Neighbours

[Richard]

This isn't shite-related but it's a situation that might be familiar to all you shite collectors.

 

At about 1:30 today I parked my work's Transit in front of the neighbour's house, for the first time in the six weeks I've been getting the van home. Normally I put it down our drive out of the way at weekends but not this time. Apart from the van we have two cars

 

At 4:00 I came back from the park on foot with Richard Jr to be met by an irate neighbour asking me to park in front of my own house and lecturing me about common courtesy. There is no shortage of parking in our street and he didn't have visitors so this was purely about him having to look at my van.

 

The offending van is on the right. Does the neighbour have a point? Am I wrong to be incandescent about this? It's being lectured on common courtesy that rankles the most. I don't think I have ever even parked in front of his house before.

 

Does anybody else have a wanker living next door?

 

[retrogeezer]

Well, yes it's petty but, for want of being called a wanker, it would p1ss me off to have to look out of my lounge window at a neighbours works van. I know it's taxed/insured etc and has every right to park there, it's just that these days, people can't be arsed to walk more than 20 feet to their door. Is there not a part of the road where you can leave it where no-one has to look at it? I would say that if it's a very occasional thing then he was wrong to moan about it, and I certainly wouldn't have coz lifes too short. In the photo there is another van in the road outside what I guess is your house? So does that mean you have 2 cars in the drive and 2 vans in the road?

[Ross_K]

Shoulda told him you pay road tax and can park wherever the f ck you want.Although having a child with you at the time you probably didn't want to go down the verbal confrontation route.The problem with tossers like this and their petty grievances is that things get out of hand pretty fast. Better off just laughing at him and walking off...

[Guest greenvanman]

The problem with tossers like this and their petty grievances is that things get out of hand pretty fast. Better off just laughing at him and walking off...

Seconded. Life's too short to waste time and oxygen on people like that.

[retrogeezer]

I guess I'm in the minority then.... I definitely wouldn't let it bother me if it was my neighbour, I wouldn't particularly like it - but that would be the end of it.Funny thing is, you can bet the 1st time he needed a fridge freezer collecting or an old sofa taking to the dump, you would be the first person he asked!

[Richard]

That's the first time I've ever parked anything outside his house and it was only there for a couple of hours before he complained. Even when I'm shuffling cars to put the van up the drive I park in front of the other neighbour.

 

The Courier van is my father in law's but it was only there for the afternoon. We have two cars in the drive, there is rarely more than one of our vehicles in the street and I usually put all three up the drive at weekends. There isn't anywhere out of sight that I can park it.

 

As I say it was the lecturing way he complained that annoyed me. A simple "how long is that van going to be there?" would have sufficed. I've no intention of letting things get out of hand. Somebody else will land one on him one day, without the need for me to get myself in trouble.

[retrogeezer]

Yeh, sounds like he was bang out of order then. Probably been waiting for the day you park outside his place just to say something! And, it's not even a tatty van. I do remember reading once that parking issues are the biggest reason for neighbours to fall out - it's easy to see why in this multi car world we live in now.

[Guest greenvanman]

And, it's not even a tatty van.

Imagine if someone parked this outside his window

 

[Richard]

Is it for sale?

[pogweasel]

I park my van outside my neighbours every night. I don't like to do it but there's simply nowhere for it to go. That said it is not signwritten & much smaller ergo less intrusive. And surely much less irritating than the untaxed, multicoloured Mongdeo of the local Polski builder that is always abandoned close by.

[bigstraight6]

Rather pedantic individual you have the misfortune to live next door to there Richard, put a knackered Hillman Avenger on breeze blocks in your front garden to really piss him off

[Albert Ross]

Better than that, buy a Rolls Silver Shadow, and park that outside his house....................You think he would grumble then??

[Mr_Bo11ox]

He would if it was that one Raymanboy's got. If only cos he would get sick of knuckle draggers knocking on his door asking to 'take it away'.

[Baz]

This sort of thing really can bring you down....We had a similar situation at our old house....A new neighbour moved in next door, I think I was very neighbourly towards him (even to the point of pushing his crappy VW Golf V6 up and down the road on the numerous occasions that it failed to start), until he started telling us where we could and couldn't park our cars, because he "didn't want to see them out his window"

 

He said that a compromise needed to be reached, yet refused to compromise at all....It got to the point where I was afraid to go outside and wash/work on my car, in case I saw him, because if I did I was overcome by the urge to RIP HIS FUGGIN' HEAD OFF....He frequently parked his works van in awkward positions just to annoy us, and my wife was often reduced to tears over it all.

 

Needless to say, we moved....

 

It's best not to let stuff like this escalate (as I did)....If You can park all of your vehicles on your own property, try to do so, then everybody else can go to hell!

 

Generally, I find that the world is full of NASTY, UGLY people....It's a sad fact of life....Maybe that's why I love animals so much!

[Albert Ross]

I have 6 vehicles at home. 2006 Focus on the road. 1994 Astra on the road. 1994 Golf on the road. 1961 Land Rover in a pile in the garden, 1970 Land Rover nearly complete at the head of the drive. Most of another 3 Land Rovers in a stack at the foot of the drive. My neighbour (who has lived here since 1938) is a treasure. When the pikeys appear and ask after scrap, or indeed just "looking into the field mate" from their van, he is the first out, stick in hand, to clear them off. On our little cul de sac, with 6 houses, there are 12 cars, 6 of which are mine........ All we do is look out for each other, and any time a car needs work, I get the job. For instance....replace a 16 valve twin cam Honda into a Rover 400 at midnight on a Sunday so the bloke over the road can get to work on a Monday morning. Fit a few bulbs to the old guy over the road's Rover 216 GTi (L plate one owner!!!!!!!) It's a 3 door coupe....16v Single cam Honda......mmmmmmm. Me want. The previous neighbour in the house next to us even wanted me to weld their Astra Convertible the other year..............I do repairs for all sorts of people on the street, (not just neighbours) and have had other people's untaxed/tested cars on the street for weeks at a time. Nobody ever grumbles (yet) even when I do engine rebuilds/clutches and leave oil everywhere.

[fiatdaft]

i hate most of my neighbours,the prob hate me,the wife and i are thinking of moving very soon,the only thing that bothers me is the new neighbours when they see whats moving in!albert ross,you are a lucky bar steward!

[Torsten2001]

I live opposite a Ghanain pub, it's just taken me 15 minutes to find a space and then a 5 minute walk because it's so busy, but then I currently have 6 cars parked in the street, simply put, fuck 'em

[wuvvum]

I don't think my new neighbours know about my fleet yet. They've seen me turn up in a variety of different vehicles but for the minute I only have two cars at the new place (the Sud on the driveway and the Saab on the road). They've got a shock coming when I move out of the old place in two weeks' time...It could get interesting actually: my house is on a bend in the road so is sort of a corner plot so there's plenty of frontage - I could probably fit three fairly large cars nose to tail along my garden wall, but the problem is that the houses over the road don't have driveways so their cars are always parked on the road, and the road isn't wide enough to have cars parked on both sides. There's plenty of places around and about to park cars though, as long as they're taxed, and so far the only people I've spotted looking at the Sud were looking more interested than disapproving. So fingers crossed I might get away without creating too much friction...

[STUNO]

EMIGRATE

[Chris_W_Q4]

My old neighbours used to have visits from the offspring every sunday, an most evenings at random for 1/2 an hour here and there. Because I was at the end of the road it meant my LHD Alfa 164 Q4 was hemmed in to within 10mm in by a Tino, or to rub it in even more - a truly awful twin-exit exhaust Dodge Neon R/T. Which they replaced with an equally crummy Citroen C3 convertible thing (in orange and silver 2 tone). They only lived just round the corner anyway, the miserable lazy tw@ts!!When I moved, I deliberately chose a house which wasn't at the end of a cul-de-sac etc. My neighbours knackered Merc Sprinter doesn't bother me at all. Much better!!

[fotorabia]

In Wellington i lived on a busy coastal road..this heavily tattooed american twat moved into a caravan above my cottage..and i asked him not to park outside my front entrance just on the basis so i could see what was flying around the corner when i stepped out onto the road...i was told in kind to go fack meself..but in the end he parked the godawful Wrangler jeep on the beachside..plus i didnt want that horrid SUV associated with my house!..and i agree with STUNO...emigrate...

[Mr Lobster]

The emigrate idea is one that appeals to me big time, and not just for parking...However, I'd say your neighbour was going way over the top, if the van was in front of his house all the time then maybe he would have a point but to go off on some great lecture after just one occasion is madness.I don't have too much trouble here with parking, can get three cars (just) parked outside the house on what once was the front garden, one in the garage and two at a push on the road and most people around here are fairly considerate.I'd agree with Baz though in that disputes with neighbours should be avoided where possible as some people will do anythin to make others lifes a misery.

[Marty]

.If You can park all of your vehicles on your own property, try to do so, then everybody else can go to hell!

I did teh honorouble thing and gravelled over my lawn, so at one point had a selection of British and French tin and a Swift Caravan out the front - but nothing on the road.... Did my neighbours appreciate this? No the cnuts didn't and complained to the fugging council about the state of my front garden as it was "lowering the tone and house prices".FFS we live opposite a Victorian Cotton Mill that has gone all "little industrial units" how the fugg can having a Swift Corvette and partially dismembered BX possibly lower the tone any more?

[r.welfare]

I think I heard somewhere that they are changing planning regulations so you can't just gravel your front lawn any more. This might be complete toss though, so don't take it as gospel - mind you, a friend with a new build specifically has it written into the deeds that you can't do it.Anyway, I gravelled my lawn 3 years ago so I'm OK, so there's offroad parking for 6 at a push (including the garage). There are only two other houses (out of about 40?) in the street with a driveway, so as you can imagine it's carnage and my neighbours often get into disputes over "spaces" outside their respective houses. The one neighbour (2 doors down) who gets most in a flap about it now has the most legitimate reason for it, as his wife has been badly crippled in a car accident - but why he doesn't request a disabled bay to be painted outside his house, I don't know - particularly as he works for the council!Sometimes visitors to our neighbours partially block our drive, usually casting derisory looks at me if I'm working on the Peugeots as they park, almost challenging me to say something about it. It's at times like this I wish I had an old Volvo 740 I could just jump into and throw into reverse..."Oh, terribly sorry old chap, just didn't see you there..."

[TheScrapman]

I guess we are lucky then. Got a 150 year old 6' brick wall all around our property. Space for 5-6 cars in the yard and also three smalish cars will go in the barn.Neighbours are great though, always interested in any silly project I happen to be working on.Fully sympathise with any here who do suffer the wrath of the neighbours. I 've had problem with them in the past. It can be most unpleasent. As much as we want to mouth off at them or bash their aging mundaino with a large pole, it really is best just to smile sweetly and walk away.

[Spottedlaurel]

Neighbours? What, you mean the rabbits, ducks, pheasants (and probably rats) etc? They don’t complain much…I sympathise with anyone who does suffer. About the parking thing, so long as you’ve parked on the highway without blocking anything what’s the problem? Having said that, it’s a bit grim at my in-laws when a neighbour parks his big van outside their terraced house with no garden, so it completely blocks the light and view, but whenever we visit we have to park outside someone else’s so it’s just one of those things.We spent the last 10 years living next to a slightly odd family (The Clampetts one friend called them) who we had to be unduly considerate about without that being properly reciprocated, to avoid conflict, so it’s rather nice to be utterly selfish at the new place.People who we’ve met so far at the new house seem great, one chap pulling the stuck-in-mud removal lorry out with his Land Rover and others offering us their driveway when they saw we were struggling with vehicles after the above. Nearest people are 150m across fields, and I suspect if I was using grinders etc at midnight the sound would travel but with the children I won’t be doing that anyway.Albert Ross, sounds like you have it very good! That’s what life should be about.

[CortinaDave]

I posted a similar rant a while back about the woman across the road from me who is the spawn of satan.The other day i looked out of my window to see two kids scooping up handfuls of the pebbles on my drive and was just on my way out to give them abuse when i saw what they were doing with them... taking pot shots at the bint's car.So i let them get on with it

[Dead_E23]

Yesterday afternoon I noticed some of my neighbours taking ages about squeezing their car into a stupidly small space in front of my shonky old Defender, and overheard Mr Twit berating Mrs Twit for scraping their door. Today I noticed some paint missing from the corner of the LR's rusty front bumper. No sign of a note, either.I'm not too bothered, but the door of their '06 Audi A4 RS4 Avant is a MESS. Bwahahaha!

[MrRegieRitmo]

I do remember reading once that parking issues are the biggest reason for neighbours to fall out - it's easy to see why in this multi car world we live in now.

Especially appropriate for the Autoshite community!

[MrRegieRitmo]

something very funny

Baz your new signature is Klass!! You have the right attitude towards it, life sucks but have a laugh about it anyway!