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 your partner parking there affect their ability to pull in and out or blocking their vision?

Are you within the law to park outside of your neighbours? Yes.

Are you pissing them off by doing so? Also yes.

Is it worth it, knowing you might be living alongside this person for the next 5/10/20 years? I'd go with no.

FFS! It’s a public road and assuming there are no designated spaces you are free to park there. Are they obv being pass agg - definitely….but they have no right to be as you are legally allowed to park there. That people seem to think owning a house also gives you the right to hog the parking space outside it on a public road is batshit crazy….. I really worry for how petty & deluded many of the population seem to be. I’d crack on & ignore.

Are they obv being pass agg - definitely….but they have no right to be as you are legally allowed to park there.

Er, so do they. And it's OP complaining about them and wanting them to move, not the other way round.

This.

Instead of shuffling the cars around, just drive each others.

Apologies, it’s not the best diagram but I had to do it on the iPad ha!

The red line in front of my house is where my husband normally parks (blocking me in), and the red line in front of the neighbours house is where he’s started parking.

green - gardens
yellow - driveways

Why can't either of you take whatever car is easiest to get out when you need to leave? Surely you're both insured on both cars?

TBH, I think that you're unreasonable OP.

We had a car and a small camper for some years. (The camper was bought before my late husband had his stroke.) I used to park the car in the driveway and the camper in front of the car, blocking myself in. I just used to run around and move the vehicles. I wouldn't have dreamt of taking up more space on the street.

Mind you, there was the neighbour's boyfriend who complained about my having a car and a van...even though I was parking in such a way as to avoid bother for others. But he was an idiot.

Is he having to park in front of 2 houses or the one on the left as we're looking at it, if the garden and drives are the same size, if he blocks you in then he must block the neighbour in

Just mix it up a bit and park 100 / 200 metres down the road. Walking won’t hurt you?

It's not rude or cheeky to park wherever it's allowed to do so, whether that's in front of someone's house or not. It's not 'their' space. They don't own it. They have a perfectly good drive of their own so it seems like they are BU, not the OP.

I take it you have a very narrow house or your DH has a very large vehicle if there is insufficient room to park it outside without hanging over your drive?

Does the square on the side mean that you have a garage?

I know you said it was hard to do the drawing, but it looks like they are similar size houses/ gardens. Why is he blocking you but not the neighbour?

They’re being dicks but you won’t win this. They don’t need the space but don’t want your husband to park there.

I think the NDN and the next door but one neighbour (to the right) each only have one car which they put on their drives, so DH can park across two gardens. The NDN on the left has two smaller cars, one on drive and one parked next to their garden.

Just park wherever you can legally.

When they are pulling out of their drive, does your car stop them having a clear view of the road? That could be why they don't like it

The diagram is of four houses

Yes, but there’s a square with a yellow line on each side of the houses. Four houses, four garages.

That’s correct.

Our attached neighbour has 2 cars (1 on drive and 1 on road). We have 2 cars (also 1 on drive and 1 on road)

Neighbours (not attached) have 1 car each, which they park on their driveways (in yellow). Husband parks his car in the middle, between both houses (in red)

Hope that makes sense.

they are driveways, not garages

In the post with the diagram, OP specified green was for garden and yellow was for driveway.

It does make sense.