‘I banned my neighbours from parking on my drive – now they say I’m heartless’

A woman has been left fuming after her neighbours took advantage of her offer to let them park their cars outside her house – and has banned them from doing it again

Doing the occasional favour for your neighbours is never wrong, but there’s a difference between sharing your teabags and letting them use part of your property for their own needs.

One woman has found out the hard way that sometimes your kindness can be taken advantage of after she allowed her neighbours to park their cars on her driveway – because they refused to move their vehicles to make space for a taxi that was bringing her brother home from the hospital.

The woman claimed she let her neighbours use her driveway because she doesn’t have a car of her own and had no use for the space, but she took back the offer when the family living next door were “cruel” to her sibling.

In a post on Reddit, she explained: “I don’t have a car and the house I bought a couple of years ago came with a drive large enough for two cars. My next-door neighbours have always been allowed to use my drive because I didn’t need it. It really didn’t bother me because if I had friends over then I’d just ask them to move, and they would.

“I currently live with my 15-year-old brother who has very weak joints and has to go to the hospital every month or so on average. A couple of months ago he tore one in his knee and had to be on crutches.

“We were pulling into our street in the taxi after leaving the hospital and one of my neighbours pulled into my drive, blocking our taxi from pulling up to the door.

“We waited for them to realise my brother had crutches and move but she looked at us and carried on inside, along with her sisters and stepdad. I had to hobble my brother across wet muddy grass to get to our door.”

The woman was so angry she rescinded her parking offer, but some months later, several members of the household started parking on her driveway again, as they’ve since welcomed children and don’t want to walk too far with their baby carriers.

And when the woman tried to confront them, she was slammed as “heartless” for being rude to a new mother.

She wrote: “I was so angry I then told my neighbours that they were no longer allowed to use my drive. They protested, saying they had three cars and a van and had nowhere to park. I sympathised but still said no. My own brother couldn’t use his drive when he couldn’t even walk thanks to their nastiness.

“In the past three months, three of the residents’ children have had babies and have started parking on my drive again. I know why. Because they’d have to walk two blocks otherwise with baby carriers.

“One of these girls confronted me, telling me that I don’t even need the drive and that it’s heartless to do that to a new mother. Her sister backed her up. I replied that it was also heartless to make my brother walk across dangerous grass when he was on crutches and in agony.

“I was neighbourly until they caused me not to be. I know I am being petty and vindictive in my reasoning, but I feel I am justified as I did them a courtesy for years by letting them use my drive only for them to treat my brother so cruelly.”

And commenters on Reddit agreed with the woman, insisting she can use her driveway however she likes.

One person said: “What idiots! They had a good thing going, much better than they deserved, and messed it up just through thoughtlessness.”

While another added: “They’re mad they don’t get to take advantage anymore. Don’t let up, and good for you for making sure your brother can get inside easily.”

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