Never mind loud music or wailing pets, where your neighbour’s park their car has become the most popular cause of disputes between neighbours.
A new report by the AA has found that over a quarter of the 23,450 people surveyed had argued with their neighbour over where there car was parked, with the main problem being when access is blocked to a home or drive, followed by parking outside someone’s house.
When the stats are broken down in more detail, blocking access to a property or driveway (13 per cent of all disputes), parking outside a neighbour’s house (12 per cent) and using a neighbour’s parking space (7 per cent) were the most cited causes of arguments.
Apart from parking, the other causes of disagreements were noise 23 (per cent), boundaries (11 per cent), trees and hedges (8 per cent), building work (6 per cent), pets (5 per cent) and children (3 per cent).
For those living in flats, or accommodation without private or off-street parking, this can be a major bugbear. The solution to not having a designated space is to purchase a parking permit, but these can cost up to £785 per year.
Another survey conducted recently found that 91 per cent of house-hunters were looking for off-street parking as a feature of their prospective new home– second only for the desire to live in a safe neighbourhood.
The AA suggests that the increased tension is down to the number of people sharing accommodation.
Tom Stringer, Head of Home Emergency Response, said, “Parking traumas are less down to the popularity of cars than the need for both partners to work and be independently mobile.
“Young workers group together in more affordable accommodation and often have their own vehicles.
“As a result, necessity grows a neighbourhood’s car population, squeezes available space, ratchets up friction and, like rats in a barrel, neighbours can lash out at each other.”
World’s worst parked cars
Although parking disputes are widely prevalent between neighbours, there are some cases where a person’s parking beggars’ belief.
Take a look at some of the images we found of inexcusable parking...
See the world's worst parallel park in action!
Watch this rather comical (and shortened) video of an attempt at a parallel park caught on camera. According to the group of students who filmed the video, it took the person over 30 minutes to park their car.
If you struggle with parallel parking, follow our step-by-step guide on how this can be done with relative ease.