Maintaining harmony with your neighbours can sometimes involve actions that might not quite make sense.
We all strive for a congenial relationship with those living around us – there’s no need to become best pals, but a polite rapport ensures a convivial local atmosphere where one doesn’t feel the need to tread on eggshells within their own home or while nipping out to the shops.
Good neighbourly conduct might require compliance with requests from those nearby, like keeping music volumes down, limiting DIY projects to certain times, or ensuring pets such as cats and dogs don’t create havoc in others’ gardens.
Most people would willingly oblige to these small adjustments to preserve civil ties in their neighbourhood. However, one woman was baffled when her neighbour asked her to shift her car from beside the road – and the rationale behind the request was rather bizarre.
In a Reddit post, the woman detailed that she had recently settled into a “corner house” in a new community. Her home’s frontage has limited parking slots, yet she’s able to park on the roadside along the side of her abode, without impeding access to anyone else’s dwelling.
A woman was left utterly perplexed after her neighbour demanded she move her car, claiming it was “blocking their driveway” despite being parked on the side of her own home. The neighbour’s house and driveway were actually across the street.
She recounted the incident online, saying: “There’s not a lot of parking on the road in front of my house, but have the whole side/street area to park. Decided to park there. Well. The neighbour doesn’t like that and demands that I move my car at that moment because I am blocking their driveway … across the street.”
She added: “Mind you, their family and everyone else in the neighbourhood are parked there. I completely forgot about it that night. The next day, I was walking by, and I saw they possibly called a tow company to say it was abandoned because my tyre and the road were marked with chalk. How do I deal with this crazy?”
Online commenters advised her to install a camera in her car for safety and suggested involving the police to educate her “entitled” neighbour about the “concept of a public street”.
Parking across someone’s driveway isn’t an offence in the UK, unless there are restrictions or signs that say otherwise. Even if you park across a drive, it’s only an offence if there’s a dropped kerb – and that’s because of the kerb, not the driveway.
If a vehicle even partially covers a dropped kerb, the owner could be committing a driving offence and may face a penalty of up to three points and a fine of up to £100. However, parking near a dropped kerb isn’t illegal, even if it restricts access to a driveway.
According to Confused.com, police are unlikely to intervene in cases where parking over the dropped kerb prevents you from moving your vehicle into your driveway, but if the parking issue stops you from leaving, they may treat it as an anti-social behaviour offence. The Crime and Disorder Act (1998) defines anti-social behaviour as: “Acting in a manner that caused or was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household as the defendant.”