Sharing space with neighbors can be tricky, especially when they start relying on your property to make their lives easier.

So, what would you do if your neighbors kept cutting across your driveway instead of moving their own cars? Would you let it slide since they’ve always done this? Or would you finally put your foot down?

In the following story, one couple finds themselves in this exact predicament and decides it’s time to stop accommodating their neighbors. Here’s what happened.

AITA for not letting our neighbors use our driveway

My wife and I bought a house in April. The property sits on about a third of an acre, which is almost unheard of in our Los Angeles suburb.

One of the main things that drew us to it. 2,000 square feet of the property is a long driveway since the house is set far back from the street. The driveway even has a fork with a planter and tree in the middle, so you can pull in, circle around, and drive back out.

Our driveway is conjoined with our neighbor’s. To be clear, they can reach the street using only their own property. They don’t need to touch ours at all.

He understands why they want to keep using the driveway.

The problem is that their lot is small, and their driveway is really narrow where it meets the street. It is just wide enough for one car. It widens by their two-car garage, but because they park one car behind the other, whoever is blocked in usually cuts across our driveway instead of shuffling cars around.

Apparently (from what we heard from other neighbors who have actually gotten to know us), the house was vacant for a few years after some elderly parents passed, and the kids could not decide what to do with the lot. So clearly, our new neighbors got used to having an extra driveway to use.

When we first moved in, I honestly didn’t mind much, but my wife wasn’t comfortable with it. We tried to be neighborly by mostly parking on the forked side so they could continue using the shortcut.

When his wife forgets, they complain.

Sometimes, my wife just parks straight in without thinking about it. When that happens, the neighbor has actually come over to our door asking us to move, saying we’re “blocking them in.”

One time, I even answered one of our camera doorbells and made him wait while I was in the restroom. In the time he waited, he could have moved the cars!

We wanted to be good neighbors, but they don’t seem to return the favor. They keep to themselves, don’t say hi, and won’t even wave back if you greet them.

The problem is that they’re not even friendly.

After a while, that rubbed us the wrong way, especially since they expect us to restrict how we use our own property for their convenience. The least they could have done is bake us some cookies when we moved in or something, right??

The final straw came recently when my wife got some pretty nasty looks from the mom. That was enough for her. She now wants to park however she pleases, regardless of whether it inconveniences them.

Personally, I could take it or leave it, but at this point, who am I to argue? Happy wife, happy life.

Are we wrong for parking in our own driveway in a way that forces our neighbors to finally figure out their own parking situation after a decade of cutting through ours?

Yikes! It’s easy to see the neighbor’s side, but it sounds like they messed it up for themselves.

Let’s check out how the folks over at Reddit feel about this whole thing.

It sounds like they can use it as long as the cars are parked a certain way.

This person thinks he should try to compromise with them.

According to this reader, they need a lawyer.

Here’s someone who feels like they don’t have to share what they bought.

He has a couple of options. First, he can try to discuss it with them, or he can contact an attorney to see if he can legally stop them from using it.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.