Am I being a knob (parking related content)

If you own the land then no, you're not being a knob. Probably not worth going to war over though. A polite word with the offenders, reminding them that it's your land and that you'd prefer it if they asked first before using it.

You're not being a knob, approach them, but pre-empt it with "I don't mean to sound like a prick, but..."

Time to start building a rockery, planting trees, resurfacing, whatever.  Get folk out of the habit.

Stick some planters around it to have it blocked...after a few months let neighbours know the spaces will be cleared but they need to ask before abandoning their cars there.
Or stick a sign up saying you'll charge for parking - flat fee of £2.50 per hour, with a camera (that may or may not be active).

I hate bad manners and the fact they aren't asking annoys me, but it is more the not asking.

Slightly odd wording… are you talking about a front garden… or is this somehow separate from the rest of your property? Either way, if you don’t actually need the space for parking, put up a little picket fence or similar & turn it into a nature garden. The ecosystem wins, plus you get to look out into something nice rather than builders vans 😂

If you've asked and they've ignored, either buy some bangers to park there or install some posts (removable ones).

I don't think you need to worry about being the unreasonable one!

Devil's advocate: is there any signage to say that it's private land?

I don’t think you sound unreasonable. I have no legal knowledge whatsoever - but my only concern is that if people treat it as communal property for years, then it might be hard for any future owners to undo the ‘laissez-faire’. (Not sure I explained that well?).

If it’s your land stick your cars on it, or buy an old caravan and pop that on there.

Or fence it off with a lockable gate so you can access it when you need it.

or is this somehow separate from the rest of your property?

It’s a tarmac strip 7 feet wide between my garden wall and the road, and is exceptionally convenient if you can’t be bothered to juggle cars around on your drive. It’s a totally private development of six houses, and I own out to the middle of the road itself.

Everyone else owns their own chunk in front of their house. It’s marked on the development plan and the deeds as my property.

Cougar - no, it doesn’t have a private parking sign because everyone knows already, and I don’t care about short-term use. Might put one up as the first salvo.

I’m kinda thinking if I rocked up in my car, how would I know it’s yours / private?

Dig a 2 metre deep hole. Cover it over with a thin piece of cloth and paint tarmac over that.

Or…

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We had a similar problem with a shared hard standing at the top of our private cul de sac. Many times folk would park on it thinking it was public parking. Quite often they got arsey if asked to, if nothing else, park so that they weren’t taking up all four spaces with one bit of shite parking. After one pillock reversed into the retaining wall and demolished it, we clubbed together and bought private parking signs and lockable bollards.

It’s a tarmac strip 7 feet wide between my garden wall and the road

Is that not a footway?

Might put one up as the first salvo.

If that's your first salvo it will come across as passive aggressive. Surely you first 'salvo' would be to have some human engagement and polite conversation. If that doesn't work then yes, signs or whatever but not as your opening gambit. I think you are in the right, but need to tread carefully to avoid owning the 'knob' title!

If it is clearly not part of the road or footway and neighbours have refused requests to ask before parking then fence/planters.

Neighbourly relations have already gone if they think they can have free use of someone else's land.

In any case, if you don't need the land for parking a few big planters are more pleasant than bare tarmac.

It’s a tarmac strip 7 feet wide between my garden wall and the road,

Do the other houses have their walls further out? Sounds like some passive aggressive signage is the simplest first step - "private parking for 21 acacia avenue, offenders will be tutted at LOUDLY"

A simple sign is the obvious first move. I got fed up with having to go knocking on neighbours doors or walk up to the local swimming pool to find drivers who had parked in front of my gate which has a dropped kurb on the footpath (so parking there is illegal and obviously so).

I put a sign up thinking it wouldn't make any difference but it has. I think the last time I had to go hunting for a driver to be able to get my car out was pre-Covid.

Can we expect a sulky face pic on the Daily Mail website in a few years time!?…

https://www.****/news/article-11511433/Accountant-neighbours-bitter-seven-year-100-000-parking-war-court.html

Fence it off and make your garden a lot bigger

Cougar – no, it doesn’t have a private parking sign because everyone knows already, and I don’t care about short-term use. Might put one up as the first salvo.

If you don't care about short-term use then why do you care about mid- or long-term use? It's still "use." Your primary objection seems to be "they haven't asked nicely and if they did I'd say yes," and you want to defend an arbitrary set of rules which don't exist outside of your head. Your neighbours are perhaps creating their own set of rules, "well he hasn't said anything so it must be OK."

I totally understand the objection to people using your property. But you either need to communicate your objections to the people using it or suck it up. I'm assuming it's not a right of way to other properties?

People can be surprisingly compliant with reasonable signs. A neighbour of mine put up a fancy plastic fence between their garden and a resident's shared parking area telling people not to park next to their fence. As if by magic everyone started parking at the other side of the carpark. Though I see the fence already has one hole in it at bumper level.

In fairness this is a 1970s estate built with the expectation that people would own cars and need to them so there are plenty spaces both on street and in shared carparks,

If you don’t care about short-term use then why do you care about mid- or long-term use?

I think you’re missing the point. Postman etc is fine. Leaving a car there overnight because you want to keep the space outside your own front door clear is not.

Arguably it could be a footway (it’s level with the road but demarcated with cobbles), even though that’s not mentioned in the deeds. It is, however, mine so it’s a moot point.

I broadly agree with cougar's point. If you don't mind some people parking there in some circumstances but do mind other people parking there in different circumstances then you need to explain those rules. A friendly chat or a sign might help but hoping people will behave better won't.

I think I'd be tempted to go with some planters to add a bit of biodiversity. Something that could be moved if you, or someone else, really needed the space.

Print this thread out and post it through all the neighbours letterboxes

Your land so do as you wish.

Others are knobs parking on it without asking you for permission.

Might put one up as the first salvo.

Make sure you're strong - I understand Pootin is looking for weak areas to make a land grab of, seeing as Ukraine is going terribly for him...

If everyone has three spaces where are all these cars coming from? Planters is the answer, leaving enough room for you to stick your own car. Leave your car there long enough and they may get the message.

My neighbour has the same set up outside their property, they’ve stuck private land, no parking signs up. He boxes in any car that does park there with his two cars and leaves them sitting for a while before moving 😂

It's all fine until the day you need it i suppose. I think though rather than looking at it as you own it out to the middle of the road you are responsible for it. We had similar recently with parking on a private road, the person being the dick installed drop billiards and insisted they owned the road to the middle. They did but they were still being a dick. In your cases it's really difficult to give an armchair judgement without pics.

As Stevemtb says, block them in

It’s a tarmac strip 7 feet wide between my garden wall and the road, and is exceptionally convenient if you can’t be bothered to juggle cars around on your drive. It’s a totally private development of six houses, and I own out to the middle of the road itself.

Everyone else owns their own chunk in front of their house. It’s marked on the development plan and the deeds as my property.

is there any possibility that there is a conflict between their deeds and yours (or you are misunderstanding them) or the council adopted this after your property was built?  I ask that as we have a nutter across the road who believes their block of houses owns 4 unmarked parking spaces but which the council master plan shows as being adopted by the council along with the road once all the houses were finished.  A lot of work to extract the details out of council archives, and the rest of the street decided in the end to just leave her in her little hissy fit of incredulity and continue to use it - because she's never had a civil conversation with anyone in the street and nobody can be bothered fanning the flames.

Arguably it could be a footway (it’s level with the road but demarcated with cobbles), even though that’s not mentioned in the deeds. It is, however, mine so it’s a moot point.

Is it included with the property boundary map? I'm not sure how it can be yours if it's not recorded on the title.

grahamt1980
Full Member
Fence it off and make your garden a lot bigger

Never underestimate people's stupidity when it comes to parking.

Our houses have a driveway in front that's wide enough for 4 cars side by side and you can drive straight off the road into any of those spaces.

Our neighbours own 1 car that they park in their drive.

They have a regular visitor with a car. Instead of using one of 3 remaining spaces in front of their house, she parks perpendicular to their drive, half on the pavement, half on the road. She manages to block the road, the pavement and access to their property.

It's quite spectacular how dumb people can be

A streetview link is probably the only way to fully appreciate this dilemma.

Arguably it could be a footway ...... It is, however, mine so it’s a moot point.

You may well be right, I'm not a lawyer, but if you think how bridleways and footpaths work, they are public highways, but over somebody's land. So maybe the Council have adopted it, and it's a footway?  I don't think anyone should be parking on a footway (even the owner?). Maybe worth asking the Council, or maybe one of the legal experts on STW will have a view?

There might be restictive covenants about fencing it off etc. But probably nothing about trip wire activated punji sticks.

I asked the builders yesterday to check with me before putting three vans there but they didn’t bother this morning

That would irk me a lot.

I'd definitely go to the builders wherever they are working and politely ask them to move, irrelevant of how busy they say they are as they totally ignored my request.

Then say they aren't allowed to park there again as that shop has sailed.

I’m still not getting what it is OP owns. If it is yours I’d just extend my garden by several feet

A sailing shop
Does it sell sales
Is there a sale on right now
Sail away with me honey

Some sail-ient points there.

Not being a knob, I'd just tell all of them they can't park there any more. You are being walked on.

A polite letter to the other houses saying you need to keep it clear for your own use. Say you don't mind them using it if asked first in case you are expecting someone. Simple.

If they abuse it. Put something there to stop them. They're being the knob so they revoke the right to call you a knob.

Bum their dog then park in their drive, or vice versa.

You're not being a knob. The odd random visitor occasionally parking there is understandable and IMO pretty harmless if it has no signage to ask them not to and it looks like just a temptingly empty bit of tarmac. Your neighbours who are aware it's yours parking there just to leave themselves more room on their property is a pisstake and I'd tell them to do one. Or maybe next time they have empty space on their drive you could park there?

Hammer some bombers and frozen sausages in to it.

A letter along the lines of

"I've been happy for neighbours to use my space to park occasionally up to now, but it's now being used by tradesmen too, you're all taking the piss so you can all **** off and park elsewhere from now on, you *****"

Sincerely, No. 23

I think you’re missing the point. Postman etc is fine. Leaving a car there overnight because you want to keep the space outside your own front door clear is not.

So what's your cutoff? Thirty seconds? Fifteen minutes? An hour? An afternoon? What if the postman asked your permission yesterday but not today, or was delivering to someone down the road rather than to you? You seemingly don't want people parking on your land except when you deem it to be OK, how do you expect your neighbours (let alone tradesmen or strangers) to know your rules?

I get it, I do. Outside my property is a disabled bay and double yellows, it's broadly fine except when the chippie on the corner is open at which point the "I'll Only Be A Couple Of Minutes" brigade descend en masse despite there being plenty of unrestricted parking like twenty metres down the road. People are self-entitled pricks and it boils my piss. I am 100% behind you in you not wanting people to use your property but you have to tell them.

Needs pitchers for understandingness or its just mootery.

and frozen sausages in to it.

Wow!! STW standards are slipping! Halfway down page 2 before frozen sausages appeared. Cmon STWers...raise your game 😂

So what’s your cutoff? Thirty seconds? Fifteen minutes? An hour? An afternoon? What if the postman asked your permission yesterday but not today, or was delivering to someone down the road rather than to you? You seemingly don’t want people parking on your land except when you deem it to be OK, how do you expect your neighbours (let alone tradesmen or strangers) to know your rules?

Agree with this. How do people know? Sending letters to people doesnt cover the people you didnt send letters too.

Id start with a sign, nice, clear, concise. However thats actually not going to stop people from parking there overnight or longer than you might like. There is already a precedence of people using it, and theyll continue to use it. (as someone else has said, if you let it happen long enough it becomes a right)

To take away all the hassle and personal agro of people using it, fence it, put up barriers, place something on there yourself. Problem solved.

Put a fence up

Or buy get some builders bags of gravel delivered to block access to the extra parking area

You need one of these

(c) Jamie STW 2012

I get the OP's point. It feels frustrating to have folks take advantage of something that belongs to you without acknowledging it, but at the same time, pointing that out to people makes it sound like your being a bit of a arse, and who needs that sort of hassle with the neighbours?

I used to live in a wee close that had extra parking, and it was frequently used by parents watching their kids play footie on the playing ground opposite, I had a lockable gate though which was a bit dickish, but somehow simultaneously v satisfying...

can we have some pics of the area? would be good to see the offending land.

Time to start building a rockery, planting trees, resurfacing, whatever. Get folk out of the habit.

We have a grass verge, not owned by us but signed "no parking on mown verge" by the council, used to be regularly churned up by the school runners. We put some planters on there, which the council seemed quite happy to mow around - all three were run over, one by one. 🙁

I’m still not getting what it is OP owns. If it is yours I’d just extend my garden by several feet

This.

But I think it sounds like no different to the 'verge' outside our place. We're on a single track road and previously had an issue with the stables opposite driving their lorries on the verge when they came out of their yard. The reason they swung out so far was they'd also park a car on their obstructing their gateway... So we put big stones on the verge. They'd move them, so the stones got bigger. Next we get a letter from the council telling us that we can't put obstacles on a verge, it's against the law/rules etc and we'd x days to shift them or face penalties.

On investigation it's our land, to maintain, but not to do with as we like.

Put signs up saying something like.... PRIVATE LAND - NO PARKING - leave it for a week and see if that works. If it's ignored put up physical barriers to stop it.

No messing. If you don't act people will walk all over you.

Stick a big, bright and unmissable charity collection box out there...

"You are welcome to park on my land, but please make a £2 donation to St. Anne's Hospice"

Maybe add a camera to help remind people.

Amount and charity of your choice 🙂

Or, toned down a bit:
PRIVATE LAND – PARKING ONLY WITH OWNERS PERMISSION

Wow!! STW standards are slipping! Halfway down page 2 before frozen sausages appeared. Cmon STWers…raise your game 😂

...yeah - but how are you going to hammer frozen sausages into a frozen lawn!? 🙂

Hiya,

We have a massive driveway but the private road we are on is very narrow i.e. van width. After posts being knocked and cars damaged and our next door neighbour trying to imply our driveway was his, when he sold his house, I put posts up and a chain across (Marine quality heavy chain). No problems anymore because if they hit the chain it will do more damage to a car than my chain 😉 Neighbours were fine about it and didn't take any offence. The Nieghbour that sold his property lost a load of money selling his property, but hey you shouldn't lie and try and deceive...

My advice is to barrier it off we tried to be neighbourly, but people took the piss and hence we just fenced it off, it will only end in pain in the long term...

JeZ

Put a sign up, and go and talk to your neighbours, tell them you don't mind them parking there and tell them the rules for doing so and tell them the sign is to stop random people parking there.

They will be reminded it's not a free for all but won't think you are being a knob.

…yeah – but how are you going to hammer frozen sausages into a frozen lawn!?

I believe it's actually tarmac. Pre-drill?

👌

We owned to the middle of the road in my previous house, small cobbled street at the back. We couldn't just fence it off though, even though it wasn't adopted by the council we still HAD to provide access. People the other side of the road parked their cars on their side as the main road with no parking was to their front, while we had a normal resi street to our front so could park our cars there.

If the strip in front of the OP's garden is public access, he may not be allowed to block that. If it is just additional parking for him then go for it.

On investigation it’s our land, to maintain, but not to do with as we like.

This is a good point, fencing it of or blocking it might not be legal. I'd go for a polite sign, or perhaps nothing. I agree the situation could be irritating but is it actually having a detrimental affect on your life. Starting a campaign to prevent people parking on this area might actually cause you more stress than just shrugging your shoulders and letting people get on with it.
P.s
A pic of the area in question would be helpful 👍

It’s a totally private development of six houses, and I own out to the middle of the road itself.

so, does the entire road remain private, such that the residents are wholly responsible for upkeep, drainage, resurfacing, gritting etc, or has it been adopted by the Council as part of the development completion ? If the latter, it is most likely that they have adopted the pavement and right up to your garden line, regardless of the deed drawing. If that is the case then it's available for anyone to park a currently taxed car on.

It’s a tarmac strip 7 feet wide between my garden wall and the road,

Fence it or lose it. Couple of lockable bollards for private access when you want additional parking. It's your land - you don't have to ask.*

You'll never stop people being knobs. Face it - they're already using your land without asking.

Eventually, if things continue, you'll have historic use to fight against.

* unless you're legally bound to provide public access, but there's a road so that seems unlikely. I'd be thinking very much of fencing first and asking forgiveness later.

 it is most likely that they have adopted the pavement and right up to your garden line

Not necessarily, the cobbled line that the OP mentioned could be the deliniation line of adoption. This happens quite often where an adopted area meets a private boundary. I've had to design surfacing and drainage in commercial areas like that before where I've had to split the falls so no water drains from private land onto the public adopted area. The line is usually deliniated with a pin kerb or something but a line of cobbles could well be used in residential area where it fits the design better.

A couple of lockable bollards right along the centre line of the area would do. Doesn't block access if that is a legal requirement but will prevent parking of vehicles that are not yours.

Right of access does not equal right to access/park a motor vehicle.

Is it included with the property boundary map? I’m not sure how it can be yours if it’s not recorded on the title.

Yes, it is. My view is that since all the other houses here have a three-car driveway, and mine only has room for one car, the extra space is designed for parking. It's not defined by the council as a footway, and not adopted in any way.

There are actually brick planters set into it further back out of shot to stop parking.

Hmmmm as it stands, i'd see that as fair game to park. It has nothing that shows it as being 'yours'

i would be more concerned by the two windows that have been bricked up 😛

What stupid developer set out the boundaries like that. The wall/end of your driveway should be your boundary.

If it really is your land to do what you like with extend out the side - that'll learn 'em! 🙂

Looks like a service strip to me. I wouldn't have thought you'd be able to premently block it off, but you could certainly park your car there!

I deffo wouldn't start digging it up though, It'll contain all the gas, electric and comms for all the houses further down.

What stupid developer set out the boundaries like that.

Its actually quite common, a lot of the time they are block paved and have a 30mm upstand edging stone but I've seen others done like this. Cheaper option of flush kerb and tarmac. Does look slightly wide for a service strip but if it's doubling up as pedestrain access, mews court/shared access type design...