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?

Is the car bigger than the house? I can see why the neighbours are unimpressed.

Maybe he park the bigger car on yours and your smaller car on the road ?

Op has explained this several times

My neighbour parks outside my house, beside the wall, not over my drive.
Trying to get out and round his car to turn right is a proper palaver as there's no room to swing round. It's a narrow road to start with, and quite busy.
I wonder if your neighbour has this problem too.

I was all about defending small houses and reasonable car sizes, then went to look at my Golf vs the width of my mid terrace.
OP has massive long car and very narrow house (Amsterdam!?

Why do people feel the need to buy these monstrous super sized cars in a country with tiny narrow roads and parking places?

Id ignore it. If I needed to park there and it was free, id park if they were parked there id park elsewhere because neither of you own the road.

And i think you can do that or always park elsewhere. What you shouldnt do is ask them to resume parking on their drive so you can park on the road outside their home. Thats full CF

I don't know. I watched two people with a ridiculously large car take over five minutes trying to fit it into some off street parking near me.

A variety of reasons. Very few of them actually valid.

Whilst it's true that the street outside your property is public, I'd be inclined find a solution that doesn't involve upsetting the neighbours with behaviour that could be interpreted as rude and entitled.

Why don’t you both drive both cars, then there’s no problem 🤷‍♀️

This, basically. Unless there is an actual, legitimate reason for owning such a monstrously oversized vehicle (there almost never is) then you're pretty much guaranteed to annoy other people with it.

Get rid that the absurdly huge status car and replace it with something sensible.

Where have I questioned the DH profession? Where have I commented on the OP ability - or not as the case may be - to drive DH Land Rover?

I merely question WHY DH cannot park outside their own property without encroaching across someone else’s property!

The width of the house must be tiny in comparison to the length of DH vehicle.

Park his on the drive and yours on the road, would that not solve it? Your problem isn’t that you can’t fit a car there, it’s that it’s a Defender so it overhangs like the monster truck that it is.

Defenders are big, bulky cars. It’s like driving a tank (I know because I have one…). Unless he has a 90, truthfully in a semi you don’t have a big enough house/land/space for the car! Could be not just change cars?

I understand your logic in terms of him not blocking their drives but in reality he looks like an arrogant 4x4 driver taking up 2 spaces when he only actually needs one! As others have said, what about their visitors?

How big is his car? Is that all they get to look at? (Neighbours of mine used to park their transit outside their neighbour's kitchen window)

Is your DHs big car so big that if they look out their view is blocked? That might bother me enough to put a smaller car in its place so I can see out? If not it's a bit weirdly territorial

Could have made that clearer - my first paragraph replied to you, my second to another poster, but you can't quote two posts.

Sell that massive car, no one needs a vehicle that size unless you live in a rural area and need to travel over rough terrain. Buy a smaller car and park outside your own house

If You’re not parked over the dropped kerb then it’s ok to park there. We have a driveway and someone visiting a person who doesn’t even live on our street, frequently parks over the dropped kerb and has a Land Rover discovery. The street is narrow and usually there is a car the other side too. I have absolutely zero issue if they aren’t over the dropped kerb, but parking on and getting off the drive is extremely difficult and dangerous when it does as I have very poor visibility, and can not reverse back on easily if someone zooms around the corner, into the road, as they do. Because of this I have started parking there during the day. There is plenty of space further on the road, but this selfish driver would rather block me in. If they do it again I will report them.

You aren’t being unreasonable and even if you aren’t over the kerb, it may be that they aren’t confident reversing on or off the drive and around your husbands car. I’d have the conversation to make them aware that you do care about the issue and want to be amicable about the whole situation. This can diffuse things if you feel able to do that.

If they have visitors/ cleaners etc the visitors probably used to park in the space in front. Maybe visitors haven't been able to park now so it is easier to use the front and have the drive free for visitors. They are showing you they don't love it by their actions so I wouldn't recommend a conversation about you noticing their parking and asking them what their problem is....

Oh the modern problem of too many cars and not enough space to park reasonably...

People do become territorial with the outside of their homes for cars, assuming they have priority but really they don't. So, it comes down to common sense, give and take. When a family has several cars it's just logistically impossible on the level of etiquette.

The ideal is to make sure you have a drive for the number of cars you use, not always possible. So, whoever gets in a space first is how it goes. We always have people parked outside on 'our' part of the road. They live opposite but choose to park where they can see their cars rather than next to their house I guess, already have 2 on their drive.

When we lived in a cul de sac it was ridiculously petty. Family and friends would be courteous and park around the corner but those unaware of the rules would get stares, words, abuse!

Sadly it all comes to convenience, the fast pace of life where every second saved counts and peolle become selfishly preoccupiedwith their own agendas. I look back to the days I used to walk/cycle/bus everywhere, which took a lot more time. Now, I'm as guilty as the rest of us, rushing out the house with DC, going to work, expecting to just jump into the car and go immediately. Xx

Driving a Defender on a narrow road where you can’t afford to redo your driveway. Wow. 😂

You are entirely legal… and YABU. Widen your own driveway or keep pissing your neighbours off.

In that case YABU, those things are way too big for normal roads and parking spaces.

I'm guessing the neighbours are partly reacting to the car itself, given the inconvenience they cause to everyone else simply by being so huge.

Honestly buying a land rover defender when you have a tiny house, with a tiny drive and almost no parking is hilarious.

We’ve had the car almost 3 years. We’ve only lived in this house for 4 months.

I’m not sure that’s as relevant as you think it is.