Motorists could be at risk of facing prosecution for taking matters into their own hands
Motorists might land themselves in legal trouble if they try and deal with a common annoyance their own way.
While it can be extremely inconvenient to have someone else park in your driveway and block you from accessing it, it’s vital that you stay calm and remain aware of what you are and are not allowed to do when dealing with the situation. In many cases, your first course of action might be to call the police and get them to deal with it.
However, in most cases the police may actually be unable to physically do anything as parking in someone else’s driveway is not strictly illegal. There is no piece of legislation that outright makes it an offence for someone to park on a driveway that’s not their property.
Despite this, it can be classified as trespassing if that driveway counts as part of your property. Trespassing, though, is not a criminal offence and is instead a civil offence – therefore, the police do not actually have the power to arrest the offender.
The Road Traffic Act 1991 makes it the local council’s responsibility to deal with parking enforcement on public roads. Therefore, if a car is parked on the road outside of your driveway, which results in it being blocked, then you can contact the council to remove the car.
However, if the car is parked on your driveway then it is technically not within the council’s remit as it’s on private property, thus the council would not have the power to forcibly remove the car. The only exemption to this is if the vehicle has been abandoned on your driveway and doesn’t have up-to-date insurance, MOT, or is in a dangerous condition.
Why you shouldn’t try removing the car yourself
If you can’t rely on police or the local council to deal with the situation for you then you might be tempted to forcebily remove the car from your driveway yourself. Unfortunately, this could cause a whole range of issues in of itself and could even see you face prosecution in some circumstances.
According to AskThePolice UK you should ensure you: Don’t damage/clamp the vehicle or have it removed by a third party for destruction or storage without first seeking legal advice. If you do any of these things, you may commit a criminal offence or the owner may pursue a civil action against you.
“Under no circumstances would we advocate you merely pushing the vehicle on to a road and leaving it there as you may commit a number of offences.”
You may also want to consider getting the vehicle removed through legal means which may be possible if you take the case to civil court and the judge decides to issue a removal order. Keep in mind though that this can be a lengthy and costly process that isn’t guaranteed to go your way.
Otherwise, the quickest and cheapest solution would be to try and calmly discuss the issue with the car owner and try to deal with the situation peacefully. Furthermore, to prevent any future issues, you could proof your driveway from unwanted parkers by putting up a gate or a bollard.
