Sucky neighbor is sucky

[MaggieTheCat]

This isn't the worst "sucky neighbor" story I've heard by far, but I am still a little upset by it.

We live in a house in a neighborhood with houses on either side of us. We have a driveway and of course there is lots of street parking between the houses. One of our neighbors owns his own business doing lawn and yard work, and has a pickup truck with a large trailer attached to it that he transports his equipment with. He never unhooks his trailer and always parks on the curb between his house and ours. He has just baaaarely enough room on the curb to park his truck and trailer without blocking us in; in fact, I think he partially does block his own driveway, which is his own business.

So, we play in a gaming group that meets on the weekends and we host every third weekend. This weekend was our weekend to host. Like I said, we do have a driveway, but we also have 5 other people coming over so there isn't enough room for all of them to park in the driveway, so some of them park on the street.

Well, we have never bothered to "warn" them about the neighbor and his parking habits, we just never thought of it. But apparently he was out with his trailer tonight when our gaming group came over, because one of them parked in the neighbor's "spot." When our friend left a little while ago, she had a nasty note left on her windshield: "This is my parking space, next time park in front of the house you're visiting."

Uh...okay. First of all, it's street parking, so it's not "his" space. Anyone can park anywhere. Second, he apparently didn't realize that she was our guest, since she WAS parked in front of the house she was visiting...our's.

She was a little upset by it, and frankly so am I. The neighbor is instead parked in between our house and our other neighbor's house and is partially blocking OUR driveway; the people who were parked in our driveway asked my husband to come out and direct them when back up out onto the street so they wouldn't hit the front of the neighbor's truck.

I don't want to cause any trouble so I'm thinking I'm just going to let it be, but it really irks me that he thinks that the road in front of his house belongs to him.

[MoonCat]

My neighbor thinks the same way. She puts an orange traffic cone in the street in front of her house on Sunday so the people from the church don't park there. She thinks she has a right to do that because there's a fire hydrant in front of her house, but it's right at the corner of her driveway and the few times that cars parked in front of her house, they weren't blocking access to the hydrant at all.

I understand that you don't want to get into an argument with your neighbor. It's too bad he can't be a little more considerate.

[Hyndis]

I had a neighbor like that.

The street was very quiet and almost entirely empty of cars. Due to the direction I worked and the time I got home, the driveway was always occupied by the people who got off work earlier than I did, and so I ended up parking across the street. Other side of the street, but still directly in front of the house. Not a car for at least 100 feet in either direction. The curb on that side of the street was always completely empty.

It was just more convenient to park there and then walk across the street rather than doing a three point turn every time.

However, the neighbor kept leaving nasty notes on my car about me parking in "her space" and one time even knocked on the door to yell at me for taking up her space when I kept ignoring the stupid notes and tossing them away.

She blamed me for getting a ticket after parking in front of the fire hydrant. The one are you could not park in front of on that side of the street. She kept parking there, and they kept writing her tickets. If she moved her car literally 10 feet in either direction, she would be out of the fire hydrant zone. The entire side of the street in front of her house was always empty.

The hilarious thing is that even after I moved away from there and still stop by to visit the people who do still live there, I see the crazy neighbor's car...STILL PARKED IN FRONT OF THE FIRE HYDRANT.

Still not a car in sight on the curb on that side of the street. She still parks right in front of the fire hydrant.

I wonder how much that parking spot has cost her over the years.

[MaggieTheCat]

Yeah, I should add, it's not like our street is packed with cars. Sure, there are a few cars parked on the street at any given time but it's not there was no where else to park. And all of the street spots between houses are roughly the same size...it's not like he needs that specific spot to be able to fit his truck/trailer in. He could have easily parked on the other side of his driveway, between his house and his other neighbor.

[MournBlade]

What a Maroon - nip it the bud I say, tell him politely that the spots in front of his and your house do not in fact belong to him. I would after that have his ass towed if he blocked me in out of spite.

[blas]

I've posted about it many times, but we are tenant-only parking in this lot (haha what a joke), and everyone is supposed to have a permit and the blank spots that aren't numbered are supposed to be for roommates if anyone has one. Well, since most of us don't, it's free family/friend parking for certain neighbors. Once or twice, and that becomes their permanent "guest" parking spot, and DAMN you to HELL if you ever allow anyone to park there for 5 minutes.

[Aethian]

When did people forget that parking and/or blocking a fire hydrant is a ticketing and sometimes a towing offense?

[qwerty]

I have a neighbor who is similar. It is totally frustrating. Everyone on my street has private parking behind their house. We have one car and enough parking for five. Our neighbor has 5+ cars in their household and 3 parking spots. On street parking is allowed in the front.

They refuse to park on street. We have offered the use of our extra spaces. What do they do? Ignore the available proper parking and PARK IN THE ALLEY. This is a one way/one car wide alley. So when they do this we cannot get to our garage or parking spaces. We avoided the issue for a long time so as not to stir up issues with the neighbors but we are done. If they don't move we will have the car towed.

[MournBlade]

Why can some twits just not walk a few extra feet, only thing I can think of they have been bitten by the lazy bug.
Instead for their convenience and everyone elses pain in the ass they will park wherever they feel like as long as it saves them from walking 2 extra steps...

[unoannabelle]

Ugh, one of my roommates just got bitched at for having his car parked on the street in front of our house. Technically, this side of the street you're supposed to have a parking pass, but it's not like it's bumper to bumper parking - the only time people park in front of our house is when one of us does it. And parking enforcement never tickets. Our neighbor wanted him to move it because it was "there allllll dayyyyyy"

[wagegoth]

I hate the monster SUVs of my neighbors that they park right at the entrance to our shared drive and you cannot see a thing when you're trying to pull out.


A former coworker had a problem similar to the OP's. They got a new neighbor directly across the street from them. CW's hubby would sometimes park across the street in front of the neighbor's house, depending on the direction he came down the street on his way home. They left notes on his car. CW and hubby politely pointed out that it was street parking and open to anyone. Neighbors keep leaving notes, then graduate to yelling and threatening. Idiot neighbors then, one night, proved themselves to be idiots by placing bags of garbage from their can in the street to block the spot. CW and hubby are fed up and call police to report that bags of garbage are in the street. Idiot neighbors get a big, fat ticket.

[wraiths_crono]

I guess its mostly related to the topic, had some neighbors move in and did a few things that just ticked me off right off the bat
1. they put their moving trailer mostly on MY property, which also blocked a power company junction box
2. ran my garbage can OVER and crushed it (had to call the city for a new one)
3. left the trailer there for weeks, even when empty and
4. refused to move it when I asked, until I called a company to tow it off my land.

Some people think they own everything it seems.

[IvorTangrean]

I have a similar issue with my neighbors I live in a corner lot so lots of curb space, except that everyone feels that since I have so much they can use it whenever they want. One even was about to call a tow company for my parent's car when they left it in front of my house when they went on a trip ( I live closer to the airport, cheaper cab fare ), because it was in 'their' space.

[Peppergirl]

When did people forget that parking and/or blocking a fire hydrant is a ticketing and sometimes a towing offense?

I was just getting ready to type the same thing. How the hell does she get away with that, I wonder?

[Kristev]

They haven't forgotten - they just don't care. Until they're visited by the police, that is.