Donate SIGN UP

Parking Access to Home

Avatar Image
danroll | 16:56 Fri 26th Oct 2007 | Law
10 Answers
My question is regarding my parking rights to my home.

Let me set the scene...

I have just bought a house (end terrace) that is on a side street from the main road, my house is the furthest away from the street. The side road that I live on has only a row of three terraced houses on one side and nothing on the other. There is no off road parking for any of the residents living here and the road itself is only wide enough for a row of cars parked over to one side, allowing me access all the way to the end.

The problem I'm having is parking my car outside my own property. There is a very logical system we could use: if the first two residents parked their cars over to the right when they came in, I could drive my car to the end, leaving both the other drivers ample room to get out again in the morning and giving me a straight line to reverse out onto the main road.

Unfortunately, my next door neighbour has other ideas. Because 'he was there first' he is insisting on parking his car in the middle outside my house (requiring me to knock and ask him to move it) or over to the left. Because the opposite-end resident is parking over to the right this means I have to try and manoeuvre my car around both of theirs (which is risky and there isn't really room for this).

Do I have any rights to stop him preventing me from gaining access to my property. or will I simply have to put up with an awkward neighbour??

This is driving me crazy!

Thanks in advance.
Gravatar

Answers

1 to 10 of 10rss feed

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by danroll. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
The short answer is no.

You do not have the right to park outside your house - neither does your neighbour.

As long as parking is not restricted by law, the householder has no more rights to park on the road outside his own property than anybody else. It is the public highway.

This could start an ongoing battle, that could make your life a misery with a very awkward and hostile neighbour.
I hope you are able to sort it amicably.
As far as I can see there are no "Parking rights", no legal situation exists no one owns the road outside their house. If I was you I'd fight fire with fire, just park out side your awkward neighbours house whenever you can. When he moans offer to cooperate then suggest your plan above in fact it may be that they are not aware of your idea to help everyone, can you arrange a meeting to discuss. Generally cooperation is better than conflict.
Question Author
the guy is well aware of my idea. when i have been round on numerous occasions requesting he move his car he gives me an annoying little smile followed by "oh sorry mate, i didn't realise it would be in your way".

i was toying with the idea of parking behind his car preventing him from getting out in the morning (he leaves the house a good 1 1/2 hours before me) and making him wait until i'm ready to go before moving off.

to be honest though, this would make the guy considerably late for work and i don't think two wrongs make a right... do you?
No but people do not respond when they do not see that they are being a pain unless it hurts them too.

It's like noisy neighbours, they keep you awake late, right well at some point they need to sleep. That's when you put you rstereo on full blast! when they complain you strike a deal, Tada! works every time. Same with parking, they may think you are being unreasonable but if you park up his backside stopping him from moving a couple of times, cooperation is assured. The world is full of ********* it's just knowing how to deal with them!
If he is a persistant offender then park up his jacksie and go off for a long wekend with a car owning mate! Fair's fair, he knows it is causing a problem my sister used to live next to a parking nutter :they are a shocking sub section of humanity!
If there is a mediation service in your area (local authority or CAB may know) then it would be better to try that, as a means of hopefully solving the problem without too much aggro. It would depend on your neighbour being willing to go into mediation, but if he refuses you still have the more drastic options already suggested.

Or does he have a wife/partner who is more reasonable and might be able to talk sense into him if you could discuss it with her?
It would appear that the guy is knowingly being a pain in the proverbial. I would park elswhere and go and get the car at inconvinient times late/early he might learn then, As said above he is enjoying it until it starts to inconvinience him.
If doing the trick of blocking him in and making him late, use a scrapper car in case he trys to shunt it out of the way.
You could try pointing out that emergency vehicles would find it very difficult getting to his and your property if needed.
Could you not invite all your neighbours into your house for a glass of wine and say you want to discuss a specific issue (but not tell them what it is until they arrive)
Then you could outline your parking problems in an amicable atmosphere and hopefully agree a common parking policy which all of you could try and adhere to. Then if you've all agreed it together and he doesn'['t conform, eveyrbody will know that he's the person causing the problem. Sometimes mutual pressure like this from your peers is enough to keep people in order.
Your best answer it to practice your parking techniques so that you can park in the smallest possible gap that you can. Your neighbour will then see you parking in these ridiculously small gaps close to his car and the worry will tranfer to him, alternatively get home before he does. Parking it's a nightmare.

1 to 10 of 10rss feed

Do you know the answer?

Parking Access to Home

Answer Question >>