parking outside property?

Question

nuicance neibour playing hell when I park about 12 inches over her property to allow my wife access to our back yard to enable her to get her car in and out my neibour has 6 inch kerb and would be impossible for her to get her car in her yard
can i be prosicuted or not

Answer 1

If you are in any way on her property, even by 12 inches, then yes, she has the right to tell you to get off, and yes, should you refuse, legal action can be taken. Its petty, but it is her property.

Its up to you to find a way, using your property, to access both cars. You cannot simply adopt a neighbors property to do so.

Answer 2

The way I understand this is your drive way is to narrow for two cars to pass each other. You are therefore parking your vehicle over in your neighbors yard by about 12 inches you your wife can get by your car and into the back yard.

Your neighbor apparently does not have a drive way and has a curb which she would have to run up over to park in the area you are using 12 inches of.

Regardless of whether your neighbor wishes to park a car in this area or not, or she can park a car here or not, it is her property. It is just like if I decided to come park my pick up in the middle of your front yard. Your property is your property and her property is her property. Yes, if it came down to it you could be prosecuted.

If I were you I would try to work out some kind of an agreement whereby she would let you park there. You might have to pay $25 a month or something, but would it be worth it?

Answer 3

It's not clear whether you are parking in the road outside your house or on your neighbour's actual driveway. If you are parking either fully in the road or partially on the pavement/verge and road, so long as you are not obstructing other road users and your road tax is up to date there's nothing s/he can do about it.

If you are actually parking on his/her driveway as opposed to the pavement which cuts across the end of the driveway, this may be considered trespass as you do not have their permission to do this.

You should perhaps attempt to find an amicable solution to this for both sides before it gets to litigation which will be time consuming and costly. Is there no other way around this? Is your wife's car smaller so if she parks where you do currently her car will not overhang next door? Can you park in the road on the opposite side to your house? I know that this may seem like giving in but if you are using their drive without permission the situation can only get worse.

It might be worth getting a copy of the actual land registration to see where their land starts and ends in relation to your own. You may discover that they do not own that part, you do or the council do therefore case over, they have no argument.

Answer 4

Are you parking on the road in front of her house of actually on her property?
The road and pavement are the councils property and they have the right to say whether you can park there or not. If the council puts in a drop kerb they usually mark the road as well. If a person mounts a kerb to drive onto their property and the kerb has not been dropped then the council can prosecute. So if your neighbour claims it is to allow her vehicular access to her property then she would be breaking a byelaw.

Answer 5

So long as the vehicles in question are parked on a public road and not across a person's driveway, then you cannot be prosecuted.

This is a neighbour dispute and not a legal issue, unless you have parked over your neighbour's driveway, thus blocking entrance and exit to their property.

I have the same problem here where I live, not with neighbours, but idiots parking across my driveway to drop their kids at the nearby school. But then I've got an armoured car WW2 vintage, no one argues with it. Believe. Next year I'm getting a Tiger Tank. Argue with that and your dead, right?

Answer 6

No, you can not prosecute, you did not lose any money. But your neighbor could put up a fence up 2 inches inside the property line. If they did that and get a permit from the City, your wife could not open her door. The property of another is not yours to use as you wish. Even if it's only 12 inches.

Answer 7

Unfortunately if you are parked on someone's property you could be charged with trespassing if you are told to stay off.

What would happen in court is a different story. If you explained your situation to the presiding Justice (with photos of the area to explain your point) chances are he/she may find the complaint frivolous and may suspend the sentence (no fine).

But this certainly isn't going to solve your problem because if you continue to park on the property the neighbour may continue to complain. You should look into a permanent solution to your problem so that you aren't butting heads with the neighbour.

Answer 8

If she has a 6inch kerb outside her drive, her drive has not been adopted and she has no right to drive a vehicle over the non-lowered/non-adopted curb to get to her property. As long as you have road tax you can park there. She has no say so as to what parks (legally) outside her house, she does not own the road!! and has no right of vehicle access where this is essentially no access.

Answer 9

Are we talking about parking on the road? In the UK?

If so, technically no-one has the right to park on the highway except in a designated parking place, yellow lines or not. No-one owns the road in front of their property, me, you and the neighbour included. She's welcome to complain to the police or the council, I can guess the response she'll get!

On the other hand, if we're talking about you actually parking on her property, like nudging your car from your yard onto hers, then it's a civil matter, not a criminal one.

Answer 10

It is an offence to cause a wilful obstruction on the highway, blocking someone's driveway is a wilful obstruction.

Parking your car slightly over her property line isn't an offence though.
As for her "space", technically it's an offence to leave your car abandoned without lawful authority, anyone can theoretically have their car towed from uin front of their house if the police are feeling petty enough.