Help! Parking Crazy - Inconsiderate neighbors, anything I can do?

Off-topic
1

I suppose before I begin I should paint a picture.

I live on quiet residential road with terraced housing, I have a driveway with a dropped kerb, there are two school’s within close proximity to my house, cars are permitted to partially park on the pavement where a parking space is marked out.

Cars can be parked either side of the road and which means there is just space for one car to drive in either direction.

My issue is with people parking large cars that go beyond the marked parking spaces and therefore across our driveway, in some instances a whole metre across our driveway which means a whole metre across a dropped kerb - this doesn’t block our car in but it’s a nightmare when trying to reverse out as we cannot see any oncoming traffic, just a few days ago we narrowly avoided reversing into a cyclist because our view was being restricted by a large white van, the cyclist was also unable to see our car reversing until we were out on the road.

We have been able to tolerate this for a while now however recently our neighbor from across the road has been given a new van, a Mercedes Sprinter that is about 7 metres in length, much taller and longer than a normal Transit van, I would compare it to a small lorry.

This problem neighbor has three vehicles, a Polo which is usually parked on his driveway, a Corsa which is usually parked in front of his driveway and the massive white van that is never parked in front of their house - they clearly don’t like it being parked in front of their house so why park it in front of someone else’s?! My biggest gripe with this is that there are parking spaces slightly further down the road that are not in front of anyone’s house.

I thought I would wait for the offending neighbor to once again park in front of my driveway before confronting him, which I did, I then very politely showed him that he was 60 cm across my driveway, he apologised, said nothing else, was not interested in much chit chat and moved it from the space, however this only lasted a couple of days and he is doing it again.

Reading on various other forums I don’t think we have much to stand on apart from

[]He is parking beyond marked parking spaces - probably my only real legal challenge?
[]He is parking partially across our driveway and partially on a dropped kerb - usually half a metre across the dropped kerb and driveway.
[]Van is too large for a small residential road? Not likely to get me anywhere but surely adds to the case?
[]Cars blocking field of vision when reversing - possibly dangerous with two schools nearby?

Is there anything I can? Would my next course of action be to contact the local council, seek legal advice or call the police/traffic wardens?

Edit:

Forgot to add, I have recently been parking in the available spots next to my driveway to deter him, however he always seems to get the other parking space, I was hesitant to do this as I have several elderly neighbors who need parking near their house and did not want to hinder them.

Please see the below picture for a better understanding of my driveway and the street.

dqj77m.jpg1023×680

vnfdix.jpg1023×680

2

Call the council wardens to ticket the vehicles. They can and will ticket them :slight_smile:

3

You can report vehicles outside of the permitted boxes to the local council who will be more than willing to issue a pcn to the offending vehicles.
Is the vehicle signwriten with a company’s details as you could phone/email the company with the registration number as they would not want one of their vehicles obstructing someone’s driveway.
That’s the legal ways suggested,I’m sure someone will be along soon to guide you in the less scrupulous ways soon

4

From the Traffic Management Act 2004 Part 6:

86 Prohibition of parking at dropped footways etc.

(1) In a special enforcement area a vehicle must not be parked on the carriageway adjacent to a footway, cycle track or verge where—
(a) the footway, cycle track or verge has been lowered to meet the level of the carriageway for the purpose of—
(i) assisting pedestrians crossing the carriageway,
(ii) assisting cyclists entering or leaving the carriageway, or
(iii) assisting vehicles entering or leaving the carriageway across the footway, cycle track or verge; or
( the carriageway has, for a purpose within paragraph (a)(i) to (iii), been raised to meet the level of the footway, cycle track or verge.
This is subject to the following exceptions.
(2) The first exception is where the vehicle is parked wholly within a designated parking place or any other part of the carriageway where parking is specifically authorised.
A “designated parking place” means a parking place designated by order under section 6, 9, 32(1)( or 45 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (c. 27).
(3) The second exception is where the vehicle is parked outside residential premises by or with the consent (but not consent given for reward) of the occupier of the premises.
This exception does not apply in the case of a shared driveway.
(4) The third exception is where the vehicle is being used for fire brigade, ambulance or police purposes.
(5) The fourth exception is where—
(a) the vehicle is being used for the purposes of delivering goods to, or collecting goods from, any premises, or is being loaded from or unloaded to any premises,
( the delivery, collection, loading or unloading cannot reasonably be carried out in relation to those premises without the vehicle being parked as mentioned in subsection (1), and
© the vehicle is so parked for no longer than is necessary and for no more than 20 minutes.
(6) The fifth exception is where—
(a) the vehicle is being used in connection with any of the following—
(i) undertaking any building operation, demolition or excavation,
(ii) the collection of waste by a local authority,
(iii) removing an obstruction to traffic,
(iv) undertaking works in relation to a road, a traffic sign or road lighting, or
(v) undertaking works in relation to a sewer or water main or in relation to the supply of gas, electricity, water or communications services,
( it cannot be so used without being parked as mentioned in subsection (1), and
© it is so parked for no longer than is necessary.
(7) In this section “carriageway”, “cycle track” and “footway” have the meanings given by section 329(1) of the Highways Act 1980 (c. 66).
(8) References in this section to parking include waiting, but do not include stopping where—
(a) the driver is prevented from proceeding by circumstances beyond his control or it is necessary for him to stop to avoid an accident, or
( the vehicle is stopped, for no longer than is necessary, for the purpose of allowing people to board or alight from it.
(9) The prohibition in this section is enforceable as if imposed—
(a) in Greater London, by an order under section 6 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (c. 27),
( elsewhere in England and Wales, by an order under section 1 of that Act.

5

dqj77m.jpg1023×680

That’s a nightmare! I could never live with so many cars outside like this.

Maybe you can take photographs over a few weeks, and call the local traffic control in the council to come and give him tickets when he does it. Then submit the photographs as evidence of repeated infractions?

A warden can only give a ticket there and then. Time it well when he’s doing it.

You’re a decent neighbour, but someone with three cars isn’t think about the neighbours. Maybe he runs a business and capitalises on the parking spaces, or has tenants who enable him to have 3 spaces?

You may have to start reversing into your space, so that you can see the way out, and use your horn (to waken everyone not) to warn cyclists when you are pulling out. One advantage of being on a motorcycle …forward facing, you can see traffic and cyclists go out left and right.

It looks like a hard situation to resolve.

6

We had similar issues.

Called the council after leaving notes on cars and knocking on doors politely asking them to move their cars.

Since then all has been fine.

Call the council, otherwise if it’s considered as an obstruction you can also call the police

7

Police will do feck all. Try with council. I just bought big 4×4 sort of monster truck, big bull bars and solid side and back steps, couple times I left polite note " do not park here it will cost ya". Not huge response till I made space on my own. :wink: They keep cars well away from my driveway now.

8

I would take a more direct approach- just knock on the door every time he does it, stay polite and don’t antagonise him.
More than likely he’ll get the message, get sick of you hassling him and park elsewhere.
If he doesn’t then I would look at getting the council onto him but you will probably ave more success with the former provided you do it right.

9

Council. They will ticket him. He will get the message… You have tried the polite method already.

10

Why not reverse your car onto your drive that way you can see better when you have to leave so not potentially causing an accident that will inevitably be down to you not the neighbour that parked incorrectly?

I would knock on the guys door and explain calmly that his inability to park sensibly is causing you an issue and ask that he tries to sort his parking out.
If he fails to understand then call the council and maybe get a nice double yellow line painted across the drive, allowing a warden to pcn him everytime.

11

have a poo. drop it on his bonnet. i think that would help enforcing your disappointment with his parking skills.

12

13

You don’t need yellow lines to ticket. 1m from the curb is enough to ticket :slight_smile:

14

yes good point, get artistic on his van that also should help with your argument :smiley:

15

Communicate the problems you’re experiencing to your neighbours, although you could help yourself a little too

Park to go - Reverse onto your drive when you come home and help yourself, you’ll find it far easier to reverse in than out.Politely inform your neighbours how you feel about the parking situation, do a leaflet drop if you feel it appropriate or, that it will better get the message across.Also inform your neighbours that if the situation doesn’t improve you’ll have no other recourse than to approach the Council with the problem.If the situation doesn’t resolve itself approach the Council.
Don’t get artistic on your neighbours vehicles unless you’re prepared to pay the Court fines, comply with the ASBO or, go head to head in an all out assault with your neighbours.

Don’t do anything unless you’re prepared to ultimately report the problem to the Council.

Warning - Reporting the problem to the Council will escalate the situation to official Neighbour Dispute status and as such will need to be declared to any prospective purchasers should you put your house on the market during the next five years. The worse case scenario, should it come to light after the completion of any sale that there was an undisclosed Dispute, is you could find yourself having to re-imburse the buyers with the purchase price plus their legal fees, removal expenses etc.

16

I had the same issue for a while in my previous place . I found that waking the badly parked neighbour up at times between 2am and 5am to move the car /van soon made the convenience of parking outweigh the inconvenience of waking up at that time in the morning . Sometimes I did it and then didn’t even go anywhere just went back to Call of duty on the playstation :smiley:

17

I’ve got a dropped curb to my garage. I’ve twice called the council when cars have parked across it. Both times the cars have had parking fines put on their screens within the hour. On the second occasion, the offending car was about to be towed, but the driver came out and started arguing. The driver moved the car, but still had to pay the fine.

18

When phoning the Council don’t phone the Councils main switchboard number, phone the Parking Services number. In most Councils you’ll usually be in the right department that handles the Parking Enforcement too for a quick response from a Parking Enforcement officer that hasn’t hit his quota yet. Remember too if at first you don’t get a Parking Enforcement Officer to attend then try, try and try again. Each time you phone the Council logs the complaint, it won’t take too long for it to appear as if there is a major city parking issue :wink:

19

Sorry but can’t be bothered to read the whole thread so not sure if this has been mentioned.

Is the van a Livered Van? if so contact his compan and complain? i work for BT and when i used to be an Engineer i had a complaint about how my van was parked and i was told that i had to park it elsewhere staright away, if it’s a good company they will not want possible customer dissatisfaction due to employee parking.

20

We have similar issues, we have a dropped kerb, and often vans parked up tightly on both sides of the road. They can legally park on a dropped kerb if there are no other road markings so long as they are not blocking any vehicles in on the drive. We always reverse into our drive as others have suggested, makes it much safer pulling out when looking for pedestrians and other road users as well. Perhaps fit some parking sensors if you don’t already have them. I’d also be contacting the council, they should have a specific person who deals with enforcement and can send out the wardens or camera van. I’ve been in contact with mine after getting fed up of idiot parents crap parking and trying to reverse into me on the school run and a kid being run over outside the school gates. Have a search on your local council website.