housing estate parking

chattyk

Hi all

Would anyone have any advice. I live in a small private housing estate (20 houses on two blocks of 10). The cornor house on the first row recently got new tenants. The house is on a very blind corner in either direction. The new tenants have adopted the practice of parking 4 cars across the footpath on the corner cutting it off with a car cutting off the footpath on either side of the footpath. Then another car arrives and parks diagonally across the centre of the road (it litterally looks as if he just stopped the car and got out). There is a creche here which means there is a large volume of people coming around the path with small children in buggies and also some residents (including myself) with buggies. These men stand in the road drinking beer with all the car doors lying fully open and the stereos blaring. Last week my Mum was taking my daughter for a walk in the buggy and came around to find the path cut off. The diver was parked up on the footpath with the door lying open a few inches from the wall of the garden. He was sitting in the driver seat drinking away at his beer. My mum's exact words to him were "excuse me may I pass please". With this he jumped up and he and his friend verbally abused her and refused to let her pass. She closed the car door herself and walked by. They said they were calling the gardai on her and she told them to go ahead and she's wait there for them to arrive. Needless to say nobody came. Coming home from her walk she met a garda car and stopped them to ask if they had a call about her. They said they had a call but the caller made no sense and refused to identify themselves. She told them what happened and they said ignore it. A few days earlier the same happened to me when out with the buggy. Now every evening when they are there (always beer in hand) and if the car doors are not already open they run out to open them and block the path. Then as people walk around the corner on the road the intimidatingly stand by the wall glaring at them and muttering. When people have passed they slam a beer can down on the road behind them.

This evening I was driving out of the estate and as I came to the corner I saw the car parked accross the middle of the road with the two boys standing in their usual spot beer in hand. As I edged my way around the car the neighbour reversing out of her driveway couldn't see me and nearly reversed straight into me. The two boys thought this was just hilarious. She had her new born in the car and I had my toddler in mine. Why do our kids have to be put at risk by these morons.

Does anybody know if there are rules governing parking in housing estates. The house is rented and I am trying to find out who the landlord is. The gardai have no interest in coming out. I don't really want to confront these people as I recognised one of the men from when I used to work in a bank in another town. I know he is involved with some dodgy dealings and is quite a dangerous guy. Can anyone give any advice before one of our kids is killed by these drunks in their cars or by a poor innocent driver who just can't see past their obstructions. As we have no green area the kids have no where else to be other than out front of our houses.

Thanks for any advice.

Run_to_da_hills

Unfortunitally many of Ennis's newer housing estates are full of rentals with room shares, ie 4 Rooms = 4 cars.
ie Fergus Mannor, Hawthorns, Ivy Hill, Bruach Na hAbhainn, Dun Na Ri, etc. The guys renting in these houses generally do not give 2 s**ts about noise, neighbours, parking, tidying or cutting the lawn, etc. Maybe find out who the landlord is, failing that report the matter to the cops.

workaccount

chattyk wrote: »

Hi all

Would anyone have any advice. I live in a small private housing estate (20 houses on two blocks of 10). The cornor house on the first row recently got new tenants. The house is on a very blind corner in either direction. The new tenants have adopted the practice of parking 4 cars across the footpath on the corner cutting it off with a car cutting off the footpath on either side of the footpath. Then another car arrives and parks diagonally across the centre of the road (it litterally looks as if he just stopped the car and got out). There is a creche here which means there is a large volume of people coming around the path with small children in buggies and also some residents (including myself) with buggies. These men stand in the road drinking beer with all the car doors lying fully open and the stereos blaring. Last week my Mum was taking my daughter for a walk in the buggy and came around to find the path cut off. The diver was parked up on the footpath with the door lying open a few inches from the wall of the garden. He was sitting in the driver seat drinking away at his beer. My mum's exact words to him were "excuse me may I pass please". With this he jumped up and he and his friend verbally abused her and refused to let her pass. She closed the car door herself and walked by. They said they were calling the gardai on her and she told them to go ahead and she's wait there for them to arrive. Needless to say nobody came. Coming home from her walk she met a garda car and stopped them to ask if they had a call about her. They said they had a call but the caller made no sense and refused to identify themselves. She told them what happened and they said ignore it. A few days earlier the same happened to me when out with the buggy. Now every evening when they are there (always beer in hand) and if the car doors are not already open they run out to open them and block the path. Then as people walk around the corner on the road the intimidatingly stand by the wall glaring at them and muttering. When people have passed they slam a beer can down on the road behind them.

This evening I was driving out of the estate and as I came to the corner I saw the car parked accross the middle of the road with the two boys standing in their usual spot beer in hand. As I edged my way around the car the neighbour reversing out of her driveway couldn't see me and nearly reversed straight into me. The two boys thought this was just hilarious. She had her new born in the car and I had my toddler in mine. Why do our kids have to be put at risk by these morons.

Does anybody know if there are rules governing parking in housing estates. The house is rented and I am trying to find out who the landlord is. The gardai have no interest in coming out. I don't really want to confront these people as I recognised one of the men from when I used to work in a bank in another town. I know he is involved with some dodgy dealings and is quite a dangerous guy. Can anyone give any advice before one of our kids is killed by these drunks in their cars or by a poor innocent driver who just can't see past their obstructions. As we have no green area the kids have no where else to be other than out front of our houses.

Thanks for any advice.

In these kind of cases the best and only way out dealing with it is by [Edit]not advocating violence.

Jay P

This would probably do better in legal issues or something, Mods? MODS!? Ah who am I kidding, they never come round these here parts anyway

Jo King

Parking on the footpath is illegal as is causing an obstruction on a highway as is parking in a dangerous manner. Take photographs and bring copies to the gardai Send further copies to the Superintendent. Detail the dates and times when these events occur. Ask that the gardai come and bring appropriate charges against the perpetrators.

chattyk

Only one of the cars (which is the one in the driveway that never seems to move) belongs to the tenants. The tenants are a young couple with a child and all the other men are just hangers on. The come every couple hours have a few beers on the road move to another house do the same and come back and forth like this every few hours. I've taken photos and been to the gardai but all I got was eyes raised to heaven and basically told unless they stab one of us they don't really care. As far as the land lord goes my Mum met him on a coffee shop a few days after the moved in but before the loutish behaviour started. They got chatting and she mentioned where she minds her grandkids and he said he owns that house and that he just got new tenants in who were a polish couple. So they obviously lied to him becuase I know for a fact they are Lithuanian because I've seen their passports when dealing with them in the bank. We are trying to track down this guy to fill him in on these scumbags.

MarkR

It their parking is causing an obstruction or is on a corner they can be fined €40. Think if a large vehicle like a fire engine had to pass. If they are having a few beers and then driving then call the guards about their drink driving. Littering is also an offence, fine of €150 I think. If the garda don't seem to want to do anything speak to the superintendant.

seany2929

This is happening in estates all over Ennis. Woodhaven is getting very bad for it these days as well foreigners cars pullin in left,right n centre n just generally all over the place with no regard:mad::mad::mad:

chattyk

Seany2929, you're right this is happening in estates all over Ennis but we shouldn't tolerate it.

I have been to the Garda station a couple of times and they don't want to know. Last time I asked to speak with the Superintendent but was told he wasn't there. I asked to make an appointment and was curtly told they didn't know when he would be back.

I have been photographing the parking obstructions and showed them to a family friend to is a Garda up the country. I told him about my visit to the local garda station and he was appalled. He advised me to write the Garda Commissioner in the Pheonix Park HQ which is what I'm just about to do.

BLITZ_Molloy

Park your car at a location further down the street away from your house where it's not going to get blocked.

Or if you want to be really evil start keying any offending vehicles. Don't get caught though.

Guards in Ennis are useless. Got the **** kicked out of me by 3 people walking home from the pub on Kilrush road last September and they wouldn't even take a statement off of me.

TequilaMockingBird

Isn't it an offence to drink/be drunk while sitting in your car with the keys in the ignition? I would just keep ringing the Guards and saying there are drunk drivers in your estate. Log it each time you ring, and ask the Guard on the phone to be sure to make a note of it, that you are doing so as well.

It's ridiculous they aren't taking this more seriously.

BnA

Look. Lets get real here. The law is going to be utterly useless to you in this situation. Even if the Gardai did give a crap, (which it appears they don't) by the time that you would have sorted something out, going to court etc..... the tenants would have moved on anyway and become someone else's problem.

In my opinion, there are two ways to tackle this.

1) Through the Landlord.
A lot (not all) of Landlords are actually decent people. He might not be aware of the trouble his tenants are causing. Find out who the landlord is and talk to them. You should be able to find out from the likes of the Land Registry. Don't just ring him, call to his house. Don't go to his house for a fight as he will probably get defensive. Just go for a chat. Assume before you go that he is a decent chap. When meeting him, possibly take one of your neighbours with you to show that it is not just one person. Also, I think you said you had photos. Take those to show him too.

If he doesn't seem to be acting on it, I would say that you should hand his number onto all of your neighbours so that they can ring him every time they have a problem with his tenants. He should get sick of 3 or 4 calls a day after a few weeks.

2) <removed>

Mod Edit: First suggestion has merit, BnA. Second suggestion was terrible - boards cannot be responsible for advocating people taking the law into their own hands. Thats just not acceptable.

Mr. Presentable

BnA wrote: »

Look. Lets get real here. The law is going to be utterly useless to you in this situation. Even if the Gardai did give a crap, (which it appears they don't) by the time that you would have sorted something out, going to court etc..... the tenants would have moved on anyway and become someone else's problem.

In my opinion, there are two ways to tackle this.

1) Through the Landlord.
A lot (not all) of Landlords are actually decent people. He might not be aware of the trouble his tenants are causing. Find out who the landlord is and talk to them. You should be able to find out from the likes of the Land Registry. Don't just ring him, call to his house. Don't go to his house for a fight as he will probably get defensive. Just go for a chat. Assume before you go that he is a decent chap. When meeting him, possibly take one of your neighbours with you to show that it is not just one person. Also, I think you said you had photos. Take those to show him too.

If he doesn't seem to be acting on it, I would say that you should hand his number onto all of your neighbours so that they can ring him every time they have a problem with his tenants. He should get sick of 3 or 4 calls a day after a few weeks.

2) Take the law into your own hands.

<removed>

I understand your frustration, but you cannot advise this.

Go to your TD and pester him/her into submission to get the gardai/council etc moving

chattyk

I found out from one of the neighbours the landlords surname and village he is from. I checked the phonebook and there was only one listing in the village for that name so I took a chance and rang it. I was very polite and started by apologising for distrubing him and asked him if he was the owner of the particular house. He got a bit cagey and said he wasn't. I again apologised for disturbing him and said goodbye. He stopped me from hanging up and asked me had I a problem with the "renters". I told him I did and for the thrid time apologised for ringing the wrong person. He asked me to tell him exactly what was happening. We spoke for about 15 minutes and he sounded genuinely annoyed at what was going on. He kept calling them B*****ds and expressed his annoyance at this behaviour. I found it strange that if he isn't the owner of the house he took such a deep interest and knew why I was ringing. I got the distinct impression from his tone that either he is the owner or is related to the owner. So we'll see over the next while how things pan out.

Mr E

Well done, chattyk. You did the right thing, and I hope you're rewarded for it.

TequilaMockingBird

chattyk wrote: »

I found out from one of the neighbours the landlords surname and village he is from. I checked the phonebook and there was only one listing in the village for that name so I took a chance and rang it. I was very polite and started by apologising for distrubing him and asked him if he was the owner of the particular house. He got a bit cagey and said he wasn't. I again apologised for disturbing him and said goodbye. He stopped me from hanging up and asked me had I a problem with the "renters". I told him I did and for the thrid time apologised for ringing the wrong person. He asked me to tell him exactly what was happening. We spoke for about 15 minutes and he sounded genuinely annoyed at what was going on. He kept calling them B*****ds and expressed his annoyance at this behaviour. I found it strange that if he isn't the owner of the house he took such a deep interest and knew why I was ringing. I got the distinct impression from his tone that either he is the owner or is related to the owner. So we'll see over the next while how things pan out.

Maybe he's not registered as a Landlord with the PRTB, which may make him nervous...:D

Nice move OP!

chattyk

OK so here's the skinny - there has been no cars, cheap larger louts or any activity at all around the house all week. The tenants car is parked neatly (now up on blocks) in the driveway. There is no shouting and car racing at night. All is quiet. I think maybe I did get the right person on the phone after all. Let's hope it continues or dare I speak too soon.