Not being a knob, I'd just tell all of them they can't park there any more. You are being walked on.
A polite letter to the other houses saying you need to keep it clear for your own use. Say you don't mind them using it if asked first in case you are expecting someone. Simple.
If they abuse it. Put something there to stop them. They're being the knob so they revoke the right to call you a knob.
Bum their dog then park in their drive, or vice versa.
You're not being a knob. The odd random visitor occasionally parking there is understandable and IMO pretty harmless if it has no signage to ask them not to and it looks like just a temptingly empty bit of tarmac. Your neighbours who are aware it's yours parking there just to leave themselves more room on their property is a pisstake and I'd tell them to do one. Or maybe next time they have empty space on their drive you could park there?
Hammer some bombers and frozen sausages in to it.
A letter along the lines of
"I've been happy for neighbours to use my space to park occasionally up to now, but it's now being used by tradesmen too, you're all taking the piss so you can all **** off and park elsewhere from now on, you *****"
Sincerely, No. 23
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.
So what's your cutoff? Thirty seconds? Fifteen minutes? An hour? An afternoon? What if the postman asked your permission yesterday but not today, or was delivering to someone down the road rather than to you? You seemingly don't want people parking on your land except when you deem it to be OK, how do you expect your neighbours (let alone tradesmen or strangers) to know your rules?
I get it, I do. Outside my property is a disabled bay and double yellows, it's broadly fine except when the chippie on the corner is open at which point the "I'll Only Be A Couple Of Minutes" brigade descend en masse despite there being plenty of unrestricted parking like twenty metres down the road. People are self-entitled pricks and it boils my piss. I am 100% behind you in you not wanting people to use your property but you have to tell them.
Needs pitchers for understandingness or its just mootery.
and frozen sausages in to it.
Wow!! STW standards are slipping! Halfway down page 2 before frozen sausages appeared. Cmon STWers...raise your game 😂
So what’s your cutoff? Thirty seconds? Fifteen minutes? An hour? An afternoon? What if the postman asked your permission yesterday but not today, or was delivering to someone down the road rather than to you? You seemingly don’t want people parking on your land except when you deem it to be OK, how do you expect your neighbours (let alone tradesmen or strangers) to know your rules?
Agree with this. How do people know? Sending letters to people doesnt cover the people you didnt send letters too.
Id start with a sign, nice, clear, concise. However thats actually not going to stop people from parking there overnight or longer than you might like. There is already a precedence of people using it, and theyll continue to use it. (as someone else has said, if you let it happen long enough it becomes a right)
To take away all the hassle and personal agro of people using it, fence it, put up barriers, place something on there yourself. Problem solved.
Put a fence up
Or buy get some builders bags of gravel delivered to block access to the extra parking area
I get the OP's point. It feels frustrating to have folks take advantage of something that belongs to you without acknowledging it, but at the same time, pointing that out to people makes it sound like your being a bit of a arse, and who needs that sort of hassle with the neighbours?
I used to live in a wee close that had extra parking, and it was frequently used by parents watching their kids play footie on the playing ground opposite, I had a lockable gate though which was a bit dickish, but somehow simultaneously v satisfying...
can we have some pics of the area? would be good to see the offending land.
Time to start building a rockery, planting trees, resurfacing, whatever. Get folk out of the habit.
We have a grass verge, not owned by us but signed "no parking on mown verge" by the council, used to be regularly churned up by the school runners. We put some planters on there, which the council seemed quite happy to mow around - all three were run over, one by one. 🙁
I’m still not getting what it is OP owns. If it is yours I’d just extend my garden by several feet
This.
But I think it sounds like no different to the 'verge' outside our place. We're on a single track road and previously had an issue with the stables opposite driving their lorries on the verge when they came out of their yard. The reason they swung out so far was they'd also park a car on their obstructing their gateway... So we put big stones on the verge. They'd move them, so the stones got bigger. Next we get a letter from the council telling us that we can't put obstacles on a verge, it's against the law/rules etc and we'd x days to shift them or face penalties.
On investigation it's our land, to maintain, but not to do with as we like.
Put signs up saying something like.... PRIVATE LAND - NO PARKING - leave it for a week and see if that works. If it's ignored put up physical barriers to stop it.
No messing. If you don't act people will walk all over you.
Stick a big, bright and unmissable charity collection box out there...
"You are welcome to park on my land, but please make a £2 donation to St. Anne's Hospice"
Maybe add a camera to help remind people.
Amount and charity of your choice 🙂
Or, toned down a bit:
PRIVATE LAND – PARKING ONLY WITH OWNERS PERMISSION
Wow!! STW standards are slipping! Halfway down page 2 before frozen sausages appeared. Cmon STWers…raise your game 😂
...yeah - but how are you going to hammer frozen sausages into a frozen lawn!? 🙂
Hiya,
We have a massive driveway but the private road we are on is very narrow i.e. van width. After posts being knocked and cars damaged and our next door neighbour trying to imply our driveway was his, when he sold his house, I put posts up and a chain across (Marine quality heavy chain). No problems anymore because if they hit the chain it will do more damage to a car than my chain 😉 Neighbours were fine about it and didn't take any offence. The Nieghbour that sold his property lost a load of money selling his property, but hey you shouldn't lie and try and deceive...
My advice is to barrier it off we tried to be neighbourly, but people took the piss and hence we just fenced it off, it will only end in pain in the long term...
JeZ
Put a sign up, and go and talk to your neighbours, tell them you don't mind them parking there and tell them the rules for doing so and tell them the sign is to stop random people parking there.
They will be reminded it's not a free for all but won't think you are being a knob.
…yeah – but how are you going to hammer frozen sausages into a frozen lawn!?
I believe it's actually tarmac. Pre-drill?
👌
We owned to the middle of the road in my previous house, small cobbled street at the back. We couldn't just fence it off though, even though it wasn't adopted by the council we still HAD to provide access. People the other side of the road parked their cars on their side as the main road with no parking was to their front, while we had a normal resi street to our front so could park our cars there.
If the strip in front of the OP's garden is public access, he may not be allowed to block that. If it is just additional parking for him then go for it.
On investigation it’s our land, to maintain, but not to do with as we like.
This is a good point, fencing it of or blocking it might not be legal. I'd go for a polite sign, or perhaps nothing. I agree the situation could be irritating but is it actually having a detrimental affect on your life. Starting a campaign to prevent people parking on this area might actually cause you more stress than just shrugging your shoulders and letting people get on with it.
P.s
A pic of the area in question would be helpful 👍
It’s a totally private development of six houses, and I own out to the middle of the road itself.
so, does the entire road remain private, such that the residents are wholly responsible for upkeep, drainage, resurfacing, gritting etc, or has it been adopted by the Council as part of the development completion ? If the latter, it is most likely that they have adopted the pavement and right up to your garden line, regardless of the deed drawing. If that is the case then it's available for anyone to park a currently taxed car on.
It’s a tarmac strip 7 feet wide between my garden wall and the road,
Fence it or lose it. Couple of lockable bollards for private access when you want additional parking. It's your land - you don't have to ask.*
You'll never stop people being knobs. Face it - they're already using your land without asking.
Eventually, if things continue, you'll have historic use to fight against.
* unless you're legally bound to provide public access, but there's a road so that seems unlikely. I'd be thinking very much of fencing first and asking forgiveness later.
it is most likely that they have adopted the pavement and right up to your garden line
Not necessarily, the cobbled line that the OP mentioned could be the deliniation line of adoption. This happens quite often where an adopted area meets a private boundary. I've had to design surfacing and drainage in commercial areas like that before where I've had to split the falls so no water drains from private land onto the public adopted area. The line is usually deliniated with a pin kerb or something but a line of cobbles could well be used in residential area where it fits the design better.
A couple of lockable bollards right along the centre line of the area would do. Doesn't block access if that is a legal requirement but will prevent parking of vehicles that are not yours.
Right of access does not equal right to access/park a motor vehicle.
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.
Yes, it is. My view is that since all the other houses here have a three-car driveway, and mine only has room for one car, the extra space is designed for parking. It's not defined by the council as a footway, and not adopted in any way.
There are actually brick planters set into it further back out of shot to stop parking.
Hmmmm as it stands, i'd see that as fair game to park. It has nothing that shows it as being 'yours'
i would be more concerned by the two windows that have been bricked up 😛
What stupid developer set out the boundaries like that. The wall/end of your driveway should be your boundary.
If it really is your land to do what you like with extend out the side - that'll learn 'em! 🙂
Looks like a service strip to me. I wouldn't have thought you'd be able to premently block it off, but you could certainly park your car there!
I deffo wouldn't start digging it up though, It'll contain all the gas, electric and comms for all the houses further down.
What stupid developer set out the boundaries like that.
Its actually quite common, a lot of the time they are block paved and have a 30mm upstand edging stone but I've seen others done like this. Cheaper option of flush kerb and tarmac. Does look slightly wide for a service strip but if it's doubling up as pedestrain access, mews court/shared access type design...
Yeah, nothing at all to show that it belongs to you. In fact upon first viewing it looks like a 'simulated pavement'.
The notice IMHO would make no difference.
Put some planters/half barrels of flowers to mark out/block off and wait for the inevitable squeals and if someone wants to claim to the council its a 'pavement/walkway' await any letter. If you do have to remove them for whatever you can without incurring much expense than digging into the concrete.
I guarantee you someone will try to invoke the council....
Why is the upstairs window bricked up? Oh, and the downstairs one!
In my utterly unqualified opinion, that looks like a footpath to me. Feels like it’s been made the same level of the road to enable large vehicles to get in and out easier.
Would be interesting to see that original planning application.
My parent’s road has similar…
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The footway on the left is barely raised above the road, and there is actually the same on the right hand side that whilst owned by the houses, you’re not supposed to do anything with.
Reading the start of this i was fully behind you. Kil them all etc etc, bollards, wheel clamps, land mines etc.
But that picture tells a different stroy. I wouldnt expect anyone to see that strip of tarmac as yours. Best youll get is a no parking sign i bet.
that said. if people are being arses then be an arse back. Id go and park my car on their drive and go on holiday or something 🙂
Have a look at your deeds to see if it mentions an easement. You may own it but if it is classed as a service strip you would have no right to build on it.
Why is the upstairs window bricked up? Oh, and the downstairs one!
Its a external design feature, the OP probably has kitchen cupboards on that wall or a wardrobe up stairs.
But that picture tells a different stroy.
Looks like a pavement, quacks like a pavement.
The deeds have no restrictions or covenants on use?
Its a external design feature, the OP probably has kitchen cupboards on that wall or a wardrobe up stairs.
I thought this was ridiculous too - apparently it was a condition of getting planning permission.
But that picture tells a different stroy. I wouldnt expect anyone to see that strip of tarmac as yours. Best youll get is a no parking sign i bet.
Except it's not Schrodingers tarmac...
"anyone" or neighbours?
If neighbours I'd expect the neighbours who treat their tarmac as theirs to treat the OP's as the OP's...
If tradesmen contracted by neighbours or visitors to neighbours ... then I'd expect the neighbours know and they should tell them....
If DHL etc. erm yep... fine but OP doesn't seem to mind that.
Also if the OP is responsible for maintaining it then HGV's or unloading heavy stuff is quickly going to mean they have to pay to repair it.
The problem you got here is that there is absolutely nothing to signify that it is anything other than a public road. If I parked there and you came out whining, I'd write you off as a curtain twitcher and tell you to bog off.
If - IF - it is actually your property as you say then you need some sort of demarcation. It is frankly a bloody weird design, it's not surprising that people might be confused. It might be common where you live but I've never seen anything like that before.
Out of interest, what's further "this way," towards where the camera was pointing from? Ie, a 180' view from there? Is it a through road or is it broadly a mirror of what we can see in the photo, another turning point / dead end / driveway?
I thought this was ridiculous too – apparently it was a condition of getting planning permission
Every building needs balanced fenestration aesthetics.
