Parking again (sorry!)

[chazza]

I have been reading the 'parking' questions with interest and now have one of my own. Is it legal for a neighbour to park across the end of my driveway so that I cannot get in or out of my property?

Thanks!

[marge22]

Not sure where you live but there is a little known act called The London Local Authorities and Transport for London Act 2003, (section 14). Basically until this act came into force, it was the responsibility of the Police to take action against motorists who "parked in front of dropped footways" (sloping kerbs). No chance of them having the time to police that.......However, it has now been transferred from the Police to Local Authorities and Transport for London. In a nut shell there is a form to register your dropped kerb and once registered this will enable the Council to issue parking tickets to any vehicle parked in front of your drive. Unfortunately this includes the resident's own vehicles too. Hope this helps.

[chazza]

Thanks Marge, I live in Northern Ireland, and it is usually visitors to my neighbours house who block me in/out, even though there is 50 yards of pavement with no houses on it just beside me!

[JudgeJ]

Sounds too good to be true, marge22, and like many things so described it is too good to be true. This section of law only applies to what are known as "Special Parking Areas" (SPAs). SPAs exist in many areas of the country apart from London. Each of them has to be agreed by the Secretary of State to be deemed as such. Normally, residential areas are not part of SPAs (unless they are near to a city centre, in shopping areas or near tourist attractions, for example).

Enforcement of the dropped-kerb regulations in SPAs is undertaken, as you say,by the local authority, but they can only act if asked to do so by the householder.

[Epiphany74]

I live in NI too and have had a problem with people parking across my drive. On a few occassions we have called the local police station and they have come out and ticketed the offender. (This is quite amazing in itself, because when we call them for actual crime or vandalism they don't show up!) I suggest you put in a call to the PSNI and see what they say.

By the way, parking in my street is a nightmare and we made a driveway to help solve the problem. Now a nasty neighbour parks just a little bit across it every evening - not enough to stop us getting in but just enough to wind us up! You can't win, huh?

[qapmoc]

I would have thought that if by (coincidence of course) they get a flat tyre around 02:30 in the morning when parking there it might get the message across.

[allen63b]

I inadvertently parked about a foot across someones drive on evening(It was dark and I misjudged the angle of his drive)

Anyway as I was away from home my wife received a telephone call at 2am to ask if she was the owner of the car and if so could she remove it.

So the answer to your question is yes but I think it depends on the police force and how busy they are at the time.

My friend had a good way of stopping repeat offenders it involved some lighter fuel and a match!!!

[spacechimp]

Do you like your neighbour? If so you could just have a chat with him/her and he/she could have a chat with the 'offenders'.

[minimonkey]

Interesting conversation (if you are unlucky enough to live next to the craziest neighbours in the world - like i do). . . in my street there is a law (i.e. unwritten law) that you cannot park outside anyone elses house - even tho the road does not belong to them. at the same time my neighbours park their 3 cars outside my house as well as their own so i cannot park anywhere near my house. when i inadvertently parked o/s someone elses house they came round and threatened to punch me if i didn't move it....bunch a retards..... anyhow i was hoping having my kerb dropped would solve all this so that i could take my car off the road .....but does this mean he could just park over the drive and continue to make my life hell?????

[marge22]

I have just read through the whole document and it does not say anything about SPA's. Just that "the Council can issue parking tickets to any motorist parked in front of a shared or pedestrian dropped footway". It then goes on to say " A shared dropped footway is a footway used by two or more residents or business users to enter/exit their driveway". So if it is shared then the Council can issue a ticket anyway. However, "The Council can only take enforcement action against a motorist for parking in front of a single use dropped footway if the resident affected has authorised the Council to do so". It then goes on to say how to give the Council permission. It then has Terms and Conditions and still no mention of SPA,s. As I said though this is my Council and I live in Kent. Other than that have you thought about moving somewhere with nicer neighbours..........

[minimonkey]

yes - but you don't know what they are like until you move there do you?

[QueenOfSheba]

I was always under the impression, for some reason or other, that it's illegal if there is a car parked in the driveway but not if there isn't! Don't know how correct I am now though, reading through the above posts!

[alijangra]

I inadvertently parked blocking someones driveway near my friends flat (it was pouring with rain and I was running late!). I returned from a night out to find my car had been towed (I thought it had been stolen!!). The whole incident cost me �110 to get my car back!

[flubber]

I think you will find that it is illegal for anyone to block a persons ingress and egress

[Toureman]

My sister lives on a road like yours, if people in the street report a car blocking their drive the police always attend, and it is always removed or ticketed. They will attend to prevent a "breach of the peace"

[bellasasha]

it is illegal...you can have their car towed away

[Whickerman]

Sometimes I'm just thankful i live in the country...

[Azimov]

Good question!

I've always believed that it's legal to park over anothers driveway blocking their entry but illegal to block their exit!

I never questioned this before, I always figured that to stop someone leaving was regarded as worse than stopping them returning!
Kinda makes sense in a pedantic, daft law, sorta way don't you think?