I am having problems with someone blocking the entrance to my drive , does anyone know the best way to deal with it (legally)?.I am not sure whether i can go to the police about it.Also , i have seen white lines painted on some peoples driveway entrances , does anyone know how you can get them ?.
Thank You.

Phone the non emergency number. Ideally with an urgent need to go out, the registration plate and make and model. They will try to contact the owner first, if they can't they will ticket it, if it's not gone in 8 hrs then they will have it towed.

You have to contact the council to get the white H, it's not a compulsory marking (ie traffic wardens still won't do anything), it costs about £80.

I am having problems with someone blocking the entrance to my drive , does anyone know the best way to deal with it (legally)?.I am not sure whether i can go to the police about it.Also , i have seen white lines painted on some peoples driveway entrances , does anyone know how you can get them ?.
Thank You.

Ask the person in question not to do so first before you ring the police
At the end of the day you need to live there and do not want bad air circulatining if avoidable.
Politely inform the said person of his or her actions and request that they do not do it again.
If the behaviour persists then seek further help be it legal or illegal all depends on how much it is bothering you
Not really an issue the police will be running to but never the less there is an issue which needs to be dealt with.
I had a similar issue not so long back and dealt with it like i have asked you do do so and the person in question did not do it again

One morning last year, I woke up to go to work and someone had parked actually IN my drive, blocking my garage doors, so I couldn't get my car out. The sun roof was open, and I was really tempted to put the hose pipe in it, but my husband wouldn't let me! Also I could have put some soil in it, complete with cat sh@t! - but I didn't.

I rang the police and they came out and couldn't believe the audacity of it. They took details of the car and went away. A few minutes later the car was moved and the young lad had a flea in his ear and a few threats from me!

..............................

Agreed with FUTO, I assumed it's a vehicle who's owner you can't locate. If you can, just ask them to move and ask them never to do it again. If they do, make a point of getting them up at 0400 to move it.

ML - you could have climbed in and released the handbrake.

ML - you could have climbed in and released the handbrake.Would have been more satisfying filling it with the hoseipe though.

[QUOTE=Cyclone;3874945]Agreed with FUTO, I assumed it's a vehicle who's owner you can't locate. If you can, just ask them to move and ask them never to do it again. If they do, make a point of getting them up at 0400 to move it.

ML - you could have climbed in and released the handbrake


I can't get my big bum through a sun roof!

Someone blocking you in.....probably as annoying as coming back to your car and finding your tires are flat !!:wink:

It's really annoying, I don't know how they've got the cheek - I know I wouldn't do it.

We sometimes get people blocking our drive even when there's plenty of parking spaces just across the road, it's sheer ignorance.

Oh bugger! The wheelbarrow just rolled away down the drive, quick, catch it before it crashes into th....oops, too late!

OK, not reccomended but it was an accident, right?

And on a serious note (or a curios one), would the "Keep Clear" markings have any bearing on liability for such an accident should it unfortunately occur? Assuming a downward-sloping drive of course, I think proving a magnetic pull uphill would be a bit much!

from a police point of view, legally there is nothing much we can do.

However if your car is on the driveway and it is blocking you from getting on the road, then we can. We would try and contact the owner if we couldnt, we could have it removed, charge the owner £105 and £12 a day storage.

If you come home 1 day and the car is blocking ur drive then there isn't an offence been commited, however we can still try and contact the owner to get it shifted and have a quiet word in is ear!!

i'm sure that under the highway code this is classed as causing an obstruction which is on fact a police matter. if a swift conversation with the people who keep blocking your drive doesn;t work then I'd ring the police each time and get them to come out and ticket the offending vehicle.

The 'H' marks or 'keep clear' markings you're referring to can be done via the council. just speak with the highways dept and explain the situation, and they'rr send someone out to assess whether either of these would be suitable for your driveway. But you will have to pay. I think a 'H' mark is something like £75.

hope that helps

from a police point of view, legally there is nothing much we can do.Doesn't the Traffic Management Act 2004 make it iilegal?

Doesn't the Traffic Management Act 2004 make it iilegal?

Only if it is blocking access to the highway. There is a loophole in it that means they have to actually be stopping a vehicle from entering the highway. Which if there is no car on the drive it isnt doing. Stupid i know but true! That still would not stop it from being dealt with, however they are not actually doing anything wrong.

Last year we had a phone call from a relative saying my dad had had a funny turn and wasn't looking well at all,we rushed out to the car and a Clio was parked right over the drive blocking us in.This was a match day of course :suspect: i got the trolley jack under the back of it and pushed it into the middle of the road so we could get out.It caused chaos apparently but what was i supposed to do ? it is illegal to prevent a taxed vehicle from having access to the highway i have been told by police subsequently.

There is a loopholeMost unlike British Law? :hihi:

there was someone always blocking our drive, so every time i did i put a note under their wiper explaining that they were blocking my drive and asking them not to do so. admittedly the third note on the third consecutive day was less polite but they did not do it again.
is there a difference in law if they are blocking your drive and you have a drop kerb?

is there a difference in law if they are blocking your drive and you have a drop kerb?I think the offence is for blocking a dropped kerb. If you haven't got one then strictly speaking you haven't got access to the highway from a driveway.

Someone blocking you in.....probably as annoying as coming back to your car and finding your tires are flat !!:wink:

Spot on:thumbsup:

I think the offence is for blocking a dropped kerb. If you haven't got one then strictly speaking you haven't got access to the highway from a driveway.

I think this spot on.

I think this spot on.

How do you stand if you've got someone continually parking across from your drive, (across the road) thus making it very difficult to get on your drive, even if you come up or down, this is happening to us, i have had a word with the owner of the house, its his daughters boyfriend, he dosent even live there, but he just made a joke of it, telling us to park across the road first

My business is close to where a certain former premier league team play. When they were in premier league people used to park outside and sometimes blocked our entrance which is clearly marked as an emergency gate to be left clear at all times. On one occasion a car blocked it so we couldn't get in or out and so we lifted it into our yard with the fork lift. We locked it in the yard for the whole weekend and on Monday the owner came and drove it away without saying anything.

I think that if a vehicle is blocking your drive you are within your rights to break in and move it.

How do you stand if you've got someone continually parking across from your drive, (across the road) thus making it very difficult to get on your drive, even if you come up or down, this is happening to us, i have had a word with the owner of the house, its his daughters boyfriend, he dosent even live there, but he just made a joke of it, telling us to park across the road first

This happens to my parents a lot, it just means they don't get off the drive in one move, they sometimes have to manoeuvre a little. It's just part of life - people can now afford more cars per household than they could when the roads/houses were built...

used to live next to a school, and i got sick of parents parking there car in my drive to pick their little darlings up, so one day i blocked them in and took my dog for a 4 hour walk - needless to say they never used my drive as their personal parking space again :D

used to live next to a school, and i got sick of parents parking there car in my drive to pick their little darlings up, so one day i blocked them in and took my dog for a 4 hour walk - needless to say they never used my drive as their personal parking space again :D

My mate did a similar thing, he was an on call electrical engineer at the time. This woman parked infront of his drive to attend a parent teacher evening at the nearby junior and infant school.

My mate politely asked her if she would move it but she declined stating that attending parent teacher evenings gave her the right to park where she wished. He waited until she returned and drove away and followed her in his car, she pulled into her drive and he parked infront of it.

She went loopy but he just said "Its all right luv, I'm going to a parent teacher meeting", and walked off. :hihi:

How do you stand if you've got someone continually parking across from your drive, (across the road) thus making it very difficult to get on your drive, even if you come up or down, this is happening to us, i have had a word with the owner of the house, its his daughters boyfriend, he dosent even live there, but he just made a joke of it, telling us to park across the road firstWe have a similar situation at our house. The neighbour opposite always parks on the road when he gets home from work despite having a drive. The stupid thing about it is he always comes out to move it onto his drive before going to bed.......why not just park on the drive in the first place? :huh:
Luckily our drive is double width so its not too difficult to reverse onto but if it was a standard single width it'd be very difficult.

One morning last year, I woke up to go to work and someone had parked actually IN my drive, blocking my garage doors, so I couldn't get my car out. The sun roof was open, and I was really tempted to put the hose pipe in it, but my husband wouldn't let me! Also I could have put some soil in it, complete with cat sh@t! - but I didn't.

I rang the police and they came out and couldn't believe the audacity of it. They took details of the car and went away. A few minutes later the car was moved and the young lad had a flea in his ear and a few threats from me!

You should have put a FOR SALE sign on it. :D

My drive gets blocked a fair bit but.. I park on the road until it's clear or I ask them to move it... It's bot worth being on the wrong side of your neighbours is it??

There seem to be a few people on here who know the law on this matter... does anyone know what the legal position is if I put up a sign saying 'Anyone blocking this driveway will be clamped. Release fee £100' ??

Am I entitled to clamp another vehicle (without damaging it), and am I entitled to claim a fee for releasing a clamp?

is there a difference in law if they are blocking your drive and you have a drop kerb?

If you do not have a dropped kerb, you do not have permission to cross the path with your vehicle either and could be charged for damage to the path.

There seem to be a few people on here who know the law on this matter... does anyone know what the legal position is if I put up a sign saying 'Anyone blocking this driveway will be clamped. Release fee £100' ??

Am I entitled to clamp another vehicle (without damaging it), and am I entitled to claim a fee for releasing a clamp?

Not on a public highway you are not

We have a similar situation at our house. The neighbour opposite always parks on the road when he gets home from work despite having a drive. The stupid thing about it is he always comes out to move it onto his drive before going to bed.......why not just park on the drive in the first place? :huh:
Luckily our drive is double width so its not too difficult to reverse onto but if it was a standard single width it'd be very difficult.

Some people do that if the car on the drive blocks a door (house or garage).

There seem to be a few people on here who know the law on this matter... does anyone know what the legal position is if I put up a sign saying 'Anyone blocking this driveway will be clamped. Release fee £100' ??

Am I entitled to clamp another vehicle (without damaging it), and am I entitled to claim a fee for releasing a clamp?If you did that (which you aren't allowed to) you would be blocking your drive for even longer thus proving it doesn't matter.

from a police point of view, legally there is nothing much we can do.
If the car is obstructing a driveway then you can a) ticket it, b) tow it away.

However if your car is on the driveway and it is blocking you from getting on the road, then we can. We would try and contact the owner if we couldnt, we could have it removed, charge the owner £105 and £12 a day storage.
If the car is not on the public highway then I'm not sure that the police actually have the right to remove it, but the owner of the driveway certainly does.

If you come home 1 day and the car is blocking ur drive then there isn't an offence been commited, however we can still try and contact the owner to get it shifted and have a quiet word in is ear!!

Yes there is. Obstructing a right of access.

I know they spend less these days teaching bobbies about the law, but this is basic stuff.

There seem to be a few people on here who know the law on this matter... does anyone know what the legal position is if I put up a sign saying 'Anyone blocking this driveway will be clamped. Release fee £100' ??

Am I entitled to clamp another vehicle (without damaging it), and am I entitled to claim a fee for releasing a clamp?

You need to be registered and licensed to clamp now, and I think you can only do so on correctly signed private property.
Nothing illegal about putting up the sign though.

If the car is obstructing a driveway then you can a) ticket it, b) tow it away.
If the car is not on the public highway then I'm not sure that the police actually have the right to remove it, but the owner of the driveway certainly does.

Yes there is. Obstructing a right of access.

I know they spend less these days teaching bobbies about the law, but this is basic stuff.

The Road Vehicles (Construction & Use) Regulations 1986 s103 offence of "obstruction" applies to blocking the highway, not access to it from driveways:
No person in charge of a motor vehicle or trailer shall cause or permit the vehicle to stand on a road so as to cause any unnecessary obstruction of the road.

I couldn't find a specific offence of "obstructing a right of access".

The Traffic Management Act 2004 describes an offence of obstructing a dropped footpath in a designated special enforcement area, but this offence does not apply outside such areas.

The Road Vehicles (Construction & Use) Regulations 1986 s103 offence of "obstruction" applies to blocking the highway, not access to it from driveways:


I couldn't find a specific offence of "obstructing a right of access".

The Traffic Management Act 2004 describes an offence of obstructing a dropped footpath in a designated special enforcement area, but this offence does not apply outside such areas.

Your right dan_999, i dont know where the other person got their info from but as u say it is wrong. They are not actaully blockng the highway if there is no car on the drive it is blocking. Thus not create an obstruction of the highway. Which means it is not commiting an offence, therefore it cant be ticketed, and if taxed and insured cant be removed from the highway. If, like i have said before, it is stoping the car on the driveway from entering the highway then it can be towed away.

We're having trouble on our road with a truck that parks pretty much fully on the pavement, making it impossible to pass. Surely this is illegal?

We're having trouble on our road with a truck that parks pretty much fully on the pavement, making it impossible to pass. Surely this is illegal?

That, is illeagal if the path is impassible!!

That, is illeagal if the path is impassible!!

It's happening constantly too. Who do we contact? We've already had a word with him, but he's not stopping it.

My suggestions are always less polite. :hihi:

Woohoo - Cyclone is OWNED!

Some people do that if the car on the drive blocks a door (house or garage).It doesn't in his case. They have a drive that can easily accommodate 3 cars. And even if it did its still no excuse for inconveniencing others.

That, is illeagal if the path is impassible!!

yes you're right,

what would someone in a wheelchair do, or someone with a pram?

I'd start reporting them until they get the message.

It's happening constantly too. Who do we contact? We've already had a word with him, but he's not stopping it.

My suggestions are always less polite. :hihi:

you call the police - its causing an obstruction. before we moved we had a problem with all the cars parking up the pavement which meant I had to walk down the road with my baby in the pram - very unsafe on a busy road I can tell you.
I rang the police everyday, bobbys would come down and ticket the offending vehicles and now the council have FINALLY done yellow lines (albeit after we've moved) but at least its sorted now!

good luck

Your right dan_999, i dont know where the other person got their info from but as u say it is wrong. They are not actaully blockng the highway if there is no car on the drive it is blocking. Thus not create an obstruction of the highway. Which means it is not commiting an offence, therefore it cant be ticketed, and if taxed and insured cant be removed from the highway. If, like i have said before, it is stoping the car on the driveway from entering the highway then it can be towed away.

I got my info from the police, but not someone in traffic, so I guess I was misinformed.
They have been and ticketed a car for me when I couldn't get into the drive though, and said that it would be towed if it was there in 8 hrs time.
And also put the squeeze on a skip company who'd blocked me out and wouldn't come until the next day, they turned up 30 mins later.

We used to have it quite a lot from our neighbours or neighbours visitors blocking or hanging over drive, making it difficult to get on or off. We were continually going round telling them, ended up with a bit of a row. But it worked in the end. At the end of the day we paid a lot of money to the council to have a dropped kerb done.

Ah, now skips are a different matter - there are a different set of regulations that apply to them.

My business is close to where a certain former premier league team play. When they were in premier league people used to park outside and sometimes blocked our entrance which is clearly marked as an emergency gate to be left clear at all times. On one occasion a car blocked it so we couldn't get in or out and so we lifted it into our yard with the fork lift. We locked it in the yard for the whole weekend and on Monday the owner came and drove it away without saying anything.

I think that if a vehicle is blocking your drive you are within your rights to break in and move it.

Brilliant!!!:hihi:

used to live next to a school, and i got sick of parents parking there car in my drive to pick their little darlings up, so one day i blocked them in and took my dog for a 4 hour walk - needless to say they never used my drive as their personal parking space again :D

Brilliant!!

You should have put a FOR SALE sign on it. :D

never thought of that, could have sold it for a quid!

It's happening constantly too. Who do we contact? We've already had a word with him, but he's not stopping it.

My suggestions are always less polite. :hihi:

Does it have a company name on? There was a vehicle from a company that always parked on the pavement near us on match days and I mentioned them a few times on here and eventually someone posted to say that the member of staff wouldn't be doing it again! Do the same! Just say who it is and he or his boss might get the message!

One of my neighbours paid to have the white line across the bottom of their drive, but actually shot themselves in the foot. Not only can strangers not park there, neither can they. In effect, they have barred themselves from parking across their own drive, own goal or what?

Your right dan_999, i dont know where the other person got their info from but as u say it is wrong. They are not actaully blockng the highway if there is no car on the drive it is blocking. Thus not create an obstruction of the highway. Which means it is not commiting an offence, therefore it cant be ticketed, and if taxed and insured cant be removed from the highway. If, like i have said before, it is stoping the car on the driveway from entering the highway then it can be towed away.

Really? I thought if the car "meant" to be on the driveway is obstructed from getting onto the drive, then it is an offence by the driver blocking the drive?

Does it have a company name on? There was a vehicle from a company that always parked on the pavement near us on match days and I mentioned them a few times on here and eventually someone posted to say that the member of staff wouldn't be doing it again! Do the same! Just say who it is and he or his boss might get the message!

Unfortunately no. I think we're going to try having one more word with him then contacting authorities if he doesn't shift it.

One of my neighbours paid to have the white line across the bottom of their drive, but actually shot themselves in the foot. Not only can strangers not park there, neither can they. In effect, they have barred themselves from parking across their own drive, own goal or what?

Since the white lines have no legal basis, they've done no such thing - they can continue to park there, as can everyone else.