FINDING a parking space can be a stressful experience in crowded residential areas.
It can be frustrating if someone parks in front of your house, preventing you from leaving your car there. But there are actually some cases where this is perfectly acceptable in the eyes of the law.
Do you have the right to a parking space outside your home?
There is no legal requirement for your neighbors to try to leave space outside their home to you, although some may do so out of courtesy.
It is actually not “your right” to park in front of your property unless you have a designated parking space, and while it may be tempting, you are also not allowed to save “your” space with a cone.
Leaving anything on the road can be classed as an obstruction and is illegal – unless you have permission from the city council.
Any citizen can park on their street, as long as it is not governed by residents’ parking permits and as long as they comply with restrictions and do not cause obstructions.
If your street has permits, anyone with the right permit can park anywhere in the relevant zone.
There is also no law about how long someone can park in the same space unless the police think the car has been abandoned.
If your neighbors take up street space when they have a perfectly good driveway that they don’t use, they are doing absolutely nothing wrong in the eyes of the law – even if they are denying you access to that much-needed access. last parking space.
However, it is illegal to park in front of a school, on the zigzag lines of a crosswalk, and in designated, marked spaces for which you do not have a permit.
Is it illegal to park in someone’s driveway?
Although it may seem like it should be, someone blocking your entrance is not technically illegal.
They are committing a parking violation, however, if their wheel is over the fallen curb.
There are two types of dropped curbs: those for pedestrians, especially those with strollers or wheelchairs, and those for drivers to access sidewalks.
Vehicles parked on a dropped curb can be fined even if they don’t completely block it, but parking too close to a dropped curb or directly in front of it is not illegal, even if it restricts access.
In the rare case of someone blocking your entrance and not leaving you should call your local council as this is a civil matter, not a police matter.
The police may become involved if the car is causing an obstruction on the road.
According to the Highway Code, a car cannot obstruct the road, but this does not include obstructing access to private land.
Is it illegal for someone to park in your garage?
A strange legal loophole means anyone can park in your garage – and there’s not much you can do about it.
There have been a number of cases in the UK where owners have been trapped with a stranger’s car in their garage, only to be told that neither the police nor local authorities have the power to move it.
In the case of a stranger parking in your garage, a problem arises when the line between criminal and civil law becomes blurred.
If a car is parked on a public road and blocks your entrance, local authorities certainly have the power to issue a fine.
But once the car heads your way, it’s technically on private property – and local councils have no jurisdiction.
Councils are required to remove abandoned cars from public and private property, but if the engine in question is taxed, insured, has a valid MOT and is not in a dangerous condition, they are unlikely to touch it on private land.
The police will recognize that the car is technically a break-in, but they will class it as a civil offense, putting it well down their priority list and meaning you would need an eviction notice from the courts.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story