If the building you live in comes with a parking space, then you assume it will always be free for you to use – because it’s yours.
However, one furious resident was left seething when their neighbours were repeatedly parking in their “shared” car park – but it was specifically for tenants of that building, and not the whole street.
“The neighbours are not allowed to park their cars in our parking lot. It’s a private lot, a busy city, so people are always looking to park off-street,” they explained, but of course, with the parking all being reserved in the car park, they’re not supposed to park there.
They admitted at first, they assumed the car belonged to “new tenants”, but then one day, they did something baffling which made it clear they should never have been in the parking space at all.
“When they first started parking there, we thought they were new tenants until one day, one of them HIT THE HOUSE and our electricity all went out (they hit a power box on the house, or something like that),” they explained on Reddit’s ‘Neighbours from Hell’ forum.
They continued: “I sent pictures of the cars to our property manager (mostly because I was concerned other tenants and I would be blamed for the incident as there are no cameras on the lot or house), and she said that car (and the other car behind it, the guy’s girlfriend) were not allowed to park there. They weren’t tenants.”
This baffled the people in the building, and they were left wondering why the people felt they were entitled to park there, when they didn’t even live in the building the car park belonged to.
The original poster admitted they’d called for the vehicles to be “towed” before, but the company was “too slow” and they moved their cars before they could get caught in the act.
Either that, or the “neighbour hears us walking down the stairs and runs out, moving both of their cars”, but the irate neighbour said the offenders had been towed “three or four times in the past few months”, saying that clearly “they don’t care” about having their car taken away.
They were left wondering what they could do about it, fuming: “It’s getting to the point where our lot gets congested from these two random people parking.”
One vengeful Redditor wrote: “Search parking stickers on Amazon. I use them when cars park in my spot. Never had a car return! They are a nightmare to remove. I usually put one on driver and passenger front windows but if I’m really peeved, I have been known to use several.” Someone responded to this person saying: “This is borderline evil in its pure simplicity.”
Another suggested: “I would call your local police department and see if you can have them both legally trespassed. If you can, then I would try to get evidence of them parked on your property and then see if you can press charges for trespassing. AKA have them arrested.”
“Install folding parking bollards,” someone said, but they would have to check with the building manager that this was okay to go ahead with first.
A commenter on the thread penned: “Ask to have cameras put up in the parking lot. This way it can be seen if those neighbors are there and the tow company called without anyone leaving the house preventing them from running out and moving the vehicle quickly to avoid the tow. Just having the cameras visible may even be enough to stop the illegal parking.
“You might also ask your local police department if it would be problematic for them if you call it in every time you see them (again, the cameras would be helpful here). Having to pay multiple tickets for parking violations on top of the tow fee if the truck gets there in time might be enough to make them stop. Also, having multiple tickets might cause insurance companies to not want to cover them, which may also encourage the neighbours to stop illegal parking.
“The only other possible option I can think of (that’s not destructive) would be to have the lot fenced in with the residents (and obviously owners/property managers) having access. The problem here is the expense of the fence.”