The card left on a New Zealand man’s windscreen didn’t pull any punches: “Hey! You absolutely suck at parking!” it read.

Flipping it over, the man saw a note in thick black pen. “MOVE YOUR CAR!”

But the man, who asked to stay anonymous, hadn’t done anything wrong. His vehicle, parked opposite his home on a residential street in Milldale, north Auckland, was not in a reserved or disabled spot – it was parked perfectly legally.

He penned a response on the back – “street parking is public” – and placed it on the windscreen of his neighbour’s car.

While the card was unwelcome, it wasn’t a surprise. The same neighbour who left the card had been using a road cone to mark “their” space, reserving one of the two street parking spaces outside their home.

“The cone situation has been going on for a while,” the man told Stuff.

He said the neighbour, who lived in a property with a double garage and driveway, kept the cone in his boot, putting it in place whenever he left home in the afternoons.

When Stuff visited on Tuesday, a woman, who did not want to be named but who said she was one of the owners of the house, answered the door.

She said: “It’s not really a public parking space. People keep parking their cars on our spot, we’ve got three vehicles and this is the parking allocated for our home and that’s the only reason why.

“When we leave for five minutes and we come back, then we have to park way up in the street.”

She said it was about “common sense”. They had told the owner of the car the note was left on that they didn’t mind them parking there during the day, but that they wanted the space from 5pm when they were all home.

“They are moaning about it, but like we said and explained to them, have a little bit of common sense.

“We said we don’t mind you parking there but my husband is coming home later. Where the hell is he supposed to park?”

Stuff sent photos from the scene to Auckland Transport. A member of their media team said he wasn’t sure if the cone came from a contractor, or was privately owned.

“Regardless, in this case, it’s being cheekily used to reserve a parking space, which is a no-go.

“Parking spaces on the road, including this parking space on this street… are for everyone to use.”

University of Auckland Professor Dr Tim Welch, who studies transportation, infrastructure and urban modelling, said such territorial behaviour was surprisingly common.

“It’s the perception you have ownership over everything that’s in front of your property, even though it’s technically open to everyone.”

He called the behaviour “erratic and irrational”, pointing out that we don’t see the same kind of ownership over footpaths.

“You don’t see people blocking off those spaces.”

Welch said driver psychology often meant they felt they had priority over other modes of transport, which resulted in rageful feelings when slowed down by traffic or cyclists.

“That comes out in dangerous driving… blocking off your car space is an extension of that.”

University of Canterbury’s Dr Simon Kingham, who specialises in the effect of urban environment on health and wellbeing, called the behaviour “slightly entitled and selfish”.

“None of us own streets outside our house, but a lot of people feel the parking space outside is theirs, but it’s a public space.

“It’s not great in terms of community well being and cohesion.”