‘Someone parked in my space so I got the perfect revenge’

The woman owns a flat which has a private, residents-only car park attached to it but when she returned from being away, she found someone parked in the space she legally owns

A woman was enraged when someone parked in the private spot she pays for outside her flat, and it left her having to fork out for expensive on-street parking. The woman lives in a flat in a city centre, where parking is notoriously pricey.

Where she lives, each flat comes with a parking space which is clearly numbered to show which flat the space belongs to. The parking space is included in the cost of the lease so a woman decided to take her revenge when she returned home and found someone parked in her spot.

She took to Mumsnet with a post titled “Blocked in a car who parked in my space”, she explained: “To be clear I own my flat and the parking space is part of my lease and is legally mine.

“If anyone wishes to use it they would need to have my permission as they would be trespassing otherwise. The space is on private land in a secure garage that requires fob access.”

She then said she came home from being away to “find a random car parked” in her space, and she has no clue who it belongs to. In a bid to avoid any potential drama, she initially paid to park “on the street outside for an hour hoping they would move soon but no one did”.

The woman continued: “Not wanting to spend any more money unnecessarily, I have now parked in front of my parking space which has blocked them in. It is not impacting anyone else’s space and allows free movement around the car park.

“I have left a note on the car and put a message in the block’s group chat but no one has responded.”

She plans “to block them in” until she gets a response.

The woman was especially frustrated because city centre parking on the street costs £4 an hour and she has no way to determine when the offending car will move.

At the time of writing her post, the car had been parked for at least three hours. The managing agent is closed over the weekend, so she couldn’t approach them for support in getting to the bottom of the issue.

She added: “As it’s a civil matter, I can’t call the police but according to Google, the car owner can call the police on me for blocking them in.

“I am also concerned in case they damage my car, again where would I stand legally if they did given that I have blocked them in?”

In response, fellow Mumsnet users were keen to share their thoughts. One person simply said: “Stay put!”

Another said: “I don’t think the police are going to come to a private car park, with a phone number on the car so that the person can call to be unblocked. It’s likely to be a visitor who has misunderstood whose space is whose”.

They added: “I would assume someone has made a mistake, initially at least.”

A third agreed: “Police will not care if a number has been left to contact you.”

But another erred on the side of caution and commented: “I really feel for you as it’s annoying and could be costly for you.

“But I think you are right about you being in the wrong for blocking them in. And there is a risk they’ll damage your car – possibly unlikely though.”

At the time of writing, 98% of Mumsnet users voted she wasn’t being unreasonable to block the offending car in.