Did you know it is illegal to park in front of your neighbour's house?
Jerrica · Jul 10, 2021 12:00 PM
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Strategically parked to block 2 houses at a time
In today’s living standards, due to unreliable public transport, every household owns at least 2 cars. But unfortunately, a landed property usually has space for only 1 car. So, this means that the other car, or most likely cars, in the household will have to be parked outside.
This has become a massive issue on the street and created plenty of grievances between neighbours, as they fight over parking spaces and obstructions on both the road and to their houses.
Did you know that parking your cars on your neighbour’s side and causing any inconvenience to them is illegal and a compoundable offence?
Parking your car in front of your neighbour’s house is a violation of Section 48 of the Road Transport Act 1987:
If the vehicle you own is blocking your neighbour or in your neighbour’s vicinity that causes an inconvenience, it is a compoundable offence that could even lead to authorities impounding your car.
Your neighbour has the right to call the authorities like the local city council or even the police to either issue a summons, clamp your vehicle, or forcefully remove your car.
If the owner of the Honda HR-V does not live in this house, the owner of the house has a right to call the authorities to remove the HR-V
And according to AskLegal, if there is a need to tow your car away, there’s no telling where the authorities will tow your car to. They could only just move your car down the street to a place where it is not obstructing anybody or they can just impound your car straight away.
One good example was posted by blogger Pepper Lim back in 2017. Mr Lim claimed that a renting neighbour always parks his car in front of Lim’s house, blocking the family from exiting and entering for a good 10 months.
Out of frustration after civil requests not to do so were ignored, Lim contacted the local city council who sent over officers to issue summon after summon on said neighbour’s car. The summons allegedly accumulated to RM 1,000 but still, the neighbour was unphased.
As a final straw, Lim was advised by the local council to make a police report. It was only after police officers intervened that the neighbour stopped parking in front of Lim’s house
PDRM moving the car blocking the Senawang owner's house
Another recent viral example also involved the police’s assistance when a house owner in Senawang got tired of neighbours parking their cars right in front of his house that was at the end of the road. One neighbour was even issued a summons according to the viral post.
Technically yes. We’ve consulted a few lawyers and they have confirmed that your neighbours can also serve you with a Letter of Demand.
But parks in front of his neighbour's house...
The terms with which your neighbours can sue you will vary depending on what your neighbour’s lawyer advised them. But most likely you could be sued for being a nuisance if your neighbour has proof that your actions are not deemed ‘temporary’ according to the law.
If your neighbour is rich, they can even go for a civil lawsuit which could mean you’ll be hauled to court.
The grey area…
But wait, don’t go calling your local authorities yet. Note that this does not include the makeshift parking that is not obstructing access. As an example, let’s flip the situation around. Say you are the owner of a corner lot and your neighbours park their cars along the side of your house.
This Myvi is not obstructing access or the road
If there is no gate or any accessible entrance to your house on the side, these cars will be considered to be parking out of the way and not causing any obstruction. In other words, authorities will not be able to do much if you were to call them in to have these cars removed.
You cannot call the authorities on these cars just because you want to park here though
This is because you do not own the land outside of your house. Unless you also purchased the deeds to the land outside of your house, this will be deemed as public property and you will have no right to have your neighbours’ car removed unless they are obstructing traffic.
Conclusion
We understand that due to poor public transport planning in Malaysia, owning a car is a necessity rather than an extravagance. But that is no excuse to be an irresponsible car owner and inconvenience others in their daily lives with your expensive investment!
There isn’t a time in memory that doesn’t involve staring at cars. After discovering the excitement of watching Schumacher vs Hakkinen, Formula 1 became a major part of life. The love for cars and F1 ultimately led to a job with CAR Magazine. The untimely death of the magazine meant a hiatus from cars at lifestyle women’s magazine Marie Claire before another opportunity came knocking again.
