Parking

quietlyquiet

I know queries about parking have been asked before but I think my query is slightly different. I don't want to post on an old thread either.

My Mum lives in a small estate of semi-detached houses. All the houses have space for one car on the driveway and any additional cars are parked directly outside the house on the road. When I visit normally I park on the road outside leaving her space to get in and out. I also left space for the house attached to hers (Neighbour A) to park a car behind me without them blocking their driveway so they still have two spaces free. The neighbours had no problem with this.

However this is something the family on the other side of her (Neighbour seem to take issue with as the minute I leave they would put their car where mine was. I always ignored this as I was only there for a night or two and it didn't bother me to park in the 'visitor' parking area at the top of the estate. I've recently had to move home temporarily and the issue has escalated. Mum explained to Neighbour A and Neighbour B that I would be moving home and said my car would be outside more often but didn't say that they weren't allowed to park there or anything. She was more giving them a heads up out of politeness.

Neighbour B has 4 transit vans and a car. He parks the car on the driveway, one van in front of their house and the other two at the top of the estate in a small parking area. This leaves no visitor parking available. Since I moved home Neighbour B has taken to parking the van that is normally outside of his house, outside of my Mum's house, and is leaving his car outside his house so I can't go there. As I said, I used to ignore this as it's a public road, but he's also taking all other available parking so I have nowhere to go. He also parks both cars in such a way that I can't park outside my house without blocking my Mum or Neighbour A in. I'm working odd hours so if Mum or myself block the driveway the other person won't be able to get out when they need to.

Last night I had gone to my old house to get some more boxes and Mum spotted Neighbour B parking outside the house. She explained that I was coming with boxes and asked him could he move temporarily but he got a bit aggressive and told her it was a public road. He went off in the van later so Mum put her car on the road so I could take the driveway. When Neighbour B came back and saw this he parked across her driveway but on the opposite side of the road. This made it difficult for anyone to drive by and impossible for me to drive on to or reverse on to her driveway.

As I'm only home temporarily I'm inclined to keep ignoring the situation because I don't want to cause trouble for Mum as she's the one who has to live there. She wants to take it further though as apparently he does this when anyone parks outside. He won't park outside her house 6 days of the week but the minute someone else tries to park there, he'll move the van into the spot when the leave and won't go back to parking outside his house until he's sure they're not coming back.

I was wondering how you would recommend proceeding? Talking to him achieved nothing and we can't really tell him not to park there as it's a public road. I don't want to resort to parking outside his house or blocking him in as I don't want to stoop to his level.

Paulw

Blocking a driveway is an offence, and can be reported to the Gardai.

Parking on the road is public, so anyone can park there, and no one is entitled to any space. You can park outside their house, anyone from anywhere can park outside yours, etc, as long as you don't block the driveway.

How to resolve it?? Well, that is down to you and the neighbours.

daheff

dont give the neighbour b any heads up in future. If hes that ignorant I wouldnt bother being polite and letting him know anything like that.


also i think (and am open to correction here) there may be some restrictions on parking commercial vehicles around a housing estate like that...you could also check it out with the local council.

As far as I know they turn a blind eye to the odd vehicle, but if this guy is parking 4 transits hes not the odd vehicle.

Paulw

daheff wrote: »

also i think (and am open to correction here) there may be some restrictions on parking commercial vehicles around a housing estate like that...you could also check it out with the local council.

No, there is generally only a restriction to trucks, but even that requires a specific local by-law passed by the council. A transit van, etc would not be prohibited in an estate.