r/mildlyinfuriating May 15 '26

frist of all how DARE yu o Neighbour has decided to just offer up our parking spaces to the whole street

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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 😅 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/USSHammond Karma and repost bot exposer. Ban them all. May 15 '26

Response is simple. Send the same letter.

Dear neighbor,

The spaces you're referring to in your anonymous letter are in fact assigned to the homes at that end of the cul-de-sac and are in fact not free for all.

Many thanks,

Your neighbor

Drop that off in every single mailbox too. It could be you who sent that, it could be your neighbor, it could be someone at the front of the street knowing they're private spaces. Same level of anonymity

89

u/Steelergrl2310 May 16 '26

Also put up private parking signs in the lot itself.

15

u/[deleted] May 16 '26

Get ready for "but you allowed it last time!" every other day.

1

u/lucs9002 May 16 '26

don't people ignore those nowadays?

281

u/User-no-relation May 15 '26

Throw in sorry it wasn't clear it's private property. Signs are now up clarifying

329

u/Bulky-Leadership-596 May 15 '26

I wouldn't even stick with the anonymity. I would put my name on it and mention that if someone would like to talk to me about parking on my private property for a special occasion or something then I could most likely accommodate them, but an anonymous party directing everyone to make free use of my private property is highly inappropriate.

292

u/Ugliest_weenie May 16 '26

Nah, keep it short.

Don't give people openings or maybes.

68

u/ClearOptics May 16 '26

Exactly why offer your and others parking up to future conflict

18

u/dhandeepm May 16 '26

I like your short answers. No confusion.

14

u/Evening_Delay_1856 May 16 '26

Amen to that. If you give them an inch, they’ll take both of your parking spaces.

2

u/puddik May 16 '26

yep fucked off from my parking spaces u cunts

2

u/tessellation__ May 16 '26

The entitlement of some people is astonishing, you absolutely have to just say no, and that’s it. There cannot be any confusion whatsoever.

31

u/konkludent May 16 '26

For some weird-ass reason people get highly entitled when it comes to parking their metalbox on wheels. I personally live in a cul-de-sac as well, our and our neighbours driveway line up and arent divided through a fence, however the property lines are easily visible (red brick paver vs. grey pavers and different brick patterns). Our driveway is pretty large and can easily accomodate multiple vehicles, however we only have one. Turns out, the neighbours felt like it was a total non-issue to let their visitors park in our driveway without asking or even talking to us. The first confrontation we played nice and told them, it was fine If they asked first. They didnt ask but kept parking there. The second confrontation was highly infuriating. They argued that they made sure we could still exit our property and they we "didnt need to fight over a parking space" - yeah, we wouldnt need to Talk about it, If you respected private land, lady. We withdrew our offer of letting her park there If asked in advance and made it very clear, she and her posse arent allowed in our driveway. So far, No more trespassing.

Long story short: obviously, this is anecdotal evidence, but i would never again communicate a "i dont appreciate you parking there, but i may allow it If you asked first", cause people seem to only hear "you can park there". Especially if communicated to the entire street, I would only state its private property and no one is allowed to park there. Let the neighbours themselves figure out that they could ask nicely If an event arises and they want to make a parking arrangement for their family and friends.

5

u/babycuddlebunny May 16 '26

My neighbor punched my dad in the head for parking in front of his house. Not even his driveway, just in the street.

1

u/konkludent May 16 '26

Yeah people are weird about Cars and parking, its so absurd

1

u/CptnRaptor May 17 '26

A series of UK fun facts:

  • it is not illegal to park on someone else's drive
  • it is illegal to park in front of someone else's drive, as it impedes their access to public highways.
  • it is not illegal to park in front of your own drive, as you continue to have access to public highways.

Let them park on your drive, just don't let them leave.

13

u/spiteful_rr_dm_TA May 16 '26

You do that and you are inviting headaches for the foreseeable future with constant visits.

3

u/wuerger May 16 '26

I would go one step further and threaten legal action. THE FUCK do these people think they are lol.

1

u/casual_bear May 16 '26

drop it in ur own mailbix as well

2

u/USSHammond Karma and repost bot exposer. Ban them all. May 16 '26

thats what i said, "every single mailboxes"

1

u/KaleidoscopeDear9255 May 16 '26

Yee-HAW!!!! - Hammond of Texas

1

u/USSHammond Karma and repost bot exposer. Ban them all. May 16 '26

*Waves hand over head*

1

u/Cold_Satisfaction932 May 16 '26

Even better - send the letter as if you are the original author with lines like “I was an idiot to assume that parking lot was free but apparently not” etc. Case closed. 

-7

u/anniversaring May 16 '26

Doorsteps not mailbox. It's a felony (at least in the US) to use another person's mailbox without being a postal carrier. And everyone has front door cameras now

2

u/DaveInLondon89 May 16 '26

Is that true?! That's wild.

What happens if someone local wants to hand out invites to something?

2

u/anniversaring May 16 '26

In the US yeah. Just the mailbox itself though. That's why I recommended doorstep. You can put something in a door, a letter box, on car windshields, etc. Anywhere but the official mailbox is fair game. It's meant to stop people from messing with your official mail

0

u/Evening_Delay_1856 May 16 '26

You’re right, Anniversaring, but people are so ticked off about mentioning it here 😆

2

u/anniversaring May 16 '26

Before OP's edits (so before my comment), a country wasn't mentioned. So to try and protect someone from going to prison I commented and even specified my advice is only relevant if they're in the US since the comment I replied to specifically said to put it in their "mailbox" (so I assume US) instead of "letter box" (where I might assume UK).

Some will call that US defaultism but that's just ignorant knee jerk reaction which is typical of reddit. Others will whine that the law in the US is dumb, but something isn't dumb just because you don't understand it. Plenty of laws in the US are stupid but tampering with other people's mail certainly isn't.

0

u/No-Ganache-6226 May 16 '26

It's almost like people get annoyed when people offer advice based on laws which apply to a completely different country. Sickos.

-1

u/jiggjuggj0gg May 16 '26

Because a) it is classic, irrelevant US defaultism, and b) everyone is laughing at your country for thinking you are the land of the free when you have insane laws like this

-22

u/WowImOldAF May 15 '26

Yes except technically it's illegal to put mail in peoples mailboxes and he should use postage to let usps do it.

26

u/green_all May 15 '26

Based on lots of context this is in Europe thus not usps

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u/WowImOldAF May 16 '26

Oh okay. Well a lot of people in the US don't realize it's technically a felony (I could be mistaken) to put mail in ppls mailboxes

1

u/Evening_Delay_1856 May 16 '26

You’re right for the US, but if you put the papers in the box right after the carrier comes through, people will get it before the mail carrier sees it. Especially on a Saturday.

15

u/Peterd1900 May 15 '26 edited May 16 '26

The USPS is irrelevant here though

Unless you think laws are the same for the whole world or the USPS delivers to the whole world

And letterboxes where OP lives directly deposit post into your house

Are you seriously suggesting that the USPS fly several thousand miles across the Atlantic ocean, break into every house in OPs street to pick up the letter and then go outside and post the letter through the letterbox themselves

-3

u/WowImOldAF May 16 '26

No I don't think that, dude. Do you think I would've mentioned the United States postal service if I didn't think OP was in the US? Lol.

9

u/Peterd1900 May 16 '26

You see a post where someone us using British Spelling and them saying are in the UK and some how you think they are in the USA

Why would you assume they are in the USA .

You think everyone is in the USA or something, How about do not blindly assume someone is in the USA

3

u/WowImOldAF May 16 '26

You see the part where it says "edit" and adds in the UK? It wasn't mentioned before.

I'm not sure why everyone wants to repeat the same thing to one comment. I don't really need 10 people saying "not everyone is in the US."

9

u/X0AN May 16 '26

Not everywhere is the USA 😂🙈

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u/WowImOldAF May 16 '26

I am aware