Woman baffled as neighbour demands car moved for bizarre reason across the street

Maintaining harmony with your neighbours might occasionally require actions that seem illogical to you. Everyone aims for a good rapport with those living nearby, understanding that while you don't have to become best buddies, being courteous contributes to a welcoming neighbourhood vibe.

This ensures a comfort level where you don’t feel the need to tread lightly at home or when heading to local shops. Exercising neighbourly respect often involves adhering to requests from those around you. Compliance could include lowering the volume of music, confining noisy DIY projects to acceptable hours, and ensuring pets do not intrude into others' gardens.

For most, these are reasonable adjustments in the spirit of neighbourliness. However, one woman was perplexed when her neighbour requested her to move her car off the street, citing a peculiar justification for wanting the vehicle relocated.

In a Reddit post, the bemused woman recounted recently settling into a "corner house" in a fresh locale. Limited parking in front of her property means she takes advantage of roadside space beside her home, which doesn’t obstruct neighbours' residences, reports the Mirror.

She parked her car without a second thought, until her neighbour confronted her, demanding she move her vehicle for "blocking their driveway", despite it being parked by the side of her own house. The woman's confusion grew when she realised that the complaining neighbour lived across the street, nowhere near where her car was stationed.

She recounted the incident: "There's not a lot of parking on the road in front of my house, but have the whole side/street area to park. Decided to park there. Well. The neighbour doesn't like that and demands that I move my car at that moment because I am blocking their driveway ... across the street."

"Mind you, their family and everyone else in the neighbourhood are parked there. I completely forgot about it that night. The next day, I was walking by, and I saw they possibly called a tow company to say it was abandoned because my tyre and the road were marked with chalk. How do I deal with this crazy? ".

Online commenters advised the woman to install a camera in her car for protection, suspecting that her neighbours might have summoned a towing service. Some suggested she contact the police to educate her "entitled" neighbour about the "concept of a public street".

Parking across someone's driveway isn't an offence in the UK, unless there are restrictions or signs prohibiting it. Even parking on someone's drive is only considered an offence if there's a dropped kerb - and that's due to the kerb, not the driveway.

If a vehicle partially covers a dropped kerb, the owner could be committing a driving offence and may face a penalty of up to three points and a fine of up to £100. However, parking near a dropped kerb isn't illegal, even if it restricts access to a driveway.

According to Confused.com, police are unlikely to intervene in cases where parking over the dropped kerb prevents you from moving your vehicle into your driveway, but if the parking issue stops you from leaving, they may treat it as an anti-social behaviour offence. Anti-social behaviour is defined by the Crime and Disorder Act (1998) as: "Acting in a manner that caused or was likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household as the defendant.