Hi, I hope someone here will be able to give me some advice.  Our neighbours park their car right across from our drive, which means that I now can't get my new car in as it's much bigger than the last one.  We've tried asking them to move it and I went over again today and she was very rude and said she had every right to park outside her house (she also has another side - corner house - and a driveway) and she'd park where she wanted.  I explained that I had a right to get into our driveway.  Anyway, it all got a bit nasty and she's still not moved her car.  Does anyone know where I stand?  I'm six months pregnant and could really do without the grief to be honest.

Do you have a dropped kerb?  if so when she does it call the police as she can be done for obstructing your drive!  If you have local community beat officers, moan like hell to them as they will have to do something about it.  Even if you dont keep complaining to your local police about and they will hoepfully sort it out to get rid of you! 

Good luck and use your pregancy to your advantage!!

I have a similar problem, I live opposite a club. I have a dropped kerb but can't use my driveway because people inevitably park over it in the evening and trap me inside. As I leave for work around 8 or 9pm it's really not good. I've been late for work 3 times and have phoned the police numerous times. The person on the other end of the phone is always sympathetic, but no one ever comes out to book or move the car :rolleyes: Lets be honest the police have better things to do. As Cheryl says below the council may be the way to go. Good Luck and don't let them get to you :)

I think you need to speak to your local council.  I am pretty sure you have right of way to your driveway and she's not supposed to park across it to block your access. 

I think some people lead such sad and miserable little lives that they gain some sort of satisfaction from trying to pass their misery on to other people.  Try not to let it upset you too much and try to get someone else (council) to sort it out for you.  She's obviously not being reasonable so don't give her any more satisfaction by letting her have a go at you because as you say, you don't need it at the moment.

I've spoken to the Council and there's nothing they can do.

There is a dropped kerb, but my husband parks his car outside our house with two wheels on the pavement also.

I will give the police a call tomorrow and see if they can do anything.  Her mother comes round a lot and also parks outside their house, causing even more obstruction.  This was a nice place to live before they moved in. :rolleyes:

Sorry, I've just read your original post again. They're parking opposite your drive - not across the opening? If this is the case and there aren't any road markings across the road to stop them then I don't think theres anything you can do I'm afraid.

If they parked with two wheels on the pavement as your husband does you may be able to get into your driveway, BUT prams and wheelchairs wouldn't be able to use the pavement - and they'd be breaking the law. IMO cars should park with all four wheels on the road :)

>Sorry, I've just read your original post again. They're parking opposite your drive - not across the opening? If this is the case and there aren't any road markings across the road to stop them then I don't think theres anything you can do I'm afraid.

ditto

I also assumed the neighbour's car was across your actual driveway not opposite

I would think twice before reporting it, only doing it as the last resort. Any disputes which become official seem to get out of hand - and selling houses if there are 'offical' problems can make it difficult.
If your neighbour is parking legally (no double yellow lines etc) then I doubt anything can be done. She might just turn round and say it's your driving - if you can't handle a big car you shouldn't have one (I'm not saying you can't, but it is an argument she might use if you were ok with your old car).
From her point of view, if she's been parking in the same place without causing problems in the past then maybe she will find it strange that you now want her to move.
I would try the softly softly approach, even if you are 100% in the right. Ask her to watch you trying to park, maybe she hasn't realised there is a problem. Would her parking just a foot further along help, can't be that much difference in the steering lock, even if the new car is bigger.
Worth a try - better than it getting nasty and her making life even more difficult.

We had exactly this problem in our last house. It got so bad that we moved, but the previous poster is spot on - if you start a dispute with your neighbour, you have to declare it if you ever decide to move, so be careful about who you involve. I'm afraid some people are just plian inconsiderate and no amount of pleading and remonstrating will help. Legally, you have no recourse, as she is not actually blocking you form your driveway.

We have an ongoing parking war down our road!  we live in town with on street parking and some of the houses have drives and some garages but we don't have either, our road is used as a free car park for people that work in town!  according to our local bobby with a dropped kerb or not someone can park across your drive legally so long as they are not blocking you in, they can block you out though!  amazing eh? 

Our street is a nightmare for parking, we all have a designated space that is on house plans but no one in the street has just one car, we made a drive on front to accomodate second car but next door have four, others have two plus. Once my cousin, who was sleeping over, was quite ill and i needed to take him home to mum in middle of night, the street was totally blocked and i had to knock a neighbour up, he wasnt happy but he had blocked the whole street. The street needs to be accessible as we have oap residential homes through a walk way and often need ambulance/fire access.
We were totally fed up of drive being blocked and street generally being awful to get up so we started to park both cars off drive so no one could block us in, it soon worked and since no one has, think they knew we were miffed. I was pregnant too at the time and there was no way i wasnt getting blocked in night just in case :)
However some people are not understanding and quite stubborn! If it was me id leave my drive free and park where she does to get the message across, naughty i know but if she wont compromise!

As I understand it, if you don't have a Council-installed dropped kerb in front of your drive you're not actually allowed to cross the pavement to park on your own property.

I believe that that is right :) :)

Daisy

That is incorrect.

You need to have council-local authority permission and possibly an inspection after the work has been completed but the council don't have to have carried out the work. ( or not in most areas there will be exception perhaps in some councils)  I believe they offer the service at a cost but that is only a service on offer not a requirment. :-)

I should have said Council-approved dropped kerbing. :) Is it true that if the kerb is normal height you're not allowed to drive over it?

:-)  

Sorry missed the other question

:-)    I am not sure about the driving over it bit really ,

however legally you must have council permission and also the completion certificate, the completion certificate would not be issued if the size and height was incorrect.

A bit of googling tells me that if there's no dropped kerb in front of a drive then it's legal for someone else to park across the 'access' and block you in (provided there are no road markings forbidding it), which I never knew before. Still not sure about the legality of driving across a pavement where there's no dropped kerb yet. I'm interested because I know several people who do it!

If you don't have a drop kerb then you basically dont have a drive. it is actually ilegal to drive up or over a pavement.  ( there are exceptions I council grass cutters or those with permission)

Sorry I hadn't realised that is what you meant.

Permission through prescriptive law( ie time passed) or  planning permission or local authority permission is required.

If someone doesn't have a drop kerb and is bumping up the pavement without real permission you can legally park your car in front of their "homemade" access.

Not sure how accurately I remember this, but, my mum used to live in a very small cul-de-sac and parking was a real problem, particularly as one of the 12 houses had 3 cars. My sister rang the police about people parking over dropped kerbs and was told that it isn't illegal to do so, it is just common courtesy not to park over the dropped kerb.
jane

you are right jane, it is not illegal to park over them if you are blocking someone out but it is illegal if you are blocking someone in, I enquired about this years ago when we first moved into our street.

Can't you reverse in your drive all the time. If you can get it in when it is parked there you must be able to get it out. :-)

May be best to try and resolve it as best you can before getting the police in or we will see you on once of these neighbour shows in the future.  Sorry for your trouble though..

Thanks everyone for your replies.

My husband doesn't want to involve the police at the moment.  He is going to try and speak to the husband, as he's far more considerate and never parks right across from our driveway and if that fails, he's going to park his second car outside their house and leave me room to get in the driveway.  He could leave it there indefintely if he wanted.  All we were asking is that she parked on the other side of the post, it's not exactly a lot to ask I don't think.

Bring back the old neighbour, she may have been an alcoholic, but she never gave anyone any trouble!

Could you not just park your car across your own driveway?

If we both park in that position someone's car is going to end up getting scratched by traffic trying to get past, and I don't want it being mine.  They don't seem to care if they cause obstructions either to other drivers or neighbours. :rolleyes:

To be honest the person living opposite you has every right to park in front of their house the same as you in front of yours, and your access problems are not their concern, so all you can do is ask nicely and explain that your finding it difficult to manoeuvre, and would they park at the other side of their property when they can.

I wasn't asking them to park at the other side of their property, just a couple of yards further down the pavement (there's a pole on the pavement, so just on the other side of the one they currently park at).  It's still right in front of their house.

You might be better taking a couple of bottles of red wine round and asking really (sickeningly) nicely :) You are asking them to do you a favour after all - and allowing it to get nasty is not the best way to go about things. When folk feel they are being told what to do they get defensive and bloody minded and thats when it spirals out of control. I don't think this is a parking dispute - its you needing a favour from a neighbour :)

Good idea, Carla - perhaps explaining that you would have to carry the baby plus bits all the way in from the street otherwise :) :)

Daisy