Neighbourly war

[Rocketman]

Hi Guys,
Can anybody give me  a few pointers.
My neighbour has just had his kerb lowered and his front garden paved so that he can park his works van "off road". He now wages verbal war on anybody who stops their vehicle in front of his house. Today we had a delivery and although his van was not in residence so to speak his wife came out and gave the delivery driver some awfull stick about it being illegal to park in front of their house. I might be wrong (I often am) but surely she was spouting utter warlocks    

[scorpio]

a drop curb is just that it constitutes no law regarding who can or cannot park over it, unless there is a vehicle on the drive then you can be done for obstruction. If the drive is clear and you park over it legally they can do nothing about it, at least that was what we was told for over 7 yrs when a locla social club used to park over ours while we was out. Amazing thing is they stopped doing it when I just drove into one and pushed it as far down the road as I could.

[murph]

Check with the council and see if he has had permission to have it lowered.

[Bob696]

Q:     What is obstruction?
A:    Obstruction is when a driver parks a vehicle in such a position as to make it impossible to pass (including driveways). Simply making it difficult to pass is not obstruction even though you may have to  manoeuvre. Obstruction of the footway is blocking the passage of pedestrians, pushchairs, scooters etc.

From Wakefield CC (just happened to be the 1st I found)

http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/22.htm
Ruke 217 From the highway code

Whilst it may be next to impossable to get someone nicked for parking due to lack of interest by the police it certainly is antisocial to park across someones driveway.  Just imagine getting home from work to find some lazy prat is stopping you from accessing your own property to save himself the effort of walking 6ft or so.

[Tyke]

I suffer from the lazy gits parking across my driveway when they deliver to the property next door.

Think I'll quote that Rule 217 at those next door as I live very close to the Wakefield area. I wouldn't mind the neighbouring property already has a delivery area at the side of the building, off the main road . . . . if that fails I'm gonna put up a notice threatening to tow them off  :twisted:

Very annoying at times, particularily if I want to go out in a rush.

[Wanderer]

What about this one then?

Traffic Management act 2004.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/40018--g.htm#86

It certainly implies it is illegal without consent.

[Edge]

My sister had a drop kerb put in, the neighbours started to use it to get to their own properties to save the cost of a drop kerb themselves. Turns out my sister cannot do a thing about it legally.
As long as they dont block her from entering or exiting her property.

[paul_humphreys]

There was a lot about this sort of thing on another forum. It turned out its was only aganist the law to block someone in, and not to stop them getting in.

Sorry I can not think of the other forum.

Paul

[drum]

Arrange for a rota of battered land rovers, to park there, and as soon as they get shouted at and move off, another arrives. Should only take a morning or so, they'll soon get pi$$ed off and give up  :D

[Red Defender]

i have this problem with my next door neighbour (hes not a nice man !!) but he regularly blocked me in and stopped me entering and exiting my drive -had a word with him nicely i might add and the answer i cant print. so i rung my uncle whos a traffic cop and his advise was blocking a dropped curb is the same as parking on dbl yellows and that i could ring the police on the non 999 number but his sugestion was to have my wife ring up and say shes all alone in the house and she needs to go out soon but is afraid to go round next door cos of what might happen !

so she did and a nice copper came round to have a word with him next door and got a simmilar answer to me ! (which was his fatal mistake cos he wrote him a ticket and then asked him again to move - same answer - so he had it towed  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:  God bless the police :D

[Sooty]

I Think I'll quote that Rule 217 at those next door as I live very close to the Wakefield area.

There is nothing to stop you quoting from the highway code but be aware that what it says in there is not always law, read this page http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/index.htm and notice that non of rule 217 is written in large red print and is therefore not law.

[Stormin]

It may not be illegal to block an entrance/exit, but you can get the vehicle towed away for obstruction.  If someone persists in parking over your driveway, refusing requests not to do so, then it MAY come under the anti social behaviour laws.   :?

[Dirty Gertie]

My sister had a drop kerb put in, the neighbours started to use it to get to their own properties to save the cost of a drop kerb themselves. Turns out my sister cannot do a thing about it legally.
As long as they dont block her from entering or exiting her property.

Hmm, I was always under the impression that traversing the footpath with a motor vehicle, unless there is a dropped kerb to that property was an offence (an unpleasant former resident of my road used to do that, until he was 'told not to' by the powers that be) - he had to go through all the palaver of applying for, and paying for a dropper!!

[Rocketman]

Thanks for all the replies and advice. Looks like I have enough to beat him round the head with next time he comes out spoutig. (either that or a 4 foot tyre lever should do the trick :D )

[Baby_Rhino]

Check who made the dropped kerb (or as the Council call it, the "vechicle crossover") as if they come accross one that was built by someone other than an approved council sub contractor then the house owner and the builders are landed in trouble!

Just ring up and ask if he ordered a vechicle crossover from them   8)

[Bob696]

I fail to understand why some people seem to think it is wrong to have a dropped access and why they seem to think it is OK to park across them and block someones drive if they do have one.

Am I missing something here?

[chris9119]

It may not be illegal to block an entrance/exit, but you can get the vehicle towed away for obstruction.  If someone persists in parking over your driveway, refusing requests not to do so, then it MAY come under the anti social behaviour laws.   :?

I did the above and had him served with a letter of intent to issue an ASBO if he didn't stop blocking me in.

That meant that he couldn't do or say anything to me for six-months otherwise the ASBO would have been issued and he would have had to "keep the peace" for two years.

Chris

[Ja1983]

not sure on the legalities, but common sense and decency say not to park. i`d certainley consider "removing the offending vehicle" myself!

the bin men used to be sods for piling up the comunal binbags on the bottom of our drive...

note "used to"


they strangely stopped when some mad 4x4 ploughed straight through the pile leaving them sweeping and picking up lumpsof kitchen waste, cat crap, smelly slimey things and sanitry towels etc for a good 20 mins.


..they havent done it since! :twisted:  :lol: