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 don't read Diamond7272's post as nasty. I read it as factual. But hey, you probably didn't love my post either.

Think what you like but did you see that DH car is a Land Rover Defender? They are well over 4 m long and 2m high.

OP has not answered whether the Defender fits onto their drive (even jf it is a tight fit) and they find it an eyesore there, which blocks their own view.

Some of us suspect that the NDN might not mind so much if OP’s car was parked in front of their house.

But the whole point is that they DONT have two spaces. They have one space (their driveway) and then OPs DH is taking up what would usually be "their" second space (albeit not one they are legally entitled to) outside their house.

Paving over part of your own front garden to create a second off-street-parking space for your Defender is the answer.
As funds are short right now, start with just having the kerb dropped and the Defender can just park up on the grass.
Even, why wait to drop the curb, just park the Defender on the grass now.

Even if not near dropped kerb it could still be inconvenient for them in many ways. Reversing out and turning more difficult and can take longer, more restricted view etc. So they decide to position their own car to make things easier. Are you sure sometimes they don’t require the access says for a child’s seat or wanting to make sure their visitors, cleaners, delivery vans can get easy access. Finally as PP mentioned if you have to have a car outside your house it might as well be your own. We all know that we don’t own the space outside our houses and have no rights over it but it’s difficult not to feel proprietorial when even mildly inconvenienced or irritated no matter how unreasonable this feeling is.

My advice is get the driveway extended as soon as possible or swap the large 4x4 for something that will fit. The situation won't get any better, i have two old guys on my cul de sac who have second vehicles they use once in a blue moon, they both have the driveway space for these vehicles but park them permanently on the cul.de sac, we had our whole front turned into extra driveway space so we could park side by side instead of single file and having to negotiate cars all over the cul de sac to swap cars around.

Now the thing when people insist on buying these 4x4s that are like a bungalow on wheels, you really need to have somewhere off road to park it because they are big and obtrusive things to park outside others homes.

Somebody on our cul de sac also has a ridiculously oversized car and despite having a driveway it fits on, they clearly find it easier to park it half on the pavement and half on the road , the pavement is barely wide enough to walk down because of them, it's narrowed the road especially with other people parking idiotically on the same stretch so god forbid a fire truck needs to get down here and they barely go anywhere in it! There's no need for massive 4x4s in this country, there's not the snow to warrant it, they cause issues in supermarket car parks when they are stuck right out in to the driving route. You will definitely wind people up parking permanently outside their house and even more so when it's a big 4x4.

After looking at your diagram I see that two cars can park on the road in front of your and your attached neighbour’s house, granted a tight fit with a larger car. Your unattached neighbour’s layout is the same so there should be room for two cars to park in front of them and their attached neighbour. However, your husband parks across both on road spaces effectively turning two into one and preventing someone with a small car (maybe a visitor to the neighbour) using the other space. I assume your husband parks like this so as not to obstruct their driveways but would be better to position his car in one space, not across two.
If you regularly need to use your smaller car earlier than your husband could you park on the road instead and let him use the drive?Perhaps you could widen your drive a little if it is too narrow for the bigger car.

Oops I had missed a couple of points you had made so it looks like suggestions in my earlier post have already been considered. Think you will just have to make the best of it and try and stay on good terms with your neighbour until
you are in a position to upgrade your drive.

I wouldn't give 2 hoots that someone is upset because they wrongly think they own the parking space on the road, infront of their house and can't be bothered to walk more than 20 steps to a space slightly further away!!! The level of petty, pedantic, pathetic things people get wound up about that so often just stem from a false sense of entitlement and utter laziness is truly astounding. Keep parking there!!

@Pigstroff25 are you reading the same thread??

Neither neighbour to the right has to walk further - they are either parking on their drives or on the road in front of their houses. It is OP and DH who are inconvenienced by one of the neighbours parking on the road in front of their houses, as DH either has to park somewhere else (“more than 20 steps away”) or has to do the drive/road car shuffle with OP from time to time.

I wouldn't particularly want a supersized Chelsea tractor blocking my view. My friend has a neighbour with several vehicles. He insists on parking his big van in front of her living room window, which blocks the light. My friend hates this, but doesn't think she can do anything about it.

Classic Mumsnet getting sidetracked into what car you drive. I would be going to the neighbours with flowers to apologise for any inconvenience and asking how you can make parking work for you all

It is OP and DH who are inconvenienced by one of the neighbours parking on the road in front of their houses, as DH either has to park somewhere else.

This isn't true though? Their attached neighbour has a small car that fits outside their house, it doesn't encroach on OPs side.

The only reason OPs DH car will not fit in the same amount of space is because it is huge so even though they have the same amount of space as their attached neighbour, DH has to overhang their drive blocking OP in.

OP said earlier on that if they had a small car it would fit outside their own house no problem.

I know.

But PP was saying the neighbours on the right were grumpy about having to walk an extra 20 feet. As the neighbours on the right either park on their drives or directly outside their houses - each has one car - this was incorrect by PP. Hence my query about whether PP was reading the same thread

They are probably worried about not being able to park on their drive if your husband is parking his car infront of it.

Does he make it awkward for them to get out? I had neighbours that would do this and they would just slightly block my drive and really block my view to get out. It was just really painful so I just started parking there so they couldn't