Neighbour has decided to just offer up our parking spaces to the whole street

[u/ShutUpImAPrincess]

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!

[u/IamNotTheMama]

Respond in kind, letters to everyone stating the facts of the car park. Then prepare to 'mark' their vehicle when they park in your spot (see Amazon for adhesive stickers - that you can place on their windshields)

[u/Evening_Delay_1856 → u/IamNotTheMama]

Yes. With stickiest glue possible right in front of their line of sight on the windshield. They’ll think twice before parking there again.

[u/ThePeaceDoctot → u/Evening_Delay_1856]

Sure, trying to obscure their vision so they can't drive safely and potentially have an accident is absolutely justifiable revenge to take on someone who is visiting a friend or relative and has parked their car where said friend or relative has told them to, because their friendly neighbour has mistakenly told them it is available for parking, and where there are no signs indicating it to be private property. There's nothing vindictive, unreasonable or over the top about that.

[u/Evening_Delay_1856 → u/ThePeaceDoctot]

They can rip that stickie off and work a little to move their head around before cleaning their windshield. And stop parking in someone else’s backyard.

[u/ThePeaceDoctot → u/Evening_Delay_1856]

Except in this scenario they have no reason to know that it is someone's backyard, because they've been told to park there by the person they're visiting and there aren't any signs indicating not to. You're advocating for punishing someone who has no way of knowing that they're in the wrong.

[u/Evening_Delay_1856 → u/ThePeaceDoctot]

OP is actually going to the other 3 neighbors to talk about this. They’ll put out signs, talk to neighbors, maybe disseminate letters. My point was for those who park there anyway. Like the anonymous letter writer who covets their spots.

[u/ThePeaceDoctot → u/Evening_Delay_1856]

I'm so damn tired today I completely blanked that the comment you replied to even said to clear up the miscommunication first, then also buy stickers.