Parking on the Street

Hi all,

We live on a street where nobody has parking spaces or driveways; it's just a long row of houses along a street, and everyone parallel parks on one side of the street.  Yesterday we parked in front of a neighbor's house a few doors down, and this morning there was a note under the windshield wiper which said "We would be grateful if you would refrain from parking your car outside our house."

There are no signs, official or otherwise, about parking (or not parking) on any part of the street.  My guess is they don't have any particular claim to the street in front of their own house, and would just like to keep people from parking there for their own convenience.  While I sympathize, it seems somewhat cheeky to claim ownership of one patch of a public street.

Anyone know of any official rule about on street parking, or where to even look for one?  Or any other thoughts?

Well I will say even when we went to the fireworks on Thursday night I said park there and DH said no thats someone house and you dont park in front of their house.
I said what? its a street? He said how would you like to come home and have someone parked in "your" spot in front of our house...Point taken

We live on a semi main street all terrace housing and people do stick to the spot in front of their house not sure if their is a law b/c the law also says you should park facing traffic but we all do it.
It also says no to park on the sidewalk but people do it ;-0

Is someone in front of your house? Now that you have a car its "your" spot
;-)

Hi all,

We live on a street where nobody has parking spaces or driveways; it's just a long row of houses along a street, and everyone parallel parks on one side of the street.  Yesterday we parked in front of a neighbor's house a few doors down, and this morning there was a note under the windshield wiper which said "We would be grateful if you would refrain from parking your car outside our house."

There are no signs, official or otherwise, about parking (or not parking) on any part of the street.  My guess is they don't have any particular claim to the street in front of their own house, and would just like to keep people from parking there for their own convenience.  While I sympathize, it seems somewhat cheeky to claim ownership of one patch of a public street.

Anyone know of any official rule about on street parking, or where to even look for one?  Or any other thoughts?

Yup no rules or claims or anything, if there were, they wouldn't need to leave a note! They're just being "those" kind of neighbours. Personally, I'd happily ignore it

The official rule is if your car is taxed and legal, and there are no road signs instructing you not to park in a particular location, you can park wherever you can/like.

Unless there's permit holders parking on the street, your neighbours don't have a leg to stand on.

This situation happens even where I live, where people have driveways and there are plenty of laybys on the street. If you park in a layby in front of a person's house more than a couple times a week, they go nuts. But the layby is for public use, and not their personal property.

Every reasonable person who lives on your type of street knows they are not entitled to park in front of their houses.

My husband get super annoyed when people park in front of our house, but no one owns the street and if there isn't anyone parked there, its fair game.

I would ignore the note personally, its completely unreasonable.

Assuming you live on a public highway without parking restrictions you, and anyone else, can park anywhere on it. (And then parking restrictions usually apply to a road rather than a specific location for a specific person) There is an assumption that people should be allowed to park in front of their property, however without having a dropped crossing and hard standing installed there is no legal standing in most councils. (if you park in front of a dropped crossing it would be considered obstructing access and you can get towed)

Some places will have legally enforceable markings such as disabled bays or H bars, but for the vast majority of councils they are advisory only and not enforceable.

The only difference is if your road is private and then you could claim you own the section of road in front of your house and therefore have a right to park there.

In terms of neighbour relations however, it's not the done thing. I do think that the note is over reacting if it's the first time you've done it and would ignore it.

Thanks everyone for the helpful replies.

Some places will have legally enforceable markings such as disabled bays or H bars, but for the vast majority of councils they are advisory only and not enforceable.

I thought about the possibility of it being a disability issue, but there are marked disabled spots in other parts of the village, so I don't think that's it.

As it stands, we're going to ignore it, and won't go out of our way to either park there or avoid parking there in the future.

It's especially silly since, if I'm reading this right, everyone parks on the same side of the street. If you live on the other side then you have to park in front of someone else's house!

When you see them, give them your widest smile and tell them that if they ever have guests, they can park in front of your house  

I've read about this issue on a few websites recently. It seems that some people think that they have an exclusive right to the parking space in front of their house and some people think that they don't.  As a New Yorker, who has been used to walking 5 or 10 blocks to get to a car sometimes (and who now has a private garage but pays for it in her rent), it seems spoiled and selfish. But people from different places have different views of things.

Have to laugh at what some folks "think" is their god given right to park in front of their house/flat on the street. etc. .
Well yea it is easier its not always possible.
When I used to live up in Aberdeen... I had many days and nights when I'd get home from my shifts at the hospital and have to park a street or two away from my flat. Now that was very very frustrating. It has never bothered me too much if there isn't a space right in front of my flat. Lucky in that were I live now there is usually a space nearby if not in front of my flat.

There are no restrictions on parking in front of houses unless you are blocking a drive, or if there are signs up and permit parking.

Like you, I live on a terraced street and parking can be a nightmare. We have parking both sides of the street....it's not helped when the house over the road have 3 cars, the neighbours at one side have 2 cars.

The guy where they have 3 cars, I had a run in with him a few years ago when they just had 1 car and my then partner was living with me so we had 2 cars and he complained because I was parked on their side of the road....I wasn't even in front of his house.

It is annoying when you can't get anywhere near your own house, it depends whose car is there though, the issue i have is that we live about 10 mins walk from the town centre and get people parkin up to go shopping or who work in town. There are 2 cars in particularly that are often parked outside my house when I get home from work at 5, and they'll move at 5:30!

Have you recently moved into the street or bought your car? Perhaps the owners of that house don't recognise your car as being that of a resident of the street?