July 28, 2024 at 8:25 am

Her Neighbor Blocked Her Driveway With Huge Dumpsters, But The Other Neighbors Think She Went Too Far In Retaliation

by Jayne Elliott

What are you supposed to do when you can’t get out of your driveway

That’s the question one neighbor has to address in today’s story.

Unfortunately, how she handled the situation is making her wonder if she messed up.

Let’s see what happened…

AITA neighbor in this situation?

I bought my house in Jan 2022.

The house has a shared driveway with the house next door.

It’s really long, maybe like 75 ft, and about twice the width size of a normal driveway.

About a month ago or so, the homeowner started renovations on the house next door, to rent it out.

The neighbors are blocking the driveway.

For the last 3 weeks there’s been some issues with me not being able to access my driveway.

They will park their work trucks on the correct side, except at the end of the driveway they park a large van right in the middle. So no one can get in or out.

I’ve approached the homeowner & explained this is really inconvenient.

When she says “really inconvenient,” she means it!

I either have to hunt down the owner of the van to have them move to get out of my driveway, or park 4-5 blocks away (not many houses have driveways and street parking is mainly taken up by them)

I asked them to not block the driveway so I can have access to my side.

The neighbors seemed to understand.

I was told oh sure. So sorry.

It was fine for 2 days.

Then it started again.

Went back to the homeowner (he owns the company) same thing. O

h sure. So sorry.

Then one day she wasn’t able to get OUT of her driveway!

The next week I didn’t have to be at work early one day, (usually I’m gone before they get there) but when I went to leave both sides of the driveway were blocked by huge dumpsters.

They were about half way up the driveway.

Not a single person had the ability to move them, as they were dropped off by another company. On a Friday.

I called the number on the side of the dumpster and explained the situation, they came out later that day- after the work crew had left – and removed the dumpsters.

I told them they can just place them all the way up the driveway, that way they aren’t blocking anyone, but the company made the decision to remove them completely.

Now, the neighbor is upset.

Monday comes around and the homeowner is banging on my door. He’s mad because the dumpsters are gone.

I told him they were placed in a way that I couldn’t get out of my driveway. I work weekends, that wasn’t going to work for me.

He’s exploding with anger that I had no right, all I had to do was ask him to move them.

I reminded him that I did.

On Friday and that I was told “I have no way to move them.” I also reminded him that I’ve approached him twice about not blocking my side.

I told him that I don’t see him paying my property taxes or mortgage- so he has zero right to assume he has any rights to my property.

The other neighbors heard the argument and weighed in on the situation.

He was very loud (a grown man screaming at a woman 🙄) that other neighbors came out to take in the tea.

My neighbor who lives on the other side of me, had said later on that maybe I could of handled that differently, so he didn’t lose out on deposits for the dumpsters that he now can’t get back.

She said I could of asked her, or other neighbors for his number.

Which fair enough, but I feel like since I’ve already spoken to him twice about the issue, that I shouldn’t have to keep going out of my way to access to my own property.

So, I’m asking you all. AITA?

It doesn’t seem like too much to ask to be able to get in and out of your own driveway!

Let’s see how Reddit readers responded…

This reader pointed how that she did talk to the neighbor before taking action.