She's already had the council make me move my shed as it was too close to her fence. Shes old, Lost her husband last year. They were the type who as soon as you put washing out would light a bonfire. Refuses to take post for us etc..
Anyway I come home this afternoon and shes in the front garden with her daughter and starts having a go at me saying stop driving over the corner of the grass. I'll explain.
If a car is parked opposite my driveway I have to drive my van out of the driveway but before im on the road with the rear wheels I have to turn a sharp right which puts my rear wheels over the corner of a grass verge which is in front of her house between the front of her wall and the pavement. Shes told me not to drive over it anymore as she's going to re-seed it. I've told her not to bother as there's no way I can get into my drive without driving over it. Shes going to call the council again and complain. Where do I stand?
Where do I stand?
Not on her grass, that's for sure.
Ignore her. Spray weed killer all over the grass at night? How can the council make you move a shed...Are you a council tenant?
Where do I stand?
On her throat?
Probably not her verge?
You've no right to drive on her grass (if it's actually hers). If she complains to the council then they might also suggest you don't park your van where you do - or they might not give a shit.
Just tarmac it
I'd just carry on ignoring her.
The council won't do anything.... I'm surprised they can make you move a shed too
[quote=m0rk ]
The council won't do anything.... I'm surprised they can make you move a shed too
They can if it breaks planning regulations
Where do I stand?
Depends, is it her grass, or the councils?
If it's her's you have no leg to stand on, you'll just have to get a smaller car that you can get on/off your drive without driving over hers.
The councils, I can't imagine they'd care.
How can the council make you move a shed
Lack of planning permission?
Get her onside. Life is too short, chocs, or flowers cup of tea whatever. Really, it's not worth it.
Jeez..When I get old I hope I have something better to do than moan at my neighbours.
Not weed killer but use lawn weed n feed to spell a descriptive rude word on her verge.
So...She's single?
Get her onside. Life is too short, chocs, or flowers cup of tea whatever. Really, it's not worth it.
Reading the OP, it seems that's just not an option.
Some old biddys just want to see the world burn.
powerslide your van off the drive.
Turn left instead if right? Then you'd be over the grass infront if your house so she can fro.
^^ exactly what I was going to say.
Seems an obvious and simple solution to me.
(Unless it's a one way street)
Park van on the road
Right outside the front of her house
Yes council tenant and the shed was too close to her fence ie. Under a meter. Chocolate no chance that wouldnt work. I've tried to be nice many times. I've had enough. When she came at me today I asked her who the hell does she think she is speaking to me like that. Took her off guard that did as she was expecting to be all nice as usual. Anyway it's not her grass. Turning left isnt an option as it's too narrow that way.
You do realise that you don't actually have a right to drive on the verge though, aye?
Baby robins, child's faces etc.
Sometimes older people get upset at the smallest of things, just think of it as them haveing lots of age and experience to get quite good at being miserable obnoxious buggers.
From experience working in customers homes theres always a few who always moan about trivial stuff their neighbours are doing have done etc.
Next youll find a huge rock on her corner of the grass to stop you, or white plastic bollard things.
Houns - Member
Park van on the roadRight outside the front of her house
[b]This[/b] 😈
If a car is parked opposite my driveway I have to drive my van out of the driveway but before im on the road with the rear wheels I have to turn a sharp right which puts my rear wheels over the corner of a grass verge which is in front of her house between the front of her wall and the pavement
I know it isn't, but humour me for a moment... what if it was a wall, and that was a corner of brick instead of grass? Would you then magically find a way to avoid hitting it or would you actually genuinely not be able to get off your drive? or would it just be more difficult rather than impossible?
It sounds like you're blaming the car parked opposite your drive, now I get that you have no control over that and that it's not your fault, but someone else doing something inconsiderate/bad doesn't then give you the right to do something else inconsiderate/bad does it?
Maybe, just maybe you can use this...if you can get her to realise that you only do this when forced to (have a moan [i]with[/i] her!), maybe you can get her onside and to redirect her rage at the people causing you difficulty, you can then have a shared enemy to moan about instead of her moaning at you 😉
Park 50yds up the road, and get double yellows painted opposite your house. Job jobbed.
Also, stop shouting at recently widowed pensioners when you admittedly keep doing wrong. STW loves to feast on that shit. 🙂
I know it isn't, but humour me for a moment... what if it was a wall, and that was a corner of brick instead of grass? Would you then magically find a way to avoid hitting it or would you actually genuinely not be able to get off your drive? or would it just be more difficult rather than impossible?
THIS.
Anyway it's not her grass
It's not your grass either.
Presumably your van is a commercial vehicle? If so, what does your lease say about parking commercial vehicles on the property?
It might be in your own interest to avoid upsetting her further.
Moaning at you might be a means to feel inportant, to feel she has a place still. Perhaps she finds approaching folk difficult without an excuse. She's lost her life partner, & I guess that takes a lot of getting used to. I'm in the "life's too short" camp. I would put on an air of humble subservience & let her have her moan. Tell her you'll do your best not to drive on the verge.
A log of old folk read the Mail /Express, & bin lining garbage like that whips older folk into a frenzy of hate. My Mums the same.
Driving over the grass is wrong pure and simple. You are in the wrong here and even tho its not her grass she is in the right. Sorry old chap but just because your van does not fit properly on your drive it does not give you the right to drive over the grass.
If I was your neighbour I would be having words as well and reporting you as what you are doing is antisocial
amedias...if it were a wall I would not be able to get off my drive.
As for the recently widowed thing its very sad and I'd wish it upon no-one. One day, when her husband was still alive, she was in the front garden and in passing said hello and asked how they both are..neighborly pleasantries and she tells me her OH is in the ICU. When I express my sadness for such a thing and ask whats wrong she proceeds to tell me how my shed being too close to her fence has effected her husbands health...I cant win so don't try any more. And as for those saying lifes too short mine is too and I dont need negative in my life either. She could have a lot worse neighbors than us.
I'm self employed and it's my van, has my tools in etc. And hhe closer it is to my house the safer i feel. It's how I feed my family and don't need any scumbag crackheads breaking into it because its on the road 100yds from where I Live.
Council estate thug life. Word.
amedias...if it were a wall I would not be able to get off my drive.
then that would suck.
Also ignore the little Hitlers telling you you're technically in the wrong. They're not capable of seeing reasonable and logical sense at times!
Also, having had a big life trauma doesn't protect her from being treated like the hateful annoyance that she apparently is. If she was 42 and working would people still be suggesting you calmly obey her?
Just keep doing what you're doing and of she ever tried something stupid like getting a boulder put on the corner, make sure it gets rolled right onto her front step.
Also, is the shed greater than 2.5m high or 15m2 floor area? If not then i don't think planning permission rules apply even up against a boundary
Glasgowdan - why is it sensible and reasonable and logical to drive a van every day over public grassland?
shed is now taller than it was at 2.45m and bigger @ 14.5m2 and is now over 1m away from her boundry. Before it was about 150mm from her fence.
It's not necessarily illegal to drive over grass, it can be classed as part of the carriageway. The cars parked opposite are the ones acting illegally if they're causing an obstruction.
The cars parked opposite are the ones acting illegally if they're causing an obstruction.
I very much doubt they are.
He's not blocked in, so they aren't causing an obstruction.
It may not be illegal to drive over the grass but probably is - but thats irrelevant - its antisocial.
Stop being so selfish & give up being self employed. Go on the dole & claim benefits. They'll all feel sorry for you on here then.
Get her some flowers or something
Honestly though it will mess with her head massively.
Old bloke up the road from me used to give me endless
Grief untill the day that I salted his drive and path for him when we had a load of snow , he crosses the street to talk to me these days
She has an idea about who you are just change it
Give her a Chopsmack!
This is where you lightly but lovingly smack your fingers together on her cheek, ideally her cheek jowl will wobble.
Just hoof her in the slats!!! 😈
Sounds like she's struggling to come to terms with her loss and is looking for someone to blame for anything. Some sympathy and friendship regardless if she doesn't want it. Get to know her. Maybe she's got interesting stories to tell.
It sounds like she was this way inclined before she lost her husband - the remark about the OPs shed being the reason her husband was in ICU makes me think she's going to blame him for everything that she sees wrong in her life, if not the world.
Sympathise OP, it's not easy having rubbish neighbours best you can do is make sure everything is all above board your end in case someone does come around from the council to act on one of her claims.
Get her some flowers or something
& then the OP will get flamed when they die?
If you are a council tenant with a drive then I would guess that the council expect that there is sufficient space to put a vehicle on or off the drive.
If you really want to get the problem fixed give then a call and explain the situation. They will either put double yellows opposite the drive or Tarmac over the verge. Well that's what I have seen them do in the past.
Is there room for a projector in your shed?
Or some of that plastic mesh down that allows grass to grow through but can support vehicles.
tjagain - Member
It may not be illegal to drive over the grass but probably is - but thats irrelevant - its antisocial.
Wow.
One simple question for you. Given you're capable of reading the OP...What should be do, if not drive his van out of the driveway to work each day? Park it on the road and increase the danger of it being broken into? Because of a few inches of council verge?
Or some of that plastic mesh down that allows grass to grow through but can support vehicles.
Woooaaahhh! Easy there, Pook. We'll have none of that sensible compromise stuff around here. It's either stick her under the patio, or assume the role of her late husband and make her feel like a woman again.
No. Grey. Areas.
...well....maybe some if you go the latter route.
Or some of that plastic mesh down that allows grass to grow through but can support vehicles.
All the smart kids obsessing over imposing their binary moral determinations didn't ever think to find an actual, practical, solution. The OP, assuming he'd rather not damage the verge, could have a sheet of plywood or lump of carpet (store it in your big shed?) to throw down on the verge on the odd occasion when somebody parks opposite the drive. The longer term solution would be the mesh as Pook suggests.
Glasgowdan - what would I do - hard to say because I don't know the whole picture but I wouldn't drive over a public green space to park. I'd probably park on the road accross my driveway
As you probably remember I don't drive regularly but a couple of years ago I had a community job where I had to drive around town - most of my colleagues parked on pavements - I refused to do so
I've always found you get a much better angle reversing on to our drive in my van, then you can also drive out forward and see pedestrians, cars etc. without the lack of windows in the back obscuring the view. Would that work??
....drive over public green space ...
Lolz.
To suit your stance, you've made it sound like he's grass tracking through the park every morning to avoid traffic.
Rather than what he actually said, which was that one rear wheel clips the edge of a bit of grass verge.
Priceless
Yes, but Neal he's technically RIGHT! Sitting on his keyboard tapping away showing us the legalities of the situation and what's morally correct, so we'd better listen and agree! No real world thinking is relevant here I guess.
It's a space of land, it's green (well, more brown), and it's the public's, therefore it's public green space, and he's depriving a swathe of little boys and girls from having a kickabout with jumpers for goalposts because of his abhorrent selfishness. He should, of course, just get an office job and a smart car to avoid such law breaking
I'd probably park on the road accross my driveway
I thought it was people doing that that's caused the issue?
I suppose it depends on the definition of just clipping and whether it is doing any damage. The grass verge at back of my house still has a deep tyre rut from a van that decided to park in front of my gate a few months ago when it was wet. Not the crime of the century but pretty unsightly due to a moments thoughtlessness. Do it regularly and it becomes an eyesore and an inconvenience to pedestrians
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Also ignore the little Hitlers telling you you're technically in the wrong
The threshold for Hitlerhood reaches an all-time low. In the old days you had to invade neighbouring countries and commit genocide but now all you have to do is suggest somebody shouldn't drive across a piece of grass and voila! You're Hitler!
Is it a big van? Like bigger than the person who 'designed' your drive envisioned someone wanting to park there? I think we need photos including the 'damage' you are allegedly doing.
As per nick above I occasionally get someone put 2 wheels onto the patch of grass at the front of my house, resulting in a tyre rut if done when the ground is wet. The rut doesn't go away and I have to sort it out.
And yes, as convert mentions, the protagonists seem to be people with massive vans expecting to be able to park them in residential areas which weren't designed to accommodate them.
Re: the OP, she'll probably buy a huge **** off ornamental rock now and plonk it right on the corner of grass which is being driven over.
In these little micro-examples you can see how wars are started. Two belligerents unable to accept any compromise and totally believing that they are in the right 🙂
I like the idea of sending her some flowers 'be the example you want to see in the world' etc. It might not work, some people just wanna see the world burn, as somebody else pointed out.
I think a lot of it is down to perception. I used to live next to a guy who was despised by the neighbour the other side of him. But because I liked the guy I never heard his dogs barking all the time and his shouting at shadows and using power tools all the time :D. Well, maybe I [i]heard[/i] them. But it never seemed to bug me at all. Yet the other neighbour who didn't like him was constantly at her wits end.
Re: the OP, she'll probably buy a huge **** off ornamental rock now and plonk it right on the corner of grass which is being driven over.
To be fair, if she does that (and she doesn't own the grass) The council will happily remove it for you.
More likely a bag of brass screws will get emptied into the grass. I can't stand people that drive over / park on a public verge because at the end of the day the council still has to fix it and it's a spectacular waste of money.
The council (ie the taxpayer) still has to pay for it.
Indeed, so a slight adaptation to the grass verge would be a lot cheaper then.
By the sound of it, clipping a corner with one back wheel isn't going to cost much, or take long, to sort out. A corner of the verge angled with something more durable than grass. Pretty simple.
Indeed, so a slight adaptation to the grass verge would be a lot cheaper then.
Who's paying? I'm guessing the tenant/landlord/ home owner as per requests for a drop kerb for a new driveway.
If it's not possible for you to park and drive off without damaging grass etc, maybe you should also write to the council and explain the predicament.
Suggest a shallower curve to the drive exit thus giving the space needed to use it properly.
That way you can empathise with the old dear and tell her you have also asked the council for help because you are concerned for her bit of grass that isn't hers.
Might take her back a bit and then you can join forces against the council.
The council (ie the taxpayer) still has to pay for it.
Well, they won't have to mow it so it's probably cost neutral.
This thread needs pics of the strret, parking opposite and bit of grass your clipping.
Then you'll get some useful feedback.
Take the initiative with the council and ask them to round off the verge?
Sounds like it's badly designed from the start and this will eliminate the problem / future maintenance.
Meanwhile, over on Mumsnet, you're the inconsiderate asshole neighbour who built a shed without permission and has a big daft van that he can't drive properly. (-:
Would reversing onto the drive (like THC tells you to) not solve the problem?
I read it that the OP is reversing onto the drive and the issue is when then rear wheels are cutting the corner when exiting the drive.
Ah, perhaps. I'd read it as though the rear wheels come out first, but you might well be right.
Come out of the drive, hook a slight left before actually turning right to position yourself further over? (Or vice versa if it's a left-hander ofc.) Or a bit of a shimmy with reverse maybe?
Bloody hell Cougar he wants to come out of his drive not do vehicle synchronised gymnastics for 2 hours! 😆
L2DRIV N00B!!1!
I second sending her flowers. Fill them full of really angry bees first though 😈
There must be a way of getting on and off the drive without driving over the verge. Forward a bit, back a bit etc. I have to do that because people park on the double yellows across from my drive. Takes a bit longer is all.
When a car parks opposite theres no way I can get my van off the drive without hooking a right before my rear wheels are on eithdr the tarmac path or road. Left is even narrower. It looks worse now as it's winter.
I'm reversing onto my drive.
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I can see why that might annoy her.
To contradict myself; what if you went in forwards?