Neighbours argue most over parking

Never mind dance music blaring out of the next-door window, what really sets neighbours at war is the inability to park outside their own front doors.

With London's two-car families more than doubling in the last 30 years - about one in five families now has two or more cars - parking spaces are at a premium.

And, according to a survey, nothing annoys the capital's growing number of residents more than getting home after a hard day's work to find their neighbour's car parked outside their front door.

More than half a million families have fallen out with their neighbours over selfish parking, and the issue causes more disputes than noisy pets, late-night parties and even indiscreet lovemaking, according to research from Norwich Union Insurance.

Jill Willis, household development manager at Norwich Union, said: "It is surprising that car parking tops our list of disputes, but it reflects that a significant number of homes now have more than one car.

"Noise is still a sore point for many - including the sound of neighbours getting fruity, which, according to our research, is more upsetting than neighbours being too nosy."

Of the 1,000 UK households questioned in the Getting Neighbourly study, 24 per cent said parking disputes made their blood boil. However, only 12 per cent said they had the courage to do anything about it - and almost a quarter admitted they didn't even know the names of their neighbours.

The findings come as no surprise to motoring organisations. The RAC Foundation has already examined the psychology of how motorists view their cars and parking spaces.

"People very much see their parking space as being part of their house," RAC Foundation spokesman Jonathan Simpson said. "Having somebody else encroach on that space is like them encroaching on your house."

He said the growth of controlled parking zones across London - under which motorists buy permits to park near their homes - had added to conflicts, with drivers expecting a space by right after paying out around £80 a year.

And the problem is only going to get worse. Last week Mayor Ken Livingstone revealed that London's population had increased by 190,000 since the year 2000, with the capital absorbing a city the size of Leeds every three to four years.

To prevent disputes escalating out of control, Ms Willis advises neighbours to discuss their problems as early as possible rather than seeing them end up in court.

This view is shared by tenants' representative Ann Bell, who helped one 78-year-old King's Cross resident to have her drunken neighbour evicted by Camden council last week. "If she was going out and she heard him outside the front door, she wouldn't go outside," Mrs Bell said. "That is how many people get - they're frightened of recriminations."

But it's not all bad news. Norwich Union researchers also found that more than half of us have eager-to-please neighbours, while one in four households compared their situation to that portrayed on the American sitcom Friends. Just under half of respondents counted themselves lucky to have friendly neighbours.

Loud music upsets only seven per cent of the population, while noisy lovemaking causes just one per cent of Britons to fall out with the amorous couple next door.