Neighbours who push their luck

lemansky

Ok,so heres the story.Our neighbour has his kids still living with him.They're in their twenties and thirties,so have cars.Between the parents,the kids,and sometimes their friends,there can be 7 cars parked in the area due to that house at any given time.On any night of the week,the minimum is 5 cars.This is a house in an estate and only 2 cars can fit in the driveway,so the other cars are parked one outside their house,the other opposite the house(this restricts traffic to one way flow and even then its tight.It also makes life hard for us as we only have just enough space to reverse out),the 3rd car is parked outside our house.Normally I don't have a problem with this,after all what could I say to them,however this happened just today.We had guests and so their car was parked outside our house.Then the car that normally parks their belonging to the neighbours comes home to find 'his' spot taken.He comes over then to our house and knocks on the door to demand that our guest remove their car from HIS space outside OUR house.I think the family have a superiority complex as they are well connected in the Resident's association(the twats that they and the association are).
What would anybody else do?This family always interfere with our lives.They have done for years.This isn't the first time that something like this has happened(this is a less extreme example),but this has sent me into a rage now.What to do ?


Edit:if anybody else has had any problems with similar neighbours,please share!

faceman

i hope u didnt give in and ur guest didnt move their car?

kensutz

I would've told them where to go and slammed the door in his face. It's a public space and nothing to do with that family.

lemansky

I didn't give in!I told him politely to be gone.Do you know what he said?Its a public space.At that stage I just closed the door.That gave him a right to park there.As was pointed out above it is a public space and so they have no more of a right to be there than anyone else.Its first come first served-and they missed it!
We won that battle but the sheer arrogance and cheek of it sent me mad.I burst a blood vessel when I got in.I know it'll make no difference though,and by tomorrow they'll be back to parking there.

faceman

why not get someone who doesnt use their car that often to park in front of your house so there is a car there most days? that will really get up their nose! or why not get your mates to park on the street some day for the day and night?

elmyra

I know how you feel, our neighbours have 3 cars and a space for one. Have regularly come home to find their visitors parked across our driveway and often have to reverse out across our lawn in the mornings because they have us otherwise blocked. I just knock on their door when it gets ridiculous and tell them to quit it. It nevers works for long, but hey. Don't give in. People like that will walk all over you.

gubby

Oh I know these people!! they live in every estate in this fair country of ours. my advice is that the worst possible thing you could do would be to get mad, or involve officialdom (excuse spelling) you need to be smart for these people. you need to be sweeter than sweet. go to the next residents meeting.. and the next, get involved!! even take up an officership in the association. Be the nice guy, the resonable guy. get something real done for the community. I know these people.. they spend all their time complaining and finding fault with the neighbourhood, and very rarely DOING anything about it. am I right?

calex71

i know two nice words i would have used to "yer man" at the door, the 2nd one would have been off the 1st one would have been .............. and i would have told him to tell the residents assiociation to kiss your .... while you where at it, cheeky bastard.

edit: I know you have to live next to them so bitting your toung was probably the best course of action ,but is there any chance you could could just park in that spot for a while and not put the car in the drive way ????? when they call to ask to move just say "ah ill be going out again in a bit"

lemansky

Well as it happens,on Tuesday we'll be getting work done on our kitchen so we're getting a skip delivered AND there will be a van there as well so during that time we'll be 'forced' to occupy that space:D Apart from that,there is a friend of ours up the road who needs extra space regularly so we'll be tellingher to make sure that they park there from now on rather than just park there because its free.

But do you know what'll really kill them?The van that'll be coming on Tuesday won't have markings on it,and the stuff going into the skip won't give away the job we're getting done-so they won't know what work we're having done.That wouldn't bother you or I if we were the neighbours but it does them!They've gone so far as to ask the workers what we're getting done in the past,so we'll be telling the lads to keep quiet.It WILL kill them!

lemansky

gubby wrote:

am I right?

Yes you are:D
These are high profile people don't you know!They complain about things,but with their VIP lives they couldn't be expected to DO anything about the problems lol.

Edit: I won't get disheartened elmyra don't worry!Its just that my parents fought this battle with them for MANY years (and now I've kind of taken over that responsibility as of late.My brother and sister also back me up!),yet still they carry on incessantly.

Little-Devil

lemansky wrote:

Ok,so heres the story.Our neighbour has his kids still living with him.They're in their twenties and thirties,so have cars.Between the parents,the kids,and sometimes their friends,there can be 7 cars parked in the area due to that house at any given time.On any night of the week,the minimum is 5 cars.This is a house in an estate and only 2 cars can fit in the driveway,so the other cars are parked one outside their house,the other opposite the house(this restricts traffic to one way flow and even then its tight.It also makes life hard for us as we only have just enough space to reverse out),the 3rd car is parked outside our house.Normally I don't have a problem with this,after all what could I say to them,however this happened just today.We had guests and so their car was parked outside our house.Then the car that normally parks their belonging to the neighbours comes home to find 'his' spot taken.He comes over then to our house and knocks on the door to demand that our guest remove their car from HIS space outside OUR house.I think the family have a superiority complex as they are well connected in the Resident's association(the twats that they and the association are).
What would anybody else do?This family always interfere with our lives.They have done for years.This isn't the first time that something like this has happened(this is a less extreme example),but this has sent me into a rage now.What to do ?


Edit:if anybody else has had any problems with similar neighbours,please share!

Dont given in, your guest or friends have as much right to park there. I hope you didnt given in, what would he have done? complained to the residents:) If i was you i would start to park outside your house or the next time, knock in and complain about them.

If you like id gladly call over and park ouside and refuse to move my car, cause i would be under the influence of alcohol that of course you have purchased.....

lemansky

calex71 wrote:

i know two nice words i would have used to "yer man" at the door, the 2nd one would have been off the 1st one would have been .............. and i would have told him to tell the residents assiociation to kiss your .... while you where at it, cheeky bastard

I know!I suppose it just goes to show the status and rights people think they have when they're given jobs which they feel have some sort of importance about them-sadly for them any importance is a work of their own imagination!

And little devil I like that idea-maybe every boardsie can come over and we'll have a drive in!Then we can ALL knock on the door and ask him how he feels,then enjoy a few beers,of course you'll get first choice of alcohol for coming up with the idea!

cson

Buy a caravan and park it outside his house.

lemansky

cson wrote:

Buy a caravan and park it outside his house.

Then I could annoy him AND twitch my curtains to make him think that I'm as interested in the collective life of his family as he is in mine:D

Little-Devil

lemansky wrote:

I know!I suppose it just goes to show the status and rights people think they have when they're given jobs which they feel have some sort of importance about them-sadly for them any importance is a work of their own imagination!

And little devil I like that idea-maybe every boardsie can come over and we'll have a drive in!Then we can ALL knock on the door and ask him how he feels,then enjoy a few beers,of course you'll get first choice of alcohol for coming up with the idea!

We could make this a weekly adventure, pitty football season is over, champions league on tues/wed and then sat/sun, he would get the mgs quick enough. I have the same problem where live, but we have enough respect to move there or my own car once my or there parking space comes available.

PM with time and date

lemansky

Little-Devil wrote:

PM with time and date

You can count on it:D

boneless

I used to live next to a tribe like that. The only thing is, as a lot of posters said, to play them at their own game. Get you mates to come around some day when they are not there. Park (legally!!) all the cars but leave them room to get into the driveway. It will freak them out.

Have the cars got up to date tax discs?? I am sure a local Garda would love to beef up his or her resource sheet...:p

lemansky

boneless wrote:

Have the cars got up to date tax discs?? I am sure a local Garda would love to beef up his or her resource sheet...:p

Come to think of it there was a man from down the road who was out cleaning the place up a bit.He has to drive through the bottleneck that they create everyday,and so he's pissed off as well(as are the other people who have to navigate it).I saw him taking the reg's of the cars and checking the front window alright!So maybe...
There is a detective who lives in the estate as well,but I doubt he cares!

Shiva

My mother had a similar problem with the neighbour parking his car outside my mum's house, and leaving his own driveway empty. He only has the one car, and at the time, there were 3 in mum's - Her's, Dad's and my brother's.

So yer man was taking a space outside her house that my bro could have used. So my brother had to park outside *his* house....

And the cheeky bugger knocked in one night and asked him to move it, because he didnt like cars parked outside his house !

lemansky

Shiva wrote:

My mother had a similar problem with the neighbour parking his car outside my mum's house, and leaving his own driveway empty. He only has the one car, and at the time, there were 3 in mum's - Her's, Dad's and my brother's.

So yer man was taking a space outside her house that my bro could have used. So my brother had to park outside *his* house....

And the cheeky bugger knocked in one night and asked him to move it, because he didnt like cars parked outside his house !

Thats ridiculous!I suppose they're all the same though,they can give but they can't take the same!

Shiva

In fairness, he was a bit of a strange bird though. He used to wake up at 7:30 every morning and open and slam the bathroom window three or four times. He was a human alarm clock. He used to try chase the young kids (not skangers...just 7 and 8 year olds playing football and whatnot) off the community green and tell them to go play in the road.

Funnily enough, my uncle had a clapped out old Mercedes a few years ago, and he asked my mum if he could park it outside the hosue while he went to the US for 3 weeks, 'cos he was afraid it would be nicked (God knows why, but anyway...)

Naturally, when he brought it round before he flew off, yer man was parked outside the house and the uncle had to park outisde his house.

And when he came back, the Mercedes wouldnt start...so it was left there.
Tightfisted uncle didnt want to pay to have it towed, and it wasnt worth much, so he just left it there. it took almost 3 months for it to be moved.

Yer man was livid

lemansky

Shiva wrote:

In fairness, he was a bit of a strange bird though. He used to wake up at 7:30 every morning and open and slam the bathroom window three or four times. He was a human alarm clock. He used to try chase the young kids (not skangers...just 7 and 8 year olds playing football and whatnot) off the community green and tell them to go play in the road.

Funnily enough, my uncle had a clapped out old Mercedes a few years ago, and he asked my mum if he could park it outside the hosue while he went to the US for 3 weeks, 'cos he was afraid it would be nicked (God knows why, but anyway...)

Naturally, when he brought it round before he flew off, yer man was parked outside the house and the uncle had to park outisde his house.

And when he came back, the Mercedes wouldnt start...so it was left there.
Tightfisted uncle didnt want to pay to have it towed, and it wasnt worth much, so he just left it there. it took almost 3 months for it to be moved.

Yer man was livid

Well he got what he deserved-he sounds a few beers short of a piss up though!Another guy in our estate would also shoo us away in years gone by for playing football on the green....concerned about breaking windows with our ball etc,he would then practice his golf on the green.

You can never win!

Gingerspice99

I take it your car and your guests cars are taxed and insured - if so then he cannot tell you to move them - I would of told him so too :mad:

I agree with alot of the previous postings - park outside his house for a while and see what sort of reaction you get

FunkZ

Hire goons to nick nack their houses repeatedly and tie fruit to their trees (me and my mates will do this **** for free)!

Marathon Man

LazyFingers wrote:

Hire goons to nick nack their houses repeatedly and tie fruit to their trees (me and my mates will do this **** for free)!

That sh!t will mess with their heads so much.:) Count me in as well.

Gone West

Just always park your car outside your house, not in your driveway.
He definetly couldn't be cheeky enough to park in your driveway.
And if he gives you any stick, you can always say that "its a public space"

Snake Plisken

Yeah having problems myself, lot of rented houses on my street, one house up the road on the otherside, is full of eastern europeans who work for some motorway firm have this big ugly red van and have started parking it outside my house, so I've had to park my car outside my house to stop them. when they park the van their its so big that I can't turn into my house as its going over part of my driveway, am I within my rights to tell them not to park there? Threaten to complain to their landlord? Checked the van tax and insurance seem to be inplace but no NCT cert and its an 89 reg van.

Snake

dame

Shiva wrote:

My mother had a similar problem with the neighbour parking his car outside my mum's house, and leaving his own driveway empty. He only has the one car, and at the time, there were 3 in mum's - Her's, Dad's and my brother's.

So yer man was taking a space outside her house that my bro could have used. So my brother had to park outside *his* house....

And the cheeky bugger knocked in one night and asked him to move it, because he didnt like cars parked outside his house !

Yep, we had neighbours like that too! They never parked in their own driveway but always had a couple of cars parked in the turning circle. It was pointed out to them that the turning circle is for turning, and the cheek of them, they tried to make out it was theirs as it was outside their house and they only bought that house because of that space outside. When asked why they didn't park in their driveway they said they didn't like having cars in front of their window!

OP, I agree with everyone else, don't give in! Might you possible be having visitors while your kitchen is being done up? They might need to park on both sides of the road outside the neighbours house perhaps?

Or....you could get some flyers from some green lobby about reducing carbon footprints and how people should reduce how much they use their cars etc, and stick them in their letter box, just to really annoy them! Sticking them nice and visibly on the windshields of all five of their cars would also annoy them!

Snake Plisken

would it be illegal to put bollards outside your house to stop them parking there?

faceman

^ yes, its public space

lemansky

lazy fingers I like that-as said before you'll get a PM with a time and date!

Snake,if they have no NCT,use it as some leverage with them.They probably won't fork out for an NCT on that van so it could work.

Dame-I think my brother and sister will have to stop around while the kitchen is being done-in their cars!I'm also printing off those leaflets as we speak lol.

Fuzzy at this stage nothing would surprise me.We share an alleyway and so they used to use our driveway as their own walking up and down it.They put many a scratch on our car with their ladders.They only stopped as we made it physicaly impossible for them to walk down it by parking our car in such a way to cut their original shortcut off!

thefinalstage

Is there mischief a foot? I would be interested...

lemansky

At the moment its all a joke but who knows!Maybe all boardsies who take exception to these sort of neighbours can form a task force that travel around the country exacting revenge on the neighbours!

mikemac

Ok, someone has said installing those permanent bollards is illegal.
But maybe you could do it for the space outside your house or possibly your driveway.
I'm talking about the ones sunk in concrete, not a cone.

It reserves your space and if they complain, just say you're thinking of getting a motorbike and you need something secure to attach it to.

Google parking bollard and you'll see loads of examples

lemansky

micmclo wrote:

Ok, someone has said installing those permanent bollards is illegal.
But maybe you could do it for the space outside your house or possibly your driveway.
I'm talking about the ones sunk in concrete, not a cone.

It reserves your space and if they complain, just say you're thinking of getting a motorbike and you need something secure to attach it to.

Google parking bollard and you'll see loads of examples

Post number 300 for me...
Anyway yeah!I like that idea-sure who knows what'll happen!As I look out our window though I see that our space IS being occupied by a car which we are happy to have there,and hopefully will be there on a regular basis-so maybe that'll be our new bollard!

byte

Snake Plisken wrote:

Yeah having problems myself, lot of rented houses on my street, one house up the road on the otherside, is full of eastern europeans who work for some motorway firm have this big ugly red van and have started parking it outside my house, so I've had to park my car outside my house to stop them. when they park the van their its so big that I can't turn into my house as its going over part of my driveway, am I within my rights to tell them not to park there? Threaten to complain to their landlord? Checked the van tax and insurance seem to be inplace but no NCT cert and its an 89 reg van.

Snake

Commercial vans don't have NCT certs on the windscreens.

Schlemm

Sneakily paint some double yellow lines in their spot when nobody's looking!

Our neighbours are nouveaux riche scum...basically knackers with a lot of money and they grind my gears big time. It's the pits living next to crummy neighbours and I'd be here all day telling ye about these eejits but like everyone's said, don't give in!! No matter how ignorant they seem, they get the message, or at least some of it, eventually.

gubby

I honestly dont know what the matter with ye people at all at all. Sure this poor man is going to have to live there next to this guy. and by all accounts this has been going on for a very long time. play it smart! you have to outsmart him not make him more angry.

tallus

I'd do as one of the earlier posters said, and park out there myself. When he knocks in to complain dont even acknowledge him, just close the door and go back to what you were doing.

sonners

To the guy with the van parking partially blocking his driveway - this is illegal. Afaik the rules of the road state that you cannot park across (and possibly within a few feet of) a DRIVEWAY, crossroads or a pedestrain crossing.

to the OP, if you have the guts, then wind him up as much as you can . I cant say I'd do it, I live alone, but if I had two or three burly fellas in the house I'd have no problem winding em up!! These people only get to you if you let them

Kinetic^

OP that is actually the funniest thing I've heard all weekend........:rolleyes:..........that is hilarious, the cheek of the guy like!!!! I would've broken into tears laughing at the guy.

stickytape

Ur bloody well righT. Some neighbours. we also have the same problem....one crowd think they can park everywhere even blocking us from getting out of our own drive and when u ask them to move u get ate.......wtf???? so DON'T GIVE IN AND FIGHT THESE @:£&£( ALL THE WAY......i hate these RA do gooders people......

As for the getting the work done and asking the construction workers/.......well i can also releate....a different family are the family from hell......litreally....eveil people......who copy whtaver work we get done.

Snake Plisken

To the OP, why don't you have your driveway widened if you can and therefore if he blocks you, then he's breaking the law?

Snake

Victor

It is amazing how petty people are.

Snake Plisken wrote:

Yeah having problems myself, lot of rented houses on my street, one house up the road on the otherside, is full of eastern europeans who work for some motorway firm have this big ugly red van and have started parking it outside my house, so I've had to park my car outside my house to stop them.

If they obstruct your entrance you can make a complaint to:

Their boss.
The Garda.
The council.

lemansky

To all posters yes I'd agree.Its best to win a series of small battles rather than piss them off once big time.The skip that I was talking about came today for some reason,and the funny thing is the truck was parked outside ours for a minute-the daughter next door immediately decided that she wanted to go out and even though the truck wasn't blocking her she wax straight over to us asking the driver to move it the cheeky bitch.She said'get that out of here i want to leave now do you hear me?' The driver just stopped talking while she was mouthing off,then went back talking to my dad afterwards.He didn't acknowledge her at all as per an earlier suggestion on the thread:D The look on her face was terrific.We also started throwing out some stuff from the kitchen into it and they were already looking in the skip to see what we were doing!

lemansky

Snake Plisken wrote:

To the OP, why don't you have your driveway widened if you can and therefore if he blocks you, then he's breaking the law?

Snake

If only!We like our little grass patch too much though!

bandit*baby

LazyFingers wrote:

Hire goons to nick nack their houses repeatedly and tie fruit to their trees (me and my mates will do this **** for free)!

why tie fruit to their trees is there something i'm not getting there???

bandit*baby

we have a similar problem where my parents are living .... there is a business owner across the road and he has 3 trucks (Small ones but trucks none the less) he parks all 3 of em in the turning area, the thing is the residents of the cul-de-sac aren't really stuck for a turning space but he road has often been blocked because they are stuck for somewhere for their guests cars to park...... i dont suffer from this as i drive a motorbike but my dad drives a van which he is forced to at times park across the neighbour's driveway (they do not own a car and he cleared it with them) as the van is too large to fit in the driveway.
the really annoying part is that the business owner doesnt even live in the house anymore ...
people tried complaining about it but they were told that because he was a resident for x amount of years he is entitled to park his trucks there i mean WTF is that all about!!!!

highlydebased

Correct as per an earlier post- Vans dont go for the NCT- they go for the DoE (A similar money racket!) There is no disc for it so there is no way of finding out if they actually have it or not..

Neighbours of ours run a creche, in their house. Their driveway, is huge! But then they refuse to park inside themselves- they leave the gates shut! Then they park their own two cars outside their wall. When the children in the creche have to be picked up in the evening, the parents all park down along the wall outside our house! It doesnt bother me terribly- but there was a lovely patch of grass outside our wall. It has been reduced to a sludge as of late!

Zzippy

Re the work being done on the house - get the lads doing the work to feed them a few porkie pies if asked what's being done. Stuff like raising the height of the garden wall a couple of feet, installing a hot tub/sauna in the back garden, building something like an extension that would require planning permission (they will obviously be fully aware you haven't got it and will be up in arms hehe)

lemansky

Galwayguy99 wrote:

Re the work being done on the house - get the lads doing the work to feed them a few porkie pies if asked what's being done. Stuff like raising the height of the garden wall a couple of feet, installing a hot tub/sauna in the back garden, building something like an extension that would require planning permission (they will obviously be fully aware you haven't got it and will be up in arms hehe)