Neighbours parking in our spaces problem

build a garage/carport on the land and get H line across the doors!

I’m not proud of this

Yes you are 🙂

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

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’.

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.

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.

For petrol money and a *few pints of Guinness Iäll happily come over and shit on your neighbour’s windscreens whenever they park in your space. 😀

*This may need to be had in advance. 😉

Coupled with

Ought to get the message across…

going against a decade of previously amicable and orderly cooperation between neighbours

erm the original landowner who previously agreed this isn’t there anymore. I agreed with my landlord that I can keep a herd of cattle in my rented accommodation if a new landlord buys the property do I say “well the last landlord let me keep my cows in the front room so don’t you be an arse about it”?

It’s silly. Has to be handled with care due to it being a problem revolving around cars which as we all know everyone gets touchy as **** about, but the OP does have a valid point.

I bought a house just over a year ago, it’s the last house down a cul de sac, so it has the benefit of a massive corner plot with parking for 6 cars. The other houses have shared drives for 2 cars and there are all kinds of problems.

My house had been empty for 18 months and next door neighbour had been parking on what was to become my drive. I made it very clear to him that I was happy for him to keep parking their UNTIL I MOVED IN, as it made the property look occupied, but as soon as I took ownership, this wouldn’t be necessary.

I did it in a polite but assertive way and it didn’t cause any aggro. However, I had plenty of even firmer lines ‘rehearsed’ in case he’d dug his heels in.

I know how easy it is to be cowed by others, especially when you’re the new kid on the block and you want to appear to be everyone’s mate. But if they’re spoiling the enjoyment of your own property, you have to nip it in the bud. Be Mr Nice Guy once they’ve stopped using YOUR property.

You have three choices really

Talk to them and try and work something out
Enforce your ownership and prevent them parking there
Offer to sell them the land or let them rent the spaces

Everything else is just waffle.

Well if the OP wants his relationship with his new neighbours to be that of a landlord/tenant, and be universally despised by everyone, then yes he should put signs up, bollards, send letters etc. Or he can choose to let it lie, get to know his neighbours on an equal footing and perhaps in time gain some valuable new friends. I know which one I’d choose.

Gaining some valuable new friends?

😀

Daz, reread his original post. They don’t give a monkeys about becoming valuable friends, all they’re bothered about is p*ssing against trees!

Shibboleth – Member

Daz, reread his original post. They don’t give a monkeys about becoming valuable friends, all they’re bothered about is p*ssing against trees!

No. they’re reacting as most people would when informed by the ‘new bloke’ of a change of circumstance that they’d always just taken for granted for a decade, and they’d never really given any thought too.

And as Daz is suggesting, if the next thing they notice are bollards cones, letters, and legal notices getting thrown around then every single one of them will think the ‘new bloke’ is an utter ****!!!

Like Daz, I’d sort my priorities out, chill the **** out, and not listen to the utter cobblers being spouted on this thread. I reckon that’d be an awful lot better for a quiet life in the long run

Well now I have a list of who wont mind if I need somewhere to park a caravan, dump stuff on their drive etc.

My neighbour said “Sure, no problem at all, just give me the nod when you’re moving in.” He respected my ownership.

These twunts have basically said it’s communal, which doesn’t respect the OP’s ownership at all!

Are you able to see that difference binners? I’m not suggesting bollards – they’re a last resort. I’m suggesting firmly asserting his ownership and letting them know what concessions/permissions he’s prepared to grant.

When we moved into our new house (new build) we had this problem. We live on a development of 5 houses, 4 of which have a space allocated opposite the houses. The adjoining neighbour had often used our space on and off for visitors before our property had been occupied and this continued after we bought the place.

If you are interested this is the layout, it was a concern for us, but we wanted the house so compromised

http://www.planning4bradford.com/online-applications/files/5F351FC84A1A62A119575E12716DDEE2/pdf/09_06173_FUL-AMENDED_PROPOSED_SITE_PLAN-976973.pdf

We just told them to move each time we found them there and then sent an email to all the residents asking them not to use our space.

We still have a good relationship with them all and no one uses our space anymore, still it was a bit bloody annoying at first.

Just nip it in the bud now, they might kick up a bit of a fuss now but it will all be fine a year down the line:

😆

I need to see a photo of this said land….

Just change the parking spaces into flower beds ?

That PH linky was a joy to read. Thanks retro. 5-tonne tow rope, was it?

Hmmm… I want to keep my parking spaces available for me and my family to park in, so I’m gonna turn them into flower beds? Genius! 😀

Awkward situation bol and you have my sympathies. But as always in these cases, you need to start with the correct legal understanding. Ensure that everyone knows what the legal situation is and that this is respected. From there, you (and you alone) can decide on how accommodating you would like to be regarding how they may use your property. If you ignore this, your rights will be ignored as will your helpfulness /generosity….even worse, it may be argued that you are giving consent which could give lawyers room to play silly games if it came to that in the future.

They are the ones who are being (slightly) unreasonable here, not you. Play it by the book – its the first rule in these situations, especially with friends and neighbours. They will still be friends and neighbours afterwards, if not then you probably wouldn’t want friends like that anyway.

Thanks everyone. Blimey, what a response! A really broad range of useful suggestions – and some more erm, interesting ones. And some useful perspective. At least no one has dumped a Vectra in one of the spaces.

I think I’ll have a quick chat with the conveyancer who managed the purchase to make sure we’re on firm ground and then write a friendly but firm letter and see how it goes. Unfortunately I think we’re past the friendly chat stage with a couple of them, but hopefully we’ll be able to pull that back. No issue at all with the others.

Bloke in bottom left hand corner: “piss off out of me parking space, you ratbag, Tony”

Give them the guilt trip in your letter. Stress that you wanted a friendly solution but the actions of some have made you go down a more formal route, although you still want everything to remain amicable.

They’ll know deep down that they’ve not got a leg to stand on, so as long as you’re seen as being the nicest, fairest Mr Nice Guy ever, they’ll come round. Good luck!

and the rest of them trying to cut him in half with a car door!

send the letter with a bottle of wine/ can of Red Stripe or a box of chocolates/ Mars Bar, thanking them for their understanding.

Or sit and drink all the wine and red stripe, then sit in the middle of the street at about midnight, surrounded by empty cans, and read the letter out really, really loudly while randomly shaking your fist at all their houses in turn. Then wee on any of the cars in your parking spaces

They’ll know deep down that they’ve not got a leg to stand on, so as long as you’re seen as being the nicest, fairest Mr Nice Guy ever, they’ll come round.

Sadly I fear that whilst they’ll be ‘friendly’ to his face, the real feeling will be one of seething resentment of the ‘who does he think he is?’ variety. All over a car parking space 🙄

Good luck to the OP. Hope you manage to mend those damaged bridges.

Sadly I fear that whilst they’ll be ‘friendly’ to his face, the real feeling will be one of seething resentment of the ‘who does he think he is?’ variety. All over a car parking space
Good luck to the OP. Hope you manage to mend those damaged bridges.

The problem is, the op didn’t start the damage. When you try to be amicable and have it thrown back in your face, what would you do?

Alternatively, please can you buy some land for me so I can park my car on it?

Binners bang on their door and say move your **** car now would work better. That way they wouldnt dare retaliate. Talk politely and theyll laugh/plan funny revenge acts.

Such are people.

Sell or rent them the space. If they don’t want it, rent them on rent my driveway.com orsomething.

slowoldgit – Member

That PH linky was a joy to read. Thanks retro. 5-tonne tow rope, was it?

Alas, it was not me, just a thread I remembered.

HOIras apprach needs added cowboy boots for his pure menace look
That said he is right. Banging on your neighbours door really loudly and then swearing aggressively is almost always the solution to issues with your neighbours….I me an who does not respond well to that 😕

Depends tbh

My neighbour parks at the side of my house – technically neither of us should park there but he has decided we share it for some reason known only to him- though he goes ape of someone parks outside his house on the road

To force the issue would mean to fall out with an otherwise reasonable and sound neighbour so i dont bother forcing the issue – that said parking is not a massive problem tbh and he goes mental about it

I guess the issue is do you want friendly neighbours or a parking space

Compromise one space as shared one as off limits??

not read thread beyond OP so sorry if allready mentioned

not read thread beyond OP

😆