows cleaned by a service. The van parked in front of our drive, blocking our car. All the way up and down the street, there is only ONE other car parked on the street, so there is no shortage of places to park. WHY do they block my drive?? And they saw my car, as they were leaning on their van having a cigarette, talking, facing my car before they started setting up for the job.

At present, I have nowhere that I need to go. But they don't know that, do they? And if I DO have to go somewhere suddenly, I would need to go find them, interrupt them mid-job, and get them to move their vehicle out of the way so I can get my car out. It's just so inconsiderate.

So I went outside and asked them (politely, I might add) to please move their van so that it was not blocking my drive. They then asked me if I was planning on going anywhere. Does it matter? Obviously the possibility is there, or I wouldn't have asked them to move. So I told them I might need to leave in a bit and didn't want to have to interrupt them when they were in the middle of their job, therefore it was easier if they just moved now, before they started. (I didn't even rant about how inconsiderate it was to block a drive, especially when it wasn't necessary - although I really wanted to!)

But they did act a bit like I was being unreasonable. I don't think I was BU. I was polite when I asked them and said thank you politely when they agreed to move it, even though they were rather grudging about it.

You weren't being unreasonable at all - they were! Well done for sticking to your guns and getting them to move their van.

Could you have a word with your neighbour, and ask him/her to tell the window cleaners not to block people's drives with their van?

WEll YANBU but i dont think you should let it wind you up as you are not going anywhere soon

I would have left them to it, then asked them to move later when they were in the middle of cleaning, much more inconvienent for them

I have been in exactly the same situation and I was nowhere near as polite and reasonable as you are! In fact I was very blunt to begin with, and downright rude when they tried to fob me off with 'we'll only be a minute sweetheart'.

YAdefinatelyNBU!

YANBU. I used to live on a busy road two doors down from some local shops. People would think nothing of blocking my driveway because it "Was only for five minutes." and it drove me demented.

No, they shouldn't have parked there.

But maybe they thought you were being a bit indignant for no reason (i.e. you weren't going anywhere).

They were in the wrong, but can't judge their reaction without knowing how you spoke to them.

experienceofthis - I actually didn't want to come off sounding indignant (although admit I was feeling it at the time) and was very careful to be polite and not nasty at all. I did try to point it out like "I'd feel badly if I had to interrupt you when you were up on a ladder in the middle of your job if I have to go somewhere without any warning." I figured if I went out and yelled or acted nasty about it, they'd just refuse to move their vehicle and it would get ugly, which I was hoping to avoid.

YANBU. My mum's neighbours do this CONSTANTLY and it drives her insane - and me, when visiting. On one occasion I was actually in my car in the process of reversing out of her drive when one of the grandparents (her neighbours are a couple with teenaged children) arrived and actually blocked me in as I was already reversing!!! It is totally unnecessary as her road is very wide (enough space to double park and for 2 cars to still pass through) and everyone on it has a driveway for at least one and mostly 2 cars, so there is TONS of parking. It's madness.

Oh I find that soooooooo irritating! Our drive always gets "blocked" never when we are going anywhere I might add, but like you say, how do others know that? There is ALWAYS loads of space on our road, but we always get picked on - by random people I might add, not neighbours or regulars.

I don't even drive and it irritates me, but it would never enter our heads to park across someones drive! It's this rare thing nowadays called common courtesy.........and then that very popular one called I'm alright jack....

This happens to us all the time. It drives me nuts.

It is slightly better now that we have residents parking but we still get lots of van drivers in our road who visit a nearby cafe and don't seem to be able to walk 10yards further to a space that does not involve blocking someone in.

I even told off some community police a few months ago for doing it. They were very sheepish an dluckily have not done it again since

The parking attendants are no use because they visit the cafe and consequently turn a blind eye to many of the customers

I did call the council to complain once (specifically about the cafe customers being allowed to park) and all hell broke loose when a supervisor was sent down here and started ticketing everyone. Felt a bit guilty but was quite funny.

I only call the council now when my drive is actually blocked for a while - don't like to cause too many problems!

They shouldn´t park there, but tbh I wouldn´t have said anything unless I needed to go out.

Oddly enough, looking out, they moved their van just at the edge of my drive, but have left their hoses running across the end of my drive. I'm not going to stress over it, just hope that I don't have to go anywhere as it would still be a pain to get around their van. The house they're doing is two houses to the left of me, however, they're parked to the right of my drive. Odd.

move your car slightly forward and squash their pipes he he!

YANBU, it drives me mad, we lives hear a school and people have actually parked accorss our drive and also on it to take their kids in!

Had this with the neighbours next door as bloke's mother always parked across our drive when visiting (most days...). Plenty of space in the street to park elsewhere, but too idle to walk a few yards.

One time she parked partly across it as I was strapping DC into car ready to go out. I asked her to move & she said "I thought you'd just come in" FFS. I said no I was actually just going out not that it should matter either way & she said "well I'm only part way across it" YES BUT ENOUGH TO PREVENT ME FROM GETTING THE CAR OUT AS IT IS NOT 2 FEET WIDE YOU DOPEY WOMAN.

Ended up "having words" on another occasion and the bloke next door is still not properly speaking to me nearly 3 years later as I "upset his mother" . I did point out the vast number of occasions that I had already politely asked her to move her inconsiderately parked car before I was curt with her about it because I was totally sick of it. I must say now though that most of the time since "having words" she doesn't block the drive, so I eventually got though to her...

YANBU it is such an inconsiderate thing to do.

my neighbours do this all the time, they have a driveway big enough for 2 cars and a spot in front of their house, so why do they feel the need to park halfway in front of our driveway? (just enough so we are blocked in).
We have told them a couple of times when we've needed to go somewhere and they moved the car but why park there in the first place.
yanbu and well done for staying polite.

I've been told by the police that it's not illegal to park over an empty driveway but it is illegal to block someone in.

DH has called the police before now to report some ignorant bugger who was blocking us despite there being a valid parking space some 3m behind where he'd parked - I'd asked him to move nicely, he'd started swearing at me 'what the f-'s it to you?' (when I had DD in my arms, nice!), he obv. didn't realise DH was in the house as he drove off the second he came out - which is annoying in itself but that's another issue...

I think the cheekiest was someone actually parking on our drive - and it is NOT illegal to do this!

However, the lovely policeman I spoke to (had v. small baby and armfuls of shopping, could only park half a mile up the road legally, probably why the tit in question had 'borrowed' our drive) ran the reg. plate for me and found the guy's home phone no. and called it up to 'suggest' they might want to move their car. (He then rang me back to let me know that the driver's wife answered, was horrified that the police were calling her, rang him on his mobile)

Within 5 mins this bloke came running up, avoided eye contact, got in and drove away without even apologising! Some people are nobs...

this happens to me all the time, even when my car is actually parked in the driveway. very annoying. police told me it IS illegal but they are not prepared to do anything about it.

HOWEVER, i recently found out that my local council runs a service where you can ring them up and they send a traffic warden over to put on a parking ticket for parking 'adjacent to a dropped kerb'. have called them twice recently and they've been pretty quick about getting over to do it. worth calling your local council and asking if they do it.

There is a lot of trouble with this in the street I live, the road isn't wide enough for two cars to park opposite each other. A lot of the driveways don't have dropped curbs.

YANBU at all.
Heff, am I right in thinking that if a driveway doesn't have a dropped kepb then it is only a hard standing and someone is within their rights to park and block it (although that would make them an inconsiderate wotsit)?

When the gas pipes were being changed last year they decided to block my car in and just pulled a face when I asked them to move. I strapped DD in the car and backed up as far as I could and then just looked at them till they moved.

This used to happen at work a lot as well as not everyone got a parking space some would just come in and block people in. Not nice in a uilding with over 600 people in it and when you had to leave for an appt or to pick up dd.

This happens to us all the time too, and like you there is loads of parking.

The worst though was when I did some bits and bobs in the kitchen, came out, and the council had dug up the entire footpath in front of our house. This was just as I was going to drive off our driveway to get DS from playgroup!

They rolled their eyes and moaned when I drove across "it will never be even now". Well, if they had only knocked and told me I could have moved my car to the road before they started or set off earlier and walked to playgroup. But finding out when I did was going to gave me no option. What was I going to do? Leave DS at a shut playgroup till the concrete set??

Was the weirdest thing anyway as they only relayed the patch in front of our house (which seemed fine anyway) and never did the rest of the road.

Y are so NBU!

Rude buggers. It doesn't matter whether you were planning on going out or not.

But then I am the kind of person who would purposefully go out to make a point!!!! I would also ring the council and get them ticketed. And before anyone flames me for being a miserable cow I once stupidly parked across someones drive and got ticketed - learnt my lesson and have never done it again.

It is rude, inconsiderate and lazy (as was I when I did it!) and they deserve everything they get! If it was someone genuinely only going to be 5 mins to pick up an elderly neighbour or someone else with walking difficulties then OK but they should first ask your permission and make sure that it is only 5 mins.

We have a problem with our neighbours and their visitors (who are all lovely btw) but they always park in front of our house (not the drive, I just have to look at their cars all day!) even though there is no one parked in front of their house and the driveway is free! Not inconveniencing just a little niggle and I never thought I'd get like that!

Unless I was planning to go out I wouldn't have been bothered.
I'd have just got on with something else and ignored the van.

Chillo If there is no dropped kerb then it's perfectly legal to park there. If there is no dropped kerb then the person driving over the pavement to access the driveway is causing the offence.

It's infuriating isn't it, especially when there is plenty of space round about anyway. Huge problems at our school with parents blocking driveways (admittedly parking is tight, but if I can always manage to find a space, with two ds at the school and a 15 m old in a pushchair, why can't they?)

We don't live on a public highway but a private road, so if someone blocks me ON my drive there's nothing I can do.

Having said that, I think the one set of neighbours that does it may have got the message on one occasion. They parked across my drive, I couldn't get on, so I parked in front of them and blocked them in (no-one else needs access via the road). They had to very sheepishly knock on the door and ask if I'd move, to which the reply was "oh sorry, I didn't realise you were going anywhere ...." (which is what I always got before when I ask them to move .... funny enough they were more considerate after that!)

2rebecca - I agree. The rest of you should move to Berlin. The German's there are obsessed with observing parking regulations. In my friend's street the neighbours were constantly twitching their curtains and calling the police when someone parked in the wrong place - even an old lady parking outside her house (but not in a designated bay) to unload her shopping. The police would then issue a parking fine. I always thought this was a throwback to the East German Stasi where neighbours were encouraged to spy on one another and then report to the police - obviously they weren't being unreasonable at all!