People parking in your own driveway

[Alex_225]

I'm really really surprised at how many examples of this are on here, I suppose mainly as I've always considered it such a no go to even think about parking on someone else's drive. Even if I'm visiting friends, I'd ask to park on their driveway if they have space.

I do recall when my dad was alive, my mum having to call a doctor out and rather than use a space he swung his car on to the drive.....next door!!! Unbelievable. My mum told him off and his excuse was that it was easier. Selfish w*nker!

I'm fortunate that no one has ever parked on or over my driveway but then the entrance is shared with my neighbours so usually there's four cars quite obviously parked.

That said my neighbour on the other side, parked his rather large Merc Sprinter van right on the edge of the driveway, making it a total guessing game when trying to pull out. Trouble is it's right on a bend in the road as well and eventually the Police got him to move it. Turned out the local single decker bus service were also struggling with it. We'd asked I'm politely to move it but he said he couldn't as it was broken down whilst he disputed something with his insurance and it sat there for 9 months!

[Zetec-S]

Europa1 said:

fido said:

That's the problem - tw@ts who blatantly park in someone's space don't leave contact details. I doubt they would be on receiving end of this retribution if they left a note explaining why the vehicle was left there. It causes a lot of stress.

I suspect there is a lot of truth in this - it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the anger of the person wronged stems from the feeling of impotence (nothing you can do to move the offending car, not knowing if they are going to be there for 5 minutes or 5 hours etc) as much as from the sheer effrontery of it.

Agreed. Obviously in a lot of cases it's just a blatant case of selfish wkerism, but occasionally there might be a 'genuine' reason, in which case a note would go a long way towards placating the person 'wronged'.

For example, we have the end garage and parking space in a row of garages. Being on the end means we can also park another car in front of our space without blocking anyone else, which we often do rather than park in the garage. Also, as the neighbours are not there during the week it means the car in our proper space can drive round the side without having to juggle cars around.

A while back I came home from work to find a car parked in front of our space, albeit a bit further back so it was possible to manoeuver into our space, but if the neighbours had been in it wouldn't have been possible. I had no idea who's car it was, so left a polite note asking them not to park there again. Turned out it was new neighbours moving in a few doors down and needed to leave space to park the removal van so left their car there. If they'd left a note explaining I would have let it go (I've moved enough times to know how stressful it is), as it was I just had a random car part blocking our drive with no idea how long it would be there (plus Mrs ZS was on her way home and I knew if someone was blocking her space she'd be ranting about it all night )

[ukaskew]

Quite amusing that the OP has replaced the image, so now the discussion about the parking apparently refers to a certain Sir Stirling Moss parking his 300 SLR quite badly on Lord March's driveway

Edited by ukaskew on Tuesday 11th July 12:32

[opieoilman]

In my old house, there was an allocated parking space to the left of our door, on the pavement. A note on the car generally stopped them parking there again, but there wasn't enough parking spaces in general on the estate, but this doesn't involve that space. My wife had popped out for a bit with our son and when I heard the dogs barking at the door, I thought she had come back, so I went to help her in with the shopping. When I went towards the door, I could see something purple pressed up against the window. I opened the door and rather than my wife, there were three women in a Zafira, parked right across the door and so close the woman in the purple top was pressed up against the door to get past and her opening the door against the front door to squeeze out had set the dogs off. When I told the driver she should move, she said there wasn't any parking anywhere else. I pointed out that it wasn't a parking space and that as she was on a pavement, just a few inches from my door, she ought to move it asap. I was struggling to deal with their thinking (or lack of) of 'We can't park anywhere, so let's block the front door of a house', but managed to keep my cool.

[shost]

fido said:

That's the problem - tw@ts who blatantly park in someone's space don't leave contact details. I doubt they would be on receiving end of this retribution if they left a note explaining why the vehicle was left there. It causes a lot of stress.

Quite right there may have been a genuine reason to park - say being rushing to a poorly relative (having not sped en route) or maybe call of nature and too little time to find spot. In most cases it would be reasonable to leave a note or move the car asap.

Apparently a youngish lad owned the car so no excuses. Apparently was a bit miffed about damage!

A little bit worried about having slightly crazy neighbour as mentioned - don't know what might make him flip.

Unhelpfully to the sort of bell end that parks in others spaces without a second thought - many of the cars in our property are similar (so middle class) and last thing we need is some numpty going for payback on the wrong car ala Big Lewboski This is what happens when you a Stranger in the...

Also for the record - I don't condone that behaviour it's far in excess off the crime. Plus it's very short sighted as the guy knows where he lives and parks.

Edited by shost on Tuesday 11th July 21:21

[Audemars]

Parking on someones private drive is wrong. However, parking on the road outside someones house that has no restriction is ok. Pisses me off that people think they own the space on the road directly in front of their house too.

[Blakewater]

Mandalore said:

johnwilliams77 said:

Mandalore said:

I would much rather have an occasional nutter who despises anti social parking knobs, than the selfish tw@t who thinks everyone else's property is there for his/her benefit as a neighbour.

And, as a bonus I could spend the rest of my days knowing he would never ever touch MY car.

You can despise these individuals without becoming a criminal vandal yourself.

You obviously misunderstand/misinterpret what I wrote.

I am not going to touch anyone's car, and nobody is going to have cause to touch my car. So I have no problem with this supposed one-off nutter.


Repeat - I am not going to touch anyone's car.

The guy vandalised the car because it was an inconvenience to him personally, not for the greater good of the community. He could turn his rage on someone else who inconveniences him and to enforce a rule that is made up in his own head rather than set by the people managing your property.

What would happen if he got another car and decided your space was a good place to leave it everyday? Would you challenge him about that or park your car in your space and risk him vandalising it because he's made it his space?

Willy Nilly said:

If you give me you address I can send you all the cat st from my lawn. Wildlife killing vermin.

How much wildlife do you think is killed by drivers?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/29/wallaby...

A driving forum is hardly the place to get self righteous with cat owners about stuff being killed.

Edited by Blakewater on Tuesday 11th July 23:19

[Slow]

Surely if someone parks on your drive you go out and screw 4 nice big screws in near the sidewalls?

[Mr2Mike]

Depend on whether you fancy getting a criminal damage charge I suppose.

[SystemParanoia]

Mr2Mike said:

Depend on whether you fancy getting a criminal damage charge I suppose.

Just take the car apart.

remove the wheels, suspension components and the full exhaust.

leave them all beside the car

you haven't damaged anything, and the owner is now facing a big bill to put it all right

[Zetec-S]

SystemParanoia said:

Mr2Mike said:

Depend on whether you fancy getting a criminal damage charge I suppose.

Just take the car apart.

remove the wheels, suspension components and the full exhaust.

leave them all beside the car

you haven't damaged anything, and the owner is now facing a big bill to put it all right

And you lose the use of your drive for even longer while waiting for them to put it back together

[lewishollings]

We sort of share a driveway with our neighbour but we can fit 4 cars on each side of our drive, so 8 in total, quite a few times when she has a get together for her book club people tend to park on our side of the drive, so 4 cars in hers, 2 in ours.

Fine it happened the first time, I told them, they apologised and moved the cars which is okay, but they then proceeded to do this weekly and would park up in my drive and the excuse was that I wasn't home.

I got a bit fed up, the book club usually finished around 10:30, I parked my car across there's so there was no possible way they could get out, they started knocking at the door when the club finished, me and my girlfriend left it for around half an hour before answering and telling them that we were asleep and couldn't hear the knocking.

They didn't do it again.

[OverSteery]

SystemParanoia said:

Mr2Mike said:

Depend on whether you fancy getting a criminal damage charge I suppose.

Just take the car apart.

remove the wheels, suspension components and the full exhaust.

leave them all beside the car

you haven't damaged anything, and the owner is now facing a big bill to put it all right

I would suggest if you have any legal issues you don't represent yourself.

Letting air out of the tyres can be considered criminal damage.

[Jaroon]

My Dad owns a small plot of land in Ireland near a lovely beach with a few residences next to it, it has parking for 2 cars. The opposite neighbor who has some ancient family connections, Granddads friends, use it and have even put up a no parking sign for the busy summer season.

We don't go often but I visited earlier this year, parked on our land and had a couple of of hours on the beach only to return to an incandescent and not unattractive granddaughter, giving me a right round of Fs for parking my car in such an inconsiderate place. I let her go on far too long before telling her it's actually our land and asked after her grandmas health. She wasn't particularly gracious even then but I enjoyed taking the wind out of her,not unattractive, sails.

[DoYouEvenBoost]

Had this in my driveway.

I just got the engine hoist out of the shed, moved the old MR2 engine in front of their car about 0.00001 inches away and stuck the crane away again. The guys face was hilarious as he tried to work out how it got their. He knocked on my door, I move it an hour later after I finished my dinner and had a nice "discussion" with him about his attitude to other people.

Best way to get back at these people is waste their time. They act like a knob, they get treated like a knob

[Hol]

Blakewater said:

Mandalore said:

johnwilliams77 said:

Mandalore said:

I would much rather have an occasional nutter who despises anti social parking knobs, than the selfish tw@t who thinks everyone else's property is there for his/her benefit as a neighbour.

And, as a bonus I could spend the rest of my days knowing he would never ever touch MY car.

You can despise these individuals without becoming a criminal vandal yourself.

You obviously misunderstand/misinterpret what I wrote.

I am not going to touch anyone's car, and nobody is going to have cause to touch my car. So I have no problem with this supposed one-off nutter.


Repeat - I am not going to touch anyone's car.

The guy vandalised the car because it was an inconvenience to him personally, not for the greater good of the community. He could turn his rage on someone else who inconveniences him and to enforce a rule that is made up in his own head rather than set by the people managing your property.

What would happen if he got another car and decided your space was a good place to leave it everyday? Would you challenge him about that or park your car in your space and risk him vandalising it because he's made it his space?

Willy Nilly said:

If you give me you address I can send you all the cat st from my lawn. Wildlife killing vermin.

How much wildlife do you think is killed by drivers?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/29/wallaby...

A driving forum is hardly the place to get self righteous with cat owners about stuff being killed.

Edited by Blakewater on Tuesday 11th July 23:19

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm waiting for the book to come out.



[Please don't let Hollywood cast Tom Cruise. For someone of this over-inflated stereotype it needs to be an ex-wrestler, or a shaved gorilla)

[Hol]

Can the people who think that its OK to park on someone else's drive, without any subsequent apology or appreciable remorse for their actions, kindly identify themselves..

It will make everyone's life a lot easier.

[KAgantua]

OverSteery said:

OK

let's get this over with

I am a man who parked on someone else's drive without permission..

to explain.

When taking my daughter to a hospital appointment, I found a web site that allowed people to rent out parking space during the day. Brilliant! I booked, I paid, I parked.

My car was on the drive for a few hours - as agreed under the tree in the corner (so no one was blocked fortunately)

When the follow-up appointment was required, my wife did the same.

The issue became apparent when my daughter ask why Mum has parked at a different house to me.

Yup, I got the wrong house. so I parked for a few hours in some poor sod's drive. I hope they were at work and never noticed! Given they didn't call my mobile (number on paper on the dash), I guessing so.

I was/am embarrassed and apologetic etc. No excuses, except I was pre-occupied and worried about what news the specialist was going to give to us.

I am very glad that my honest (and stupid) mistake wasn't punished by some vigilantly tw*t taking the law into their own hand and committing illegal acts.

The only way to deal with this is frozen sausages hammered into your own lawn....

[55palfers]

Our friends live quite near to a large hospital. They have a big (5 cars??) paved parking area at the front of their house.

One day they had a knock on the door and there was a random lady asking if it would be OK to park on their drive as it would cost her £7.00 to park on the hospital car park.

[Stridey]

55palfers said:

Our friends live quite near to a large hospital. They have a big (5 cars??) paved parking area at the front of their house.

One day they had a knock on the door and there was a random lady asking if it would be OK to park on their drive as it would cost her £7.00 to park on the hospital car park.

As someone who has in the last two years had a full days chemo nearly every two weeks, and a stint of 25 days radiotherapy I can tell you parking charges can mount up for regular attendees at hospital. A two hour trip by public transport where you can catch infections at your most vulnerable, and a return journey when you feel like pumping isn't really an option.

As a cancer patient I did get £1 tokens to pay for each day ticket, which was nice, but that's a bonus only for cancer patients. I also got ticketed at 9am having been kept in overnight when I was very ill from chemo. I pealed and it was accepted, but still a worry.

I often joke that one of the worst things about Cancer treatment was the parking...but also that one of the BEST things about the NHS was that was my only real hit to my wallet.

If the car park is full you get the stress about being late for appointments, sometimes the wait for space was 1/2 hour. I'd make sure I arrived with plenty of time, but if an appointment was for 11am I knew spaces would disappear and the almighty fight for them would begin...not what you need.

If I lived near a hospital and if I had a space available I'd give it to a nurse. If someone asked to use the space I'd probably say yes. And I speak as someone who had a 'random' knock and ask if they could park on my drive when the snow came down and it was unsafe for her to continue. They came back next day with a bottle of wine.