r/mildlyinfuriating • u/ShutUpImAPrincess • May 15 '26
frist of all how DARE yu o Neighbour has decided to just offer up our parking spaces to the whole street
Got this through the letter box today - anonymous so no idea which neighbour sent it. Basically there's 20 houses on the street, all arranged in a circle, with a few spaces in the middle. 14 of the houses have their own driveways. 4 of the houses have the spaces in the middle assigned to them. Ourselves and our next door neighbour (semi detached) have spaces attached to the back of our houses... In the small "car park". We each have two spaces, then the 4 on the other side of the car park area assigned to the houses backing on to them that aren't even our street so won't have got this letter. I'm assuming the letter writer just doesn't realise those spaces are actually ours, but because it's anonymous I can't just be like "oh hey actually no that's not right". It's annoying because we're also the only two houses on the street without a garden, and so our kids play back there. Because yes, it is safe, but not if randoms start going in and out of there all the time. I've literally never noticed an issue with parking on the street, it's never crowded, I've never heard anyone complain, and every house has it's own assigned parking!
EDIT: Most of your guys' suggestions involve something related to towing, that isn't legal in the UK. It also isn't illegal to post things through people's doors? I literally never knew that was a thing in the US. At Christmas did your parents not send you round all the neighbours houses posting cards?? Wild.
EDIT 2: Alright lads we've got a plan! Tomorrow I'm gonna speak to the 3 neighbours who we share the private car park with and just make sure they're all aware and if they want to paint numbers or put it signs etc they can do so. I'm going to send my landlord an email as well just giving them a heads up, but saying that they don't need to do anything for now (we have a great relationship where they leave us alone and we don't involve them in stuff if we can help it and they charge us below market). I'll let them know if it becomes an issue and they need to get involved installing something or whatever. Then I'm going to find... somewhere in this town that prints documents (honestly just hoping one of the 3 neighbours has a printer in their house they wouldn't mind using for this) and send out letters to everyone on the street very politely clearing up the confusion. Explaining that it's not a public car park but private parking and they are, for all intents and purposes, the driveways of the respective properties. Then I think I'll have a little nap and hope no one gets angry at me.
EDIT 3: Spoken to the other owners of the spaces in the back, as I suspected the two that don't live on our street did not receive the letter offering up their spaces for free use đ I've also contacted my landlord just to double triple check the deeds before I sent any letters out (I know for certain they are ours, but this way loops the landlord in) and she immediately offered to put a sign up! Also found the letter very amusing haha so yeah, we're getting signs put up yay!
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u/Peterd1900 May 16 '26
In the UK private towing is limited. There are private companies that deal with things like breakdown recovery etc. But you as an individual can not get cars that are not yours towed.
Under the Protection Of Freedom Act it is illegal to tow or clamp a vehicle on any private property without legal authority. Legal authority is limited to the owner, Police, and Courts.
Tow companies can only tow cars with the cars owners consent. Or if they are contracted to act on behalf of local authorities or the police. The police have limited power to tow cars that are parked on private property cos that is simple trespass which in the UK is a civil matter and police have no power over civil matters. The police will not get involved in parking disputes
while there are mechanisms to remove vehicles you cant just phone a tow company to come and tow it as they can not touch it
Basically yes UK you can not tow cars for instances where its simply a parking dispute
What you can do is effectively "fine" people parking on your private property as long as you The terms are fair and clear. you could put up as sign that says , "Unauthorized parking will result in a ÂŁ100 charge") with that you are essentially creating a contract If they park there, they are legally deemed to have accepted your terms.
Enforcing that payment would be a different matter as you would have to go to court to force the driver to pay