Neighbor suckyness

[MrTim]

I had a parking incident when I lived in an apartment that had 3 other apartments (they were all ground level, next to each other.) A new guy moved in, and the first week everything was ok. Then the second week I start getting these passive aggressive notes on my car, but with no name. Week 3, I start getting aggressive notes with threats and everything, so I start down the line. 2 of the 3 neighbors flat out denied it, and since I knew them already I figured such. New guy is not home, but it was a Friday and I knew he would be back Saturday morning. And Saturday morning I caught him with the note in hand placing it under my windshield wiper. Turns out he assumed I had 2 cars (weird, I live alone and nothing would indicate I had someone living with me) and he didn't like that (he thought) I was using 2 parking spaces. After it was all over he appologized profusely, and later that night he brought over some Sambuca and we did shots!

[blas]

My coworker Michelle finally found a great apartment last fall, even though she's been through hell and back with her roomie, she really likes the place and the neighborhood in general (I'm pretty jealous)....neighbor situations were great until her immediate next door neighbors left just a couple weeks ago and someone else moved in.

Michelle's been having family issues and has been spending most days lately at the hospital or with her siblings....she comes home in the afternoon to try to get some sleep before work at night and comes to find her new neighbors parking in her spot (and it's like where I live, the number on your spot matches what number you live in, she must have roomie neighbors with multiple vehicles).

She's starting to get really pissed, and I don't blame her.

[Aut]

At the apartments where we last lived, they had parking issues for years. For the first 2 years we lived there, they had 2 visitor spaces for the whole complex. And then we got new next door neighbors that had 2 cars. They permanantly parked the broken down car in that space. Such a pain. The parking lot wasn't well lit at night either and one night my dad was in town visiting, parked in an empty space that he thought was for visitors only to find the rental car missing when he came out. They towed it.

Up until then, residents had assigned spaces (1 per apartment). Then they tried permit parking, where residents could park in any space. At the time they started that I had just begun to work in the office there. On my first day working alone, one of the residents comes to complain that another resident was blocking her car in. So I go back to see what was going on. He thought she had stolen his space. Didn't realize the parking policy had just changed. So there I am trying to explain this to a guy that had serious mental issues (the next weekend he came to me complaining someone had stolen 1 shoe and a tub of butter and he was going to start shooting people), and I was clearly pregnant, and he's smokling something that's not a cigarette and blowing it in my face. Great first day. They eventually built 25 more visitor spaces and it's been good ever since (I just live down the street now and visit over there from time to time).

[wolfie]

A renter 2 houses away has a BMW - on the new side, if not totally brand new - that she NEVER drives. She parks it in front of my house, my neighbors house, other neighbors' houses for days or WEEKS at a time.

Leaving her car for days or weeks at a time in front of various houses has not endeared her to anyone.

Is there lawn up to the curb? If so, I'm surprised that nobody in the neighbourhood uses a side-discharge (not bagging) rotary mower to cut their grass. One problem that these mowers have is that any foreign objects in the lawn (gravel, dropped toys, etc.) become projectiles. Not a good thing to be "downrange" from.

[Captain Trips]

When I used to rent, I had no problem calling tow trucks for cars parked in my spot. When it's an assigned spot, one per apartment, AND it's clearly stated as such in the lease, then the logic is that you are paying rent for both the apartment AND the space. Therefore, someone else parking in your assigned spot is equivalent to someone coming into your apartment and taking a nap when you aren't home -- it's a form of trespassing.

As to parking on the street, as long as it isn't beyond the (however long) legal limit, there's really nothing to complain about -- unless it's like the one time I came home from work at 4 am and couldn't get into my own driveway (at the house I now own) because an SUV was parked across my driveway. Yes, in the street, but blocking my driveway! I called the cops, they had to look up ownership by VIN as it had no plates, and from the owner's name/address I was able to tell them it must be a girlfriend of a neighbor. The cops woke them up and told them to move it or lose it. (BTW, the cop thought I was pissed because I couldn't get out of my driveway to go to work. I explained to her that was my wife's car, and mine was parked down the street.)

Basically, it's this: if you don't have the right to park somewhere, don't park there or be willing to face the consequences!