Once you give them a repair estimate they may get a clue .

 

You should have addressed the parking issue with the neighbor before. Since they were blocking your driveway, it's pretty black & white and should have been pretty easy to resolve.

But my question is, why did you block their driveway with your car? You have a whole new set of issues now.

Sounds like you and your neighbor aren't exactly best friends. If that's the case and you're fine with that, I'd just get their insurance info and make the claim to have your car fixed/totaled (whatever the case may be). If you guys are pals and want it to stay that way, then go talk to them and figure it out.

 

You know that if you say anything to them now they will look at it if you didn't park the car there we would have never hit it. I wouldn't let them off the hook and not pay for the damage but in a nice way maybe you could say we always look when we back out of our driveway so we don't hit any of your cars parked in the street.

 

I always back my car in. Makes it easier when leaving.

 

When you say "blocking your driveway" what you really mean is that they park on the opposite side of the street, directly across from your driveway, which means you have to use extra care backing out because you don't have much room. I've always thought that anyone who parks like that is pretty much a dumbass. You're begging for your car to get hit.

My neighbors have a nanny who comes every day M-F and does the exact same thing across from the end of my driveway. She leaves the car there all day even though the house has a two car garage, and a long driveway that is wide enough for two cars over it's entire length. We have wide streets, so it's not a terrible inconvenience unless I'm backing my trailer in and out.

I remember my father-in-law telling me many years ago that nothing good ever comes from starting a war with the neighbors, and that has proven very wise advice. That said, it's probably time to discuss with your neighbor, and let them know they are inconveniencing you.

FWIW though, I can tell you that parking in the street blew up into an issue in my neighborhood recently because of the inconsiderate parking habits of some renters with a lot of cars, and basically, at least here where I live, people are perfectly within their legal rights to park like that. It's disrespectful to neighbors, but legal.

 

Bryan,
I have addressed the issue in the past. There was an incident 8 years ago when i blew my top about the wife blocking my driveway. She apologized up and down about blocking my driveway. But continued to do so.
I explained the reason I have the Honda civic parked in the street. In addition to be quite honest I was showing them what it is like to have ones driveway blocked. Also if I was to park the Civic in the street that is the only place to do so as their vehicle is parked across from my driveway It would create a bottleneck if I also parked in that area.
As far as not getting along with my neighbor that is not so. We get along fine. As well as any other neighbor. That is the reason I dont want to start a war. Because we are civil to each other.
Finally , i asked for suggestions. Not jugement and should haves.

 

I couldn't figure out why you wouldn't have parked in front of your house instead of across from their driveway. You knew that was just a accident waiting to happen. Now that you said about the bottleneck I can see your point there also. You were looking out for others and got clipped in the end anyways. Hopefully you can talk it out without them getting an attitude. Good thing it wasn't the Chevelle.

 

By the way it is legal to park in tne street here. Although I have never done so prior to thix in my entire time I lived here. If there was room I always parked in the driveway as not to inconvenience other drivers and to protect my cars.

PS. The daughter came over and told me she hit the car. She is actually a very nice person. I told her that I will tell my son about it but I wanted to talk to her dad. He is actually a nice guy also. The wife is a goof.
Well 10 minutes later the dad calls me. I didnt want to discuss this over the phone so I asked if he could come over after work. I plan on keeping it civil but really want this parking issue resolved.

 

Just move to Oakdale.

 

Simple solution (at least what I would do.)

(1) Give them a bill to fix the car, and either have them pay it or file an insurance claim against their insurance. Just a normal auto accident type deal, don't make it personal or anything to do about the parking.
(2) Instead of parking the Civic where you did, park it where they always park. Yes, just as inconvenient to you compared to them parking there, but it makes the point, and it shows that you are moving the Civic away from where their daughter could hit it easily again.

 

Coming from someone who has been the victim of an ongoing neighbor war (10 months and counting), tread lightly.

* Is this something you can learn to live with? This might be your best recourse.
* Do you have a good enough relationship with your neighbor to discuss? Keep in mind, it could mess up that relationship which could be bad since both of you plan to stay.
* How reasonable is your neighbor likely to be?
* Some people do things intentionally. Others are oblivious (sometimes even after pointing things out). Find out his motivations - why does he park like that?
* Offer an alternative solution - support with good reasoning.
* Give him the bill for the damage but be prepared for the outcome.
* Good luck!

 

* Is this something you can learn to live with? This might be your best recourse.

Ultimately I would like for them to park in their driveway but it is possible for them to park further down the street (30 or 40 feet) and not block my or anyone elses driveway. I assume they park there as it is conve ient to come and go from their house.

 

I have a similar issue, but "milder". The neighbor's daughter across the street will park opposite my driveway. I have a wide driveway with front garages, they have a narrow one that goes around back. So if she parks in the driveway, they can't get other cars out. So she parks directly in front of her house where their walk goes to the street. It used to be ALL the time, every day, but since I started doing this, it is very rare.
When I back out, and see any of them outside, I purposely back very close to her car and brake hard like I either didn't notice it, or got shocked and panic braked to miss it. She stopped parking there rather quickly, nothing said, no contact or damage.
My daily drive stays outside, so I back it in, but the cars in the garage (El Camino and wife's car) get backed out.
Every driveway in my plan can hold at least 6 cars, and I hate seeing the same cars in the street because they are lazy. I don't mind at all when there is holidays or parties when visitors line the streets, but for Pete's sake, park in your own driveway.

 

Not trying to sounds harsh Brad. After reading the comments, maybe a little more clarification is needed....were you parked on their side of the street, physically blocking their driveway? Or were you parked against the curb across the street from their driveway? If it's the latter, then what happened to your car is on them. Still not sure if the neighbor is the one next door or the one across the street, my bad if I missed that.
In my neighborhood our houses are all much closer together so "blocking the driveway" actually means parking on the same side of the street as the driveway and physically blocking it. This is what I figured you meant when I read your original post. If we park in the street, it is pretty much impossible to not be directly across from someone else's driveway and people park that way all the time.
I think the right thing to do here would be to follow the same process as you would if any other driver causes damage to your vehicle and go through the insurance. Not sure how it works in your state but in MI that would mean the driver at fault could be held responsible for paying the deductible on the vehicle they damaged, and the insurance companies would pick up the rest.

 

Brad
the only way that the Neighbour's Daughter hit the Honda where it is parked in the pic
is if she was in a hurry and did not look in her Rearview mirrors when doing so,
plus out of habit from before when there were no cars parked there

I have the same problem on my Street with people visiting the Neighbours and they park across from each other
and thus the Bottleneck situation you were trying to avoid,
so I agree with where you parked as they were doing the same thing to you

Give them the Bill for the repairs, period .
that sends a message to the Daughter to be more careful and to the Parents
that the same thing could happen accidentally to their car if parked across from your Driveway .

And I agree with Steve's # 2 point in his Post # 10

 

Why not park across the street from your own driveways. That way if you hit a car while backing out it is your own not the neighbor's.

 

This is an excellent idea.
Also, as dyno jonn suggested, my wife and I always back in to our driveway when we come home. Makes it lightyears easier to pull out if anyone is parked on the other side of the street.

 

i have this same situation. My neighbor has a 1 car width driveway that he puts his 2 cars in nose to tail. i have a double wide driveway with 4 cars so i am moving cars around alot to drive my fav. This changes upon the season, so its not a daily thing at all. When he wants to use the car thats blocked in, he pulls the other one into the street, parks on the other side of the street in front of my driveway instead of his. i find this to be unbelievably inconsiderate, and after 13 yrs still does it. When i park a vehicle on the street, i park it on the opposite side of the road blocking my driveway. I think my neighbor is a moron and i leave it at that since i have to live next to him, even though i rarely talk to them. I guess they may find me starting up either of my cars on a weekend i work at 5:15 am to be a bit annoying as well, but oh well.

 

i have this same situation. My neighbor has a 1 car width driveway that he puts his 2 cars in nose to tail. i have a double wide driveway with 4 cars so i am moving cars around alot to drive my fav. This changes upon the season, so its not a daily thing at all. When he wants to use the car thats blocked in, he pulls the other one into the street, parks on the other side of the street in front of my driveway instead of his. i find this to be unbelievably inconsiderate, and after 13 yrs still does it. When i park a vehicle on the street, i park it on the opposite side of the road blocking my driveway. I think my neighbor is a moron and i leave it at that since i have to live next to him, even though i rarely talk to them. I guess they may find me starting up either of my cars on a weekend i work at 5:15 am to be a bit annoying as well, but oh well.

Honest question here so I hope it doesn't sound rude. But is this a PA thing? Are the roads narrower in your neighborhood?

I only ask because the #1 gripe I hear from my neighbors is when other people park in front of their house. In all practicality, what you are saying makes perfect sense to me. But if that's how we did it on my block, suddenly everyone would be complaining about other people parking in front of their house. Makes no sense to me because we all have driveways anyway. To be completely honest, this thread is the first time I've ever seen it be an issue for someone to be parked on the other side of the street.

 

Brad,
First of all need to understand what you mean by "blocking" your driveway ?
1. Are they parking on your side of the street with part of their car blocking your driveway ??
2. Or are they parking across the street directly across from your driveway ?

If its number one then just call the police and have them towed.

If its number two there is absolutely nothing you can do about it except be careful backing out of your driveway.

I had neighbors next door for the last 10 years or so that parked on our cul-de-sac directly across from my driveway. It was a pain to back out but nothing I could really do about it. Fortunately they moved out last summer and the new neighbors use their driveway

 

2. Or are they parking across the street directly across from your driveway ?

It is this

 

First get an accident report in case he doesnt wanna pay
Going to be hard to tell someone where to park but the suggestion you ea park on the opposite sides of your driveways is good that way if anything gets hit its on them. Backing in is a good choice for both also
Now if they were actually blocking your driveway different story id have it towed in 2 seconds, screw the neighbors.

 

We've lived in the same house since '69'. Same type of issues. The neighbor across the street has a vacant lot next to them which they can and do park in and still parks behind our drive and in front of our house from time to time. There's just not much one can do about it, its a city street and legal. The daughter did back into one of ours once although it wasn't directly behind their drive. It was actually in front of our house very close to our drive. The daughter backed out toward the front of their house and clipped our car. She was driving forward as I walked out of my house. I walked out and looked and our car had been hit although I didn't actually see the impact. They of course denied they did anything, although there was red paint on their bumper on that side and black paint on ours where the damage was, lol. Oh well, lesson learned. I never got along with them before and certainly didn't after.

Richard

 

well something like this happened to my neighbor(neighbor A). Their neighbor(Neighbor B) would always park in front of neighbor A's house and it drove them nuts because neighbor B had a driveway she could use. One night Neighbor B's car was side-swiped in the middle of the night and no one knew who did it. They never parked in the road again.

 

What we started doing here after three or four vehicles got backed into on both sides is we quit parking directly across from driveways but you still have to be careful because there may be a visitors car.

 

I've had the same issue for 20 years with the people next door, at one stage they had eight cars

I finally snapped(knocked on their door and went berserk ) 12 months ago, painted line marking paint out the front of my house and told them not to park before it.........They sort of get it now, but are obviously a bit dim and couldn't give a continental stuff about other people.

 

Sorry if I don't agree... Its a public street, with what looks like a lot of room. I don't see an issue here except the inconvenience that you or them need to be a bit more cautious in your driving habits. Its not against the law, its just one of your pet peeves. Get over it, life is to short to sweat the small stuff.

 

Makes me so glad I live where I do. I will never again own a house where there is an HOA, or in an area where stuff like this becomes an issue. I totally understand the necessity of living near work, and I sympathize. And if you happen to find yourself with some extra bucks and just can't figure out what to do with it-

 

I'd just be honest with the guy. Tell him it's always bothered you about their parking habits. Tell them why you have never said anything before. Ask them if there is anything that could be done differently. Good Luck. You will get to see if they care about being considerate. Just be honest. I'd try to get all 3 family at the same time. Sounds like your a nice guy. I'd tell them about that also.

Don't forget to tell them you want some insurance information.

 

After replying a few times and thinking about it some more I think I've finally came up with the solution. Seeing that they aren't using their driveway park your cars in it. > Merry Christmas Everybody :thumbsup: