Neighbour parking drama. Who is being unreasonable?
Discussion
Bit of a local parking one, more as a topic of conversation than anything I am planning to get involved in.
We live at the end of what used to be the main road through the area. A bypass was put in decades ago, so our stretch is now effectively a dead end. Because of that, it has slowly become a bit of an overflow parking area.
The houses further down do not really have immediate parking. Their fronts are onto a pavement beside a fairly busy road, which is still one of the main routes from surrounding villages into town. I do not think there are double yellows, but in reality it is not the kind of place you would choose to park, because you would cause a fair obstruction.
So instead, a lot of cars end up on our stretch. Add in pub users from across the road, people who seem to leave cars there all day for ride sharing, and the usual mix of cars and vans, and it can get a bit silly.
The latest development is that one neighbour has written a handwritten letter to the owner of a motorhome parked opposite his house. He has also hand delivered copies of the note to our house and a few immediate neighbours.
I will paste the wording of the letter below, with names and addresses removed.
To be fair to him, I can see why he is annoyed. A big white motorhome opposite your front window every day is not ideal, and the wider parking situation on the road is definitely being abused a bit.
On the other hand, assuming it is taxed, insured, MOT’d and legally parked, I am not sure there is much anyone can actually do. It is a public road, not anyone’s private view.
We have a drive around the back of our property, so while the parking situation occasionally makes me think some people are being a bit lazy, it also keeps us out of this sort of drama.
Feels like classic neighbour parking drama to me. A fair irritation, caused partly by the road layout and lack of parking, but possibly not enough to start writing letters and trying to rally the street.
What says PH?
Is the motorhome owner taking the mick, or is the neighbour going full Abe Simpson shouting at clouds?
Letter text:
Dear XXXX
Looking out of my windows, I guess you have decided not to move your motorhome to a more suitable location.
Rather than get into more verbal rhetoric, I will repeat: “[road name] is a residential road”, not an industrial vehicle park.
Looking at the overall situation, you already park a car and works van on the road, and you are not a resident of [road name].
[Nearby locations] have parking facilities at [nearby parking areas].
You think I am being petty. I disagree.
I am making a stand to avoid the decay that has happened further down the road: motorhomes, caravans, little vans, big vans, even a tractor.
This is a second request for you to move your motorhome to a more suitable location.
We live at the end of what used to be the main road through the area. A bypass was put in decades ago, so our stretch is now effectively a dead end. Because of that, it has slowly become a bit of an overflow parking area.
The houses further down do not really have immediate parking. Their fronts are onto a pavement beside a fairly busy road, which is still one of the main routes from surrounding villages into town. I do not think there are double yellows, but in reality it is not the kind of place you would choose to park, because you would cause a fair obstruction.
So instead, a lot of cars end up on our stretch. Add in pub users from across the road, people who seem to leave cars there all day for ride sharing, and the usual mix of cars and vans, and it can get a bit silly.
The latest development is that one neighbour has written a handwritten letter to the owner of a motorhome parked opposite his house. He has also hand delivered copies of the note to our house and a few immediate neighbours.
I will paste the wording of the letter below, with names and addresses removed.
To be fair to him, I can see why he is annoyed. A big white motorhome opposite your front window every day is not ideal, and the wider parking situation on the road is definitely being abused a bit.
On the other hand, assuming it is taxed, insured, MOT’d and legally parked, I am not sure there is much anyone can actually do. It is a public road, not anyone’s private view.
We have a drive around the back of our property, so while the parking situation occasionally makes me think some people are being a bit lazy, it also keeps us out of this sort of drama.
Feels like classic neighbour parking drama to me. A fair irritation, caused partly by the road layout and lack of parking, but possibly not enough to start writing letters and trying to rally the street.
What says PH?
Is the motorhome owner taking the mick, or is the neighbour going full Abe Simpson shouting at clouds?
Letter text:
Dear XXXX
Looking out of my windows, I guess you have decided not to move your motorhome to a more suitable location.
Rather than get into more verbal rhetoric, I will repeat: “[road name] is a residential road”, not an industrial vehicle park.
Looking at the overall situation, you already park a car and works van on the road, and you are not a resident of [road name].
[Nearby locations] have parking facilities at [nearby parking areas].
You think I am being petty. I disagree.
I am making a stand to avoid the decay that has happened further down the road: motorhomes, caravans, little vans, big vans, even a tractor.
This is a second request for you to move your motorhome to a more suitable location.
I can understand the Letterman’s parking frustration but goodness gracious me, his letter is very, very silly.
It obviously frustrates Letterman so why not simply have a polite little chat with the person parking perfectly legally on the public highway and come up with a suitable compromise?
It is a bit cheeky telling folks they can’t legally park on the highway and the silly billy letter will probably make the parking fiend dig their heels in and suggest Letterman goes far away.
It obviously frustrates Letterman so why not simply have a polite little chat with the person parking perfectly legally on the public highway and come up with a suitable compromise?
It is a bit cheeky telling folks they can’t legally park on the highway and the silly billy letter will probably make the parking fiend dig their heels in and suggest Letterman goes far away.
Personally, I think the owner of the motorhome is probably the unreasonable one. Someone goes and buys a large vehicle, it's not a pretty sight and they don't want it necessarily outside their house or they can't park it there. So they choose to park it outside someone else's house for them to enjoy the view.
That said, if it is legally parked there is not much you can do.
At our old house we had a next door neighbour who owned a box van as he did house clearances etc. He'd park it on the front drive which in turn blocked out light from our front room. The reality was that despite being frustrating, it wasn't illegal and I'm sure I could moan about losing the light I wasn't feeling motivated to fall out over it.
That said, if it is legally parked there is not much you can do.
At our old house we had a next door neighbour who owned a box van as he did house clearances etc. He'd park it on the front drive which in turn blocked out light from our front room. The reality was that despite being frustrating, it wasn't illegal and I'm sure I could moan about losing the light I wasn't feeling motivated to fall out over it.
CMTMB said:
It's a bit of a meeting of two idiots tbh. The complainant has no business dictating who or what parks on a public street and the motorhome owner is a bit of a selfish prick for parking there.
This is how most of these disputes start though isn't it, and in fact most social issues.Sheepshanks said:
A motor home AND a works van would be anti-social enough if they lived in the road but it s seriously taking the piss if they don t even live there.
Agree entirely. We have a bloke who lives a couple of streets away who is motor trading from home (I traced him to eBay via a reverse image search).
He lives in a gated house on a private road in the South East, with ample parking spaces for his "stock" on his own land. Instead he chooses to park them in our small road where residents without off street parking struggle to park, mainly because his 2-3 cars sat there for weeks never moving are hogging valuable spaces.
It was a problem, until I realised they were all untaxed. A few reports to the DVLA and a couple of Denver boots later the problem went away. He's probably annoying someone else now. Some people are just inconsiderate a
holes. Is the parking place a 30mph limit and what is the vehicle class of the motorhome?
Highway Code Rule 250
Cars, goods vehicles not exceeding 2500 kg laden weight, invalid carriages, motorcycles and pedal cycles may be parked without lights on a road (or lay-by) with a speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h) or less if they are:
at least 10 metres (32 feet) away from any junction, close to the kerb and facing in the direction of the traffic flow
in a recognised parking place or lay-by.
Other vehicles and trailers, and all vehicles with projecting loads, MUST NOT be left on a road at night without lights.
Most motorhomes are over 2500kg and below 3500kg so the lighting at night applies and contravention could affect insurance cover.
Maybe needs a report on Fixmystreet?
Highway Code Rule 250
Cars, goods vehicles not exceeding 2500 kg laden weight, invalid carriages, motorcycles and pedal cycles may be parked without lights on a road (or lay-by) with a speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h) or less if they are:
at least 10 metres (32 feet) away from any junction, close to the kerb and facing in the direction of the traffic flow
in a recognised parking place or lay-by.
Other vehicles and trailers, and all vehicles with projecting loads, MUST NOT be left on a road at night without lights.
Most motorhomes are over 2500kg and below 3500kg so the lighting at night applies and contravention could affect insurance cover.
Maybe needs a report on Fixmystreet?
Thanks all, that is pretty much where I am with it to be honest.
Assuming it is taxed, insured, MOT’d and legally parked, I do not think the motorhome owner is doing anything wrong legally. It is a public road at the end of the day, so nobody owns the bit outside their house or the view from their window.
That said, legal and considerate are not always the same thing. Parking a big motorhome outside someone else’s house when you do not live on that stretch is always going to wind people up. I can see why the neighbour is annoyed.
To be fair to him, he is a nice old fella. I have been here nearly 20 years, but the houses are fairly spaced out so we do not really interact much. He has probably been there decades longer than me and he is often out cutting the grass on the verge over the road, so I think he probably sees himself as a bit of a self appointed warden for the street.
I do think the letter makes him look worse than he needs to though. The basic point is fair enough, but the “industrial vehicle park” and “decay” lines make it sound far more dramatic than it needs to be.
The Rule 250 point is interesting though. I had not thought about the night parking lights issue for larger vehicles. I am not actually sure what the speed limit is on that stretch, as I do not think it is posted anywhere, but I would assume 30 mph and certainly not more than that. The main road next to it, which our road would have linked to before the bypass went in, is 30 mph.
So yeah, still feels like classic neighbour parking drama to me. One person being a bit inconsiderate, one person probably going a bit over the top, and the rest of us trying not to get dragged into it.
Assuming it is taxed, insured, MOT’d and legally parked, I do not think the motorhome owner is doing anything wrong legally. It is a public road at the end of the day, so nobody owns the bit outside their house or the view from their window.
That said, legal and considerate are not always the same thing. Parking a big motorhome outside someone else’s house when you do not live on that stretch is always going to wind people up. I can see why the neighbour is annoyed.
To be fair to him, he is a nice old fella. I have been here nearly 20 years, but the houses are fairly spaced out so we do not really interact much. He has probably been there decades longer than me and he is often out cutting the grass on the verge over the road, so I think he probably sees himself as a bit of a self appointed warden for the street.
I do think the letter makes him look worse than he needs to though. The basic point is fair enough, but the “industrial vehicle park” and “decay” lines make it sound far more dramatic than it needs to be.
The Rule 250 point is interesting though. I had not thought about the night parking lights issue for larger vehicles. I am not actually sure what the speed limit is on that stretch, as I do not think it is posted anywhere, but I would assume 30 mph and certainly not more than that. The main road next to it, which our road would have linked to before the bypass went in, is 30 mph.
So yeah, still feels like classic neighbour parking drama to me. One person being a bit inconsiderate, one person probably going a bit over the top, and the rest of us trying not to get dragged into it.
I've seen a similar dispute escalate far beyond what you would expect from two reasonable adults. Parking disputes just seem to have that affect on even the most decent of people.
It culminated in a Luton van ending up in a crumpled mess at the bottom of a steep hill. The homeowner subsequently parked a trailer in the space it occupied, in front of his window. Not sure of the legality of said trailer, but it was still there last time I went by that way.
It culminated in a Luton van ending up in a crumpled mess at the bottom of a steep hill. The homeowner subsequently parked a trailer in the space it occupied, in front of his window. Not sure of the legality of said trailer, but it was still there last time I went by that way.
Its legal but I empathise. It can be a pain when parking is already limited i.e. a street with no driveways. Imo its discourteous to your neighbours to buy "2nd vehicle" campervans and leave them parked in the same place on a road for long periods of time. Would I actually say anything to the owner? - probably not as they're not doing anything illegal and I would take the live and let live approach.
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