I own the strip of land outside my house (which has room for 2-3 cars) along with a driveway and one car. My neighbours have recently started treating it as a communal car park (they know damned well it isn't) and it has cars parked in it constantly. It's reached the point where people are waiting for others to leave and then moving their own cars in.
So I really don't mind the occasional car parked there as it makes the house look occupied when I'm away, but am I being an arse in that I'd quite like people to ask first, especially since there have been two builders vans and a pick-up dumped there this week?
The problem is that it doesn't directly cause *me* a problem (if someone visits me they can block my car in) but I'm also aware that I'm paying a mortgage on land that I don't get to use any more. I'm also vaguely aware that if people use it long enough they might be able to claim it through adverse possession.
Just to be clear, if someone asks first I'm never going to say no.
I literally moved somewhere where every house has three spaces to avoid this problem. I just can't see a way of raising it without coming across as a prick. I asked the builders yesterday to check with me before putting three vans there but they didn't bother this morning.
If you own the land then no, you're not being a knob. Probably not worth going to war over though. A polite word with the offenders, reminding them that it's your land and that you'd prefer it if they asked first before using it.
You're not being a knob, approach them, but pre-empt it with "I don't mean to sound like a prick, but..."
Time to start building a rockery, planting trees, resurfacing, whatever. Get folk out of the habit.
Stick some planters around it to have it blocked...after a few months let neighbours know the spaces will be cleared but they need to ask before abandoning their cars there.
Or stick a sign up saying you'll charge for parking - flat fee of £2.50 per hour, with a camera (that may or may not be active).
I hate bad manners and the fact they aren't asking annoys me, but it is more the not asking.
Slightly odd wording… are you talking about a front garden… or is this somehow separate from the rest of your property? Either way, if you don’t actually need the space for parking, put up a little picket fence or similar & turn it into a nature garden. The ecosystem wins, plus you get to look out into something nice rather than builders vans 😂
If you've asked and they've ignored, either buy some bangers to park there or install some posts (removable ones).
I don't think you need to worry about being the unreasonable one!
Devil's advocate: is there any signage to say that it's private land?
I don’t think you sound unreasonable. I have no legal knowledge whatsoever - but my only concern is that if people treat it as communal property for years, then it might be hard for any future owners to undo the ‘laissez-faire’. (Not sure I explained that well?).
If it’s your land stick your cars on it, or buy an old caravan and pop that on there.
Or fence it off with a lockable gate so you can access it when you need it.
or is this somehow separate from the rest of your property?
It’s a tarmac strip 7 feet wide between my garden wall and the road, and is exceptionally convenient if you can’t be bothered to juggle cars around on your drive. It’s a totally private development of six houses, and I own out to the middle of the road itself.
Everyone else owns their own chunk in front of their house. It’s marked on the development plan and the deeds as my property.
Cougar - no, it doesn’t have a private parking sign because everyone knows already, and I don’t care about short-term use. Might put one up as the first salvo.
I’m kinda thinking if I rocked up in my car, how would I know it’s yours / private?
Dig a 2 metre deep hole. Cover it over with a thin piece of cloth and paint tarmac over that.
Or…
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We had a similar problem with a shared hard standing at the top of our private cul de sac. Many times folk would park on it thinking it was public parking. Quite often they got arsey if asked to, if nothing else, park so that they weren’t taking up all four spaces with one bit of shite parking. After one pillock reversed into the retaining wall and demolished it, we clubbed together and bought private parking signs and lockable bollards.
It’s a tarmac strip 7 feet wide between my garden wall and the road
Is that not a footway?
Might put one up as the first salvo.
If that's your first salvo it will come across as passive aggressive. Surely you first 'salvo' would be to have some human engagement and polite conversation. If that doesn't work then yes, signs or whatever but not as your opening gambit. I think you are in the right, but need to tread carefully to avoid owning the 'knob' title!
If it is clearly not part of the road or footway and neighbours have refused requests to ask before parking then fence/planters.
Neighbourly relations have already gone if they think they can have free use of someone else's land.
In any case, if you don't need the land for parking a few big planters are more pleasant than bare tarmac.
It’s a tarmac strip 7 feet wide between my garden wall and the road,
Do the other houses have their walls further out? Sounds like some passive aggressive signage is the simplest first step - "private parking for 21 acacia avenue, offenders will be tutted at LOUDLY"
A simple sign is the obvious first move. I got fed up with having to go knocking on neighbours doors or walk up to the local swimming pool to find drivers who had parked in front of my gate which has a dropped kurb on the footpath (so parking there is illegal and obviously so).
I put a sign up thinking it wouldn't make any difference but it has. I think the last time I had to go hunting for a driver to be able to get my car out was pre-Covid.
Can we expect a sulky face pic on the Daily Mail website in a few years time!?…
Fence it off and make your garden a lot bigger
Cougar – no, it doesn’t have a private parking sign because everyone knows already, and I don’t care about short-term use. Might put one up as the first salvo.
If you don't care about short-term use then why do you care about mid- or long-term use? It's still "use." Your primary objection seems to be "they haven't asked nicely and if they did I'd say yes," and you want to defend an arbitrary set of rules which don't exist outside of your head. Your neighbours are perhaps creating their own set of rules, "well he hasn't said anything so it must be OK."
I totally understand the objection to people using your property. But you either need to communicate your objections to the people using it or suck it up. I'm assuming it's not a right of way to other properties?
People can be surprisingly compliant with reasonable signs. A neighbour of mine put up a fancy plastic fence between their garden and a resident's shared parking area telling people not to park next to their fence. As if by magic everyone started parking at the other side of the carpark. Though I see the fence already has one hole in it at bumper level.
In fairness this is a 1970s estate built with the expectation that people would own cars and need to them so there are plenty spaces both on street and in shared carparks,
If you don’t care about short-term use then why do you care about mid- or long-term use?
I think you’re missing the point. Postman etc is fine. Leaving a car there overnight because you want to keep the space outside your own front door clear is not.
Arguably it could be a footway (it’s level with the road but demarcated with cobbles), even though that’s not mentioned in the deeds. It is, however, mine so it’s a moot point.
I broadly agree with cougar's point. If you don't mind some people parking there in some circumstances but do mind other people parking there in different circumstances then you need to explain those rules. A friendly chat or a sign might help but hoping people will behave better won't.
I think I'd be tempted to go with some planters to add a bit of biodiversity. Something that could be moved if you, or someone else, really needed the space.
Print this thread out and post it through all the neighbours letterboxes
Your land so do as you wish.
Others are knobs parking on it without asking you for permission.
Might put one up as the first salvo.
Make sure you're strong - I understand Pootin is looking for weak areas to make a land grab of, seeing as Ukraine is going terribly for him...
If everyone has three spaces where are all these cars coming from? Planters is the answer, leaving enough room for you to stick your own car. Leave your car there long enough and they may get the message.
My neighbour has the same set up outside their property, they’ve stuck private land, no parking signs up. He boxes in any car that does park there with his two cars and leaves them sitting for a while before moving 😂
It's all fine until the day you need it i suppose. I think though rather than looking at it as you own it out to the middle of the road you are responsible for it. We had similar recently with parking on a private road, the person being the dick installed drop billiards and insisted they owned the road to the middle. They did but they were still being a dick. In your cases it's really difficult to give an armchair judgement without pics.
As Stevemtb says, block them in
It’s a tarmac strip 7 feet wide between my garden wall and the road, and is exceptionally convenient if you can’t be bothered to juggle cars around on your drive. It’s a totally private development of six houses, and I own out to the middle of the road itself.
Everyone else owns their own chunk in front of their house. It’s marked on the development plan and the deeds as my property.
is there any possibility that there is a conflict between their deeds and yours (or you are misunderstanding them) or the council adopted this after your property was built? I ask that as we have a nutter across the road who believes their block of houses owns 4 unmarked parking spaces but which the council master plan shows as being adopted by the council along with the road once all the houses were finished. A lot of work to extract the details out of council archives, and the rest of the street decided in the end to just leave her in her little hissy fit of incredulity and continue to use it - because she's never had a civil conversation with anyone in the street and nobody can be bothered fanning the flames.
Arguably it could be a footway (it’s level with the road but demarcated with cobbles), even though that’s not mentioned in the deeds. It is, however, mine so it’s a moot point.
Is it included with the property boundary map? I'm not sure how it can be yours if it's not recorded on the title.
grahamt1980
Full Member
Fence it off and make your garden a lot bigger
Never underestimate people's stupidity when it comes to parking.
Our houses have a driveway in front that's wide enough for 4 cars side by side and you can drive straight off the road into any of those spaces.
Our neighbours own 1 car that they park in their drive.
They have a regular visitor with a car. Instead of using one of 3 remaining spaces in front of their house, she parks perpendicular to their drive, half on the pavement, half on the road. She manages to block the road, the pavement and access to their property.
It's quite spectacular how dumb people can be
A streetview link is probably the only way to fully appreciate this dilemma.
Arguably it could be a footway ...... It is, however, mine so it’s a moot point.
You may well be right, I'm not a lawyer, but if you think how bridleways and footpaths work, they are public highways, but over somebody's land. So maybe the Council have adopted it, and it's a footway? I don't think anyone should be parking on a footway (even the owner?). Maybe worth asking the Council, or maybe one of the legal experts on STW will have a view?
There might be restictive covenants about fencing it off etc. But probably nothing about trip wire activated punji sticks.
I asked the builders yesterday to check with me before putting three vans there but they didn’t bother this morning
That would irk me a lot.
I'd definitely go to the builders wherever they are working and politely ask them to move, irrelevant of how busy they say they are as they totally ignored my request.
Then say they aren't allowed to park there again as that shop has sailed.
I’m still not getting what it is OP owns. If it is yours I’d just extend my garden by several feet
A sailing shop
Does it sell sales
Is there a sale on right now
Sail away with me honey
Some sail-ient points there.
