I think your neighbours are being dicks. If I was one of the neighbours, I’d [i]never[/i] automatically assume I could merrily carry on parking on somebody else’s property – the arrangement was with the previous owner. I’d be expecting the arrangement to stop as soon as the house was sold to a new owner.
The only reasons I can think of for their reluctance is a) they genuinely don’t know/believe that it’s your property, and think it’s communal, b) they’ve put on their insurance that’s where they regularly park, or my original theory, c) they’re just being overly entitled douche canoes.
You’re not being unreasonable in wanting your visiting friends and family to be able to park conveniently on the property you own. A possible compromise could be that you let them park as they are doing, but make sure you get cones out if you’re expecting guests. And if they’ve parked without asking and you have guests, block them in. 😛
Or get a Jaime Smirking Bollard(TM).
Last time I managed to get the council to stick a letter on the previous one saying it would be towed in 14 days, 13 days, 23hrs and 59 secs later it was moved, then immediately replaced with the above! Very annoying.
What do you mean about taking ownership, as in getting them to take responsibility? Have tried reporting the untaxed vehicle route with no joy.
Currently there is a decrepit Vectra rotting away in the space, untaxed, no doubt uninsured but DVLA, council, police and housing authority are totally uninterested as its not in anyones way except mine...
A note saying 5 days to move it or it will be moved. If it has been gifted to you then no problem just get it dragged onto the street.
A tow rope and drag it. Then report it. Good idea.
On the flipside, I've got a weird one. We live in a tiny close- the road is very narrow. All the houses in the turning circle at the end have no parking just their drives. when I moved in I was told by a neighbour that the space infront of my house was mine (inc my drive). I STILL feel slightly embarrased as I only have one car but NO ONE parks in that spot so (slightly embarrased) I use that space. Its like an unspoken rule. Any visitors jumble up but no one parks in mine or the space next to it.
Nothing queerer than folk.
Not sure setting fire to it would gain the result Im after! I considered the moving it into the street option but the spaces are about 30 degrees downward slope so its a tough ask for a car with its handbrake on!
Sorry for hi-jacking OP, if you have a single offender Id definitely go round and just mention to them that you use the spaces on a regular, ad-hoc basis and you would appreciate it if they could leave them available for your visitors otherwise you may have to take steps to prevent them parking there. It could easily spiral out of control and just become a headache for you in your new place.
Get someone to unlock it and roll it into the street, locksmith shouldn't have any problems unlocking it as it is on your land.
Ask them if they'd like to rent the space.
I'd just put up bollards Tbh. It's your land. If they get miffed at it that's tough luck.
The curtain twitching, Daily Mail-esque passive aggression on this thread is amazing 😀
Could you not get someone impartial in to listen to both sides, then make constructive suggestions on how to resolve the situation
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park on their gardens, badly, they'll soon learn its not cool to park on other people's land.
OP, why not convert the spaces into another use? If they aren't parking spaces anymore nobody can park there.
Go the bollard route - the only way.
I'm with Phil, park on their land and see how they like. Be obvious too eg: Use their drive for your own vehicle
Best to set the tone immediately when moving house!!
Get someone to unlock it and roll it into the street, locksmith shouldn't have any problems unlocking it as it is on your land.
Good point. Its on your land. Have you reported it as abandoned to your council?
Take ownership? Does this help? http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_4900041_claim-ownership-abandoned-vehicle.html
OP, why not convert the spaces into another use? If they aren't parking spaces anymore nobody can park there.
TBH apart from your visitors I agree.
OP, why not convert the spaces into another use? If they aren't parking spaces anymore nobody can park there.
Good thinking! And increase both your property value, and status with a desirable asset you can lord over the neighbours. They hate you by now anyway, so why not? 😀
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Tear up the space an plant it with trees and shrubs.
How has this got to 2 pages without anyone suggesting the OP just backs off and lets them park there? It's only a car parking space. If it's only going to be used for visitors then it's hardly a massive inconvenience for them to park somewhere else and walk a few extra yards. Seems like a stupid thing to fall out with the neighbours over, especially as he's just moved in and needs to be making friends not enemies.
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i kinda agree dazh, but this is the internet goddammit and if ever there's a place to suggest the things you wish you had the guts to do in real life its here 😀
personally i'd go round each neighbours house, chose the most attractive female and get to nobbin' right there and then... after all, it's fine for them to use your property, so use there's as you wish. whilst you're there make some coffee and put a load of washing on... maybe run the tumble dryer empty for an hour. leave the hot taps running and have a nice kip in the master bedroom after 🙂
OP can only lose, it's now a given, the norm, all the neighbours think that they have a right to park there. I seriously doubt they feel any goodwill toward OP for merely maintaining the status quo.How do you think any of those things are all going to play to a wider audience? All of whom are your immediate neighbours, who you need to bump along with on a daily basis? And who's goodwill you might be requiring at some indeterminate point in the future?
as a race we really are pretty ****** up aren't we?Last time I managed to get the council to stick a letter on the previous one saying it would be towed in 14 days, 13 days, 23hrs and 59 secs later it was moved, then immediately replaced with the above! Very annoying.
I'd be miffed. If they need extra parking, buy somewhere with enough parking 🙂 some people are inconsiderate gits, it's your land tell them to bog off 😀
I have piss-taking neighbours. I wouldn't give them an inch because they will take a yard. They obviously don't care about your goodwill.
OP can only lose, it's now a given, the norm, all the neighbours think that they have a right to park there. I seriously doubt they feel any goodwill toward OP for merely maintaining the status quo.
True. But they probably won't key his car either
if they are parked on your drive ...go park on their front lawn
alternately land mines are the only option here im afraid
I used to live in a street where there was a Moron with a New Mercedes SL. He was such a moron he took a photo of his new car and framed it and had it on his living room wall (yes he was single). Anyway, he used to get so angry if you parked outside his house as it was his parking space apparently (public road, no designated parking).
Parking seems to be such a big issue with some people, you need to be assertive and stop all parking there.
I would just try and have a calm word saying that you don't mind them parking there occasionally but not all the time. Crazy eh?
Is there no nearby street parking? Are some of your visitors not very mobile? Otherwise it's really not a big deal IMO.
couple of fold-down bollards/security posts from Ebay/Toolstation/Screwfix is what I'd be doing....
Best to nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand, and you end up with them dumping some SORN'd wreck on your property, or parking their new caravan on it for 49 weeks a year.
I'm not proud of this but where I used to live people used to regularly put out cones. I'm not talking one or two infront of their drive, I'm talking enough to cover the space behind them too- almost out of spite (on Man U match days nearby) anyway I got tired of driving home to find these so one day I just parked (Subaru Forester) ontop of two. Mrshora told me off 😐
Anyway, he used to get so angry if you parked outside his house as it was his parking space apparently (public road, no designated parking).
I had in an old house this with the prat next door and his over-washed and over-waxed [s]Jaguar X-type[/s] Ford Mondeo. I took great delight after he'd tried (and failed) to tell me how the bit of the A675 outside was [i]his[/i] in either parking in his space for the sake of it, or leaving him less than an inch to manoeuvre out of the space.
Neither big nor clever I accept, but it definitely ruined his life considerably more than mine
I got tired of driving home to find these so one day I just parked (Subaru Forester) ontop of two.
In my last student house, there were a couple of houses that did the cone thing on our street. Clearly they'd never been aware of drunk students' affinity for traffic cones. We had quite a collection after three years, and parking was considerably easier too 😀
Dear God! Some people on here have really missed their true calling of a career in international diplomacy. Let me come and sort out your neighbourly dispute 😆
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signage is what is needed:
1) Free parking - open
2) Free parking - closed
3) Free parking - almost full
4) Free parking - £1 an hour
5) GERROFF MOI LAAAAAAND!
my parents had this with someone at the house they rent out - using the space saying it was "theirs" when it clearly wasnt.
The guy was a nut job too - started sending round threats to break my mothers legs - in the form of signing us up for loads of mobility scooter/stair lift postal junk mail.
Can't remember exactly what happened in the end but my mother didn't budge and inch and regularly spoke to him (and his even nuttier girlfrien) face to face. Think the heavies were sent round in the end.
All is good now.
They've already been unreasonable by not respecting your ownership and your right to say who parks on YOUR land.
Problem is, numpties like this hear about things like adverse possession, assumed rights, easements etc and think they'll find a law to suit their needs. Rubbish.
Even adverse possession is very difficult, and that's a very black and white concept - they have to 'deprive' the rightful owner of access for 12 years (IIRC), so they'd have to fence it off in a way that meant that only they had access to it.
In this situation, there is no possible law, or rights, legal or moral to allow them to use the land. The land was conveyed to you and your ownership is now enshrined in law.
Be firm, but polite. They're not bothered about your friendship, otherwise they wouldn't have been arsey about it. All they're bothered about is where they park their cars.
As a way of appeasing them, I'd offer (in writing) the use of the furthest and least useful parking space, on say weekday evenings, never weekends, and they must be available to move the car if you need the space. I'd say that's more than neighbourly under the circumstances.
treaclesponge - MemberLast time I managed to get the council to stick a letter on the previous one saying it would be towed in 14 days, 13 days, 23hrs and 59 secs later it was moved, then immediately replaced with the above! Very annoying.
What do you mean about taking ownership, as in getting them to take responsibility? Have tried reporting the untaxed vehicle route with no joy.
Find someone with a tow rope...This cheeky barsteward abandoned this heap on somebody's driveway.
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[url= http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=10&t=873132&mid=235096&i=80&nmt=Can+I+legally+drag+somebody+elses+car+off+my+drive%3F&mid=235096 ]Thread[/url]
As a way of appeasing them, I'd offer (in writing) the use of the furthest and least useful parking space, on say weekday evenings, never weekends, and they must be available to move the car if you need the space. I'd say that's more than neighbourly under the circumstances.
Not being funny, but if someone moved into my street and started sending official letters asserting their property rights going against a decade of previously amicable and orderly cooperation between neighbours then I'd tell them where they could go. Yes, in law they may be right, but it takes more than property deeds and official correspondence to live in peaceful coexistence with your neighbours.
Not being funny, but if someone moved into my street and started sending official letters asserting their property rights going against a decade of previously amicable and orderly cooperation between neighbours then I'd tell them where they could go.
Feel free, but:
Yes, in law they may be right
would be your problem
build a garage/carport on the land and get H line across the doors!
Yes you are 🙂I'm not proud of this
Not being funny, but if someone moved into my street and started sending official letters asserting their property rights going against a decade of previously amicable and orderly cooperation between neighbours then I'd tell them where they could go.
He's already tried having a polite word and they've made it clear that they feel they have a right to park there. The OP needs to assert his ownership and the fact that he's being more than fair in letting them have limited use of the space.
A politely worded letter leaves no room for ambiguity, or opportunity for them to brow beat him - which is what it sounds like happened when he challenged the grand daughter.
As I said, they're only bothered about the parking, they clearly value it more than good neighbourly relations. So keep everything formal but polite, and on the record.
As I and Shibboleth mostly said ^ anything you do will be seen as you trying to compromise (i.e. a sign of weakness) and put you on the backfoot.
Firm and polite. Its their problem if they take offence about being asked to move off someones property. REGARDLESS of where the property is and what the last owner did/said.
You'll always be on the backfoot if you come across as 'trying to help'.
Have you considered the Israeli approach. Start with this
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Then over the coming months, periodically cut off their water and electricity supply, block the road so they can't get in and out, then start annexing their gardens, one by one 😀
JUST BLOODY TALK TO THEM 😆
Amazed at some of the replies on here. Is it common practice for neighbours to invoke property deeds, send letters etc over something as trivial as a parking space? Seems a bit bizarre to me. If I sent my next door neighbour a letter about something like this I'd have to move just to avoid the relentless p*ss-taking and crushing embarrassment of it all.
It seem the phrase about Englishmen and their castles has never been more true.
Amazed at some of the replies on here. Is it common practice for neighbours to invoke property deeds, send letters etc over something as trivial as a parking space? Seems a bit bizarre to me. If I sent my next door neighbour a letter about something like this I'd have to move just to avoid the relentless p*ss-taking and crushing embarrassment of it all.
Indeed. But the bottom line is that none of these keyboard warriors would actually do a bloody thing! They'd just sit there getting more bitter and resentful at society, while wondering why they've got no friends, and everyone else seems much happier, and seems to be having a lot more fun than them 😆
Stuck in the middle with this. I think it's fair play that you assert your right over the asset you have just bought. Presumably the price you paid reflected the ample parking it came with. If the parking was arranged in a more conventional manner (up a long drive to your house) other(normal) people wouldn't dream of using just using it without permission.
But.....asserting your right then not actively using it 99.9% of the time in this particular circumstance (its location and past history) is going to make you look a cock - it just is. You might have total right to be a bit narky (I would be) but that's not how it'll come over. You need to find a constant use for it all the time for the short to medium term. Park your own cars on it and leave your drive free, find a friend who needs a home for their caravan/camper, put a skip on it, buy a 'restoration project' (read piece of shit) car for £50 and park it there for 6 months. Use the time to change the habits and expectations of the neighbours, show you have a need for the space and that it was one of the reasons you bought the house. In time when you 'withdraw the blockade' their habits will have changed by physical presence rather than just 'rules'.
For all you know the previous owners may have been bullied by the neighbours into this "amicable" arrangement, or they were just laid back or genuinely didn't need the spaces (unlike OP). It certainly sounds like the neighbours are taking the piss and have a sense of entitlement now. If they wanted to own the parking spaces they could have bought the property. But they didn't, they just wanted to use them. For free.Not being funny, but if someone moved into my street and started sending official letters asserting their property rights going against a decade of previously amicable and orderly cooperation between neighbours then I'd tell them where they could go. Yes, in law they may be right, but it takes more than property deeds and official correspondence to live in peaceful coexistence with your neighbours.
