What would you do ? : unknown car across your drive at 7.00AM

[PeteMorris 10]

Unfortunately most of us don`t have wheel skates. I`ll see if I can think of anything which could be used as a substitute, if I manage it I`ll come back on.

 

It has occurred to me that many of these ideas about moving the car only really apply if there`s room in front (or behind) the errant vehicle to move it to. Moving a car sideways would be far harder and then once moved sideways you`d then have to move it forwards so you could get out. Plus it`d then be blocking the road for all the other residents ! I`m fortunate that my neighbour has an (even more obvious) driveway, so there`d be room to just about get it in such a position we could both get out.

 

---------- Post added 02-03-2015 at 14:09 ----------

 

 

Like it.....

 

Just out of interest....Is it still there, and nobody has come to claim it?...It may well be a stolen car and just abandoned there?....When you contacted the police, did they confirm it's not reported as stolen?

 

That'd be car-jacking wouldn't it?

 

Technically yes it would be Truman...

[RootsBooster 24]

Clearly not since theft is taking property with the intention of permanently deprive.

Hence when the crime of TWOC was created, taking without owners consent. But since you've merely removed it from illegally blocking your driveway, to a position close by, you haven't "taken" it in any definition.

What the police do with it afterwards is up to them of course, and I'm sure they'd be acting in accordance with the law.

 

Depending on the officer that may or may not attend, it can be classed as TWOC. At my first house I occasionally had cars blocking my driveway and had to resort to lifting the rear wheels with a trolley jack and pushing it forward a few feet. A friend I have who is a police officer said it could be classed as TWOC but you would have to have a complete jobsworth of an officer to do anything about it.

[Cyclone 10]

And then the CPS would have to think they had a reasonable chance of conviction to do anything other than laugh at the case.

[percy filth 10]

I remember a case where someone parked a car and blocked access to allotments. During the day folk struggled to get in and out and it appears someone might have caught the car with a wheelbarrow load of paving slabs.

Unfortunately no one saw it happen so the poor guy had to pay for the repairs to his car out of his own pocket.

[Justin Smith 10]

I remember a case where someone parked a car and blocked access to allotments. During the day folk struggled to get in and out and it appears someone might have caught the car with a wheelbarrow load of paving slabs.

Unfortunately no one saw it happen so the poor guy had to pay for the repairs to his car out of his own pocket.

 

The difference is the car`s ignorant owner couldn`t have pinned it on any particular person, unlike if it`s parked across one car`s drive.

 

---------- Post added 02-03-2015 at 16:43 ----------

 

Just out of interest....Is it still there, and nobody has come to claim it?...It may well be a stolen car and just abandoned there?....When you contacted the police, did they confirm it's not reported as stolen?

 

The guy did turn up, at 8.30AM, "early, in case I was blocking anyone in", he thinks 8.30 is early ! He claimed he couldn`t find anywhere else to park it last night "and it was raining" [so he didn`t want to walk too far home one assumes], as you can expect our hearts were positively bleeding for him. He also laughably claimed he thought he`d left room for us to get out. He was fairly apologetic with me but my wife (who`d spoken to him first) said he was anything but with her, being rather curt and telling her "you could get a bus through that gap", well maybe so, one of those ones kids sit in for £1 at shopping centres.....

[Ghostrider 11]

I remember a case where someone parked a car and blocked access to allotments. During the day folk struggled to get in and out and it appears someone might have caught the car with a wheelbarrow load of paving slabs.

Unfortunately no one saw it happen so the poor guy had to pay for the repairs to his car out of his own pocket.

Very strange how you know it was a barrow full of paving slabs

[percy filth 10]

The difference is the car`s ignorant owner couldn`t have pinned it on any particular person, unlike if it`s parked across one car`s drive.

 

Why is that? Would it be your fault if the guy across the road reversed into it?

 

---------- Post added 02-03-2015 at 16:53 ----------

 

Very strange how you know it was a barrow full of paving slabs

 

Yes it is isn't it. Lucky guess I suppose.

[Ghostrider 11]

Why is that? Would it be your fault if the guy across the road reversed into it?

 

---------- Post added 02-03-2015 at 16:53 ----------

 

 

Yes it is isn't it. Lucky guess I suppose.

Hmm, yes a very lucky one

[tzijlstra 11]

I enquired with the council to ask about getting "H-lines" put down. They informed us that it would be at our own expense (no problem) and that it would cost 130£, 80£ each time it needed redoing AND they are not enforceable by council parking attendants, it would require the police to come and enforce it (slim chance...) BUT... they already have to do that anyway if someone parked obstructing the drive, in other words, the H is decoration.

[Chrissoftley 10]

I got so fed up with people blocking my drive I bought a big sign to put on the gate saying "NO PARKING PRIVATE DRIVEWAY DO NOT OBSTRUCT IN CONSTANT USE, THANK YOU"

came home today and somebodys nicked it.

[Olive 10]

I enquired with the council to ask about getting "H-lines" put down. They informed us that it would be at our own expense (no problem) and that it would cost 130£, 80£ each time it needed redoing AND they are not enforceable by council parking attendants, it would require the police to come and enforce it (slim chance...) BUT... they already have to do that anyway if someone parked obstructing the drive, in other words, the H is decoration.

 

This is true Tim, but we decided to have it done because we had such a problem with people parking over our drive, and (touch wood) it seems to have worked. Yes, it doesn't really mean anything legally, but it does seem to make people think twice, so I'd say it's worth doing.

[Justin Smith 10]

I got so fed up with people blocking my drive I bought a big sign to put on the gate saying "NO PARKING PRIVATE DRIVEWAY DO NOT OBSTRUCT IN CONSTANT USE, THANK YOU".

 

I honestly don`t think having a sign (unless it`s ridiculously big and "in their face") would make any significant difference I`ve got a theory that most of the most ignorant parkers who completely block your drive don`t even look to see where they`ve parked. Whether that`s because they`re basically unobservant or because they sub conciously stop themselves looking in case they see something they don`t want to see, that`s the interesting point.

 

---------- Post added 02-03-2015 at 21:32 ----------

 

This is true Tim, but we decided to have it done because we had such a problem with people parking over our drive, and (touch wood) it seems to have worked. Yes, it doesn't really mean anything legally, but it does seem to make people think twice, so I'd say it's worth doing.

 

I think "H lines" do help a bit. More because they help put people off parking partly over your drive. In my experience that is actually a bigger problem than the ignorant (but relatively rare) parkers who completely block it. Vehicles parked partly over the driveway do two things, they make it much more difficult to get out, frequently you can then only get out "one way". But most importantly if another car then parks, quite legally, bang in line with the other side of your driveway you sometimes can`t actually get out at all, particularly if there are vehicles on the other side of the road meaning you can`t get out and swing your car round without your front end hitting them.

Edited March 2, 2015 by Justin Smith