Neighbours being funny over parking

[seabrooks1945]

We moved into our new home 3-4 months ago. It’s a beautiful house in a nice, quiet area with good schools. The only issue is the parking situation. We have a driveway that can fit 1 small car. I park my car there, and my husband has to park his bigger car on the street right in front of me, blocking me in. So far, we’ve just been shuffling the cars around to get in and out, but with work, kids, school runs, and all the activities, it’s becoming a hassle. My husband recently started parking on the road outside our neighbours house to make things easier, but every time he moves his car, they park their car there instead. They used to always park in on the driveway until now, so it feels a bit suspicious. Are they sending us hints? Do you think it’s a good idea for us to have a conversation about it? How would you go about it?

I assume it's not possible for him to park outside your own house?

Does anyone else park on the street?

Are there parking restrictions on the road? Can he just park outside your house?

You can all park where you want
but can u imagine how the conversation would go “can you put your car on the your drive so leave a space for me to park outside your house for me -”
personally I’d think you were a CF
there not doing anything wrong
why buy a house with inadequate parking then complain about it

They are obviously passive aggressively complaining about you parking outside their house. We once lived in a quiet street where our neighbours couldn’t cope with seeing anyone else’s car outside their window.
Is there anywhere you can park easily in the street?

Just park somewhere else on the street.

So to recap, parking is limited so your starting point was to park your car on the drive with DH's car blocking you in a sort of T-shape? As this is a lot of hassle you have started parking DH's car outside of someone else's house? Where parking is limited, I do think you have to be considerate and put up with a couple of minutes of moving the car round in the morning. If you park consistently outside of your neighbour's house then they have to park elsewhere. You are not doing anything illegal, but I can understand where your neighbours are coming from.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Park elsewhere in the street not outside someone’s house. It’s a pain having another car outside.

Only in front of our drive. He has to block me in if he wants to park in front of the house, which is exactly what we've been doing. There’s a few cars on the street.

Why do people think the space in front of their house belongs to them, it doesn’t, it’s a public road, anyone can park there. Having said that, you don’t want to fall out with your neighbours.

He could ask the ndn if its OK to park outside their house, obviously it is but that would be polite, where do your and ndn visitors park, can your dh park anywhere else.

I wasn't suggesting that they should move their car. They have every right to park there, so we wouldn't ask that. However, they only started parking there after my husband started doing it. They used to park in the driveway, and now they leave that empty and park on the street instead. We thought that if we explained our reasoning, they might understand and not just assume we're being rude or cheeky.

Had this on the local FB group yesterday, general consensus was you can’t own the bit of road outside your house. So anyone can park there. Few outliers though.

Annoying and yes they’re doing it to stop you parking there.

I have experience of neighbours being surprisingly nasty about parking so I’d just take their hint and try not to park there. Yes it’s perfectly legal and even reasonable of you to park there (they just have one car and a drive!) but in the interest of good relations it’s just not worth it.

Is there a reason your cars are strictly ‘his’ and ‘yours’? If you were both able to use both cars there’d presumably be a lot less faff.

I guess it depends how inconvenient it is to keep parking at the end of your drive and shuffling around. Have you chatted to these neighbours much? It'd be slightly loathed to ask (because the piece of road is not theirs) but equally no one wants to fall out with their neighbours... maybe start up a general chat with them and mention the parking? I assume they are putting their car there on purpose which is obviously their right but makes them look a bit petty. I assume your car is not blocking their view of a world heritage sight or something? 😂People are weird.

Yes, they don’t want you to park there.
No they can’t stop you.
Yes they will carry on making it harder for you.

They probably wouldn’t mind if it was occasional, but not regularly. You need to ring the changes with where you put the second car, so you don’t irritate the same people all the time.

I think they already know you are being rude and cheeky. Your explanation won't impress them.

If parking in front of your house obstructs access to your drive, is the it the same for them? Are they struggling to get on and off their drive when your DH parks in front of their house?

It may explain why they have started parking on the road instead.

There’s nothing to explain is there you want the space
you’ve obviously pissed them off for them to start doing this
you might as well have your own car instead of of someone else’s outside your house

if they weren’t bothered in the first place they wouldn’t do this having a conversation isn’t going to change that

Rude and cheeky for parking on a public road? Yikes

I agree - not worth the aggravation imo. Just take the hint and don't park there. They may just be being a bit territorial or maybe not. Who can say?

"Had this on the local FB group yesterday, general consensus was you can’t own the bit of road outside your house"

No but if you have a dropped kerb then someone else shouldn't park in front of it. Maybe op's husband is parking partly over the dropped kerb making it difficult to manoeuvre out / reducing visibility so they started parking on the road as it was also becoming a "hassle"

Petty of them for parking on a public road? Yikes

No, he doesn’t park anywhere near the dropped kerb, so they have plenty of space to get in and out.

If you can afford to run 2 cars you could have afforded a house with 2 parking places...

I'd be stopping you too. You presumed the neighbours wouldn't mind. They do. Now it's back to being your problem again. Not their problem.

They will be hoping you can afford to rent a garage somewhere or a parking permit/rented space. But, it seems you can't or don't want to.... So they don't want to help you.

:) well done neighbours.

I never said they were petty. Why are you twisting my words?