Semi Parked In Front of House for Days

[Callie]

My moms neighbors have had a semi parked in front of their house for quite a few days now. Its the truck part of the Semi, no cargo on the back. Its quite annoying as it blocks the street, and is parked right behind out drive. I found this regarding it, and was wondering if this means its illegally parked?
http://www.southbendpolice.com/askacop/labels/truck parking.html

 

[shinysparklybubbles]

Sounds it to me. Call the township.

 

[Bob NC]

Is this the first time?

If I lived next door to someone for years with no problem and all of a sudden a truck turns up in front of their house for a few days, I can't picture myself calling the authorities on them.

Maybe it's a faraway relative visiting....Who knows what it is.

I'd give it some time and see what happens.

 

[Bren's Mom]

It seems that if the front part of the truck alone isn't over 11000 lbs then it's legal. But if it were parked on my street for more than a day or two, I'd make contact with neighbors to get the 'scoop'. If it was going to be short term, and my neighbors were nice about it, I'd leave it be. BUT, my neighbors are nice enough that they'd tell me ahead of time if something like this were going to happen.

 

[bearloch]

My Hubby is a trucker and he does this when he is home! and when he visits his Mother sometimes I would go ask them whats up if its a one time week thing let it be!!! the boys on are block love it when the truck was home!!
BTW we called the city and police ahead of time to be sure it was ok and were given the ok as long as no snow rules etc were in effect mostly he parked in driveway and i parked on street!


Neijhbors actually dislike that more cause when he starts up the exhast was right next to window and that baby is loud at 5 am

 

[FlightlessDuck]

So, does South Bend not have any citizens that own their own semi tractors? What are they supposed to do when they come home after a long haul? Park in some commercial area and take a taxi?

 

[willowsnn3]

So, does South Bend not have any citizens that own their own semi tractors? What are they supposed to do when they come home after a long haul? Park in some commercial area and take a taxi?

You have to be real careful where you park the big rigs even in commercial areas. Could be asking to be towed & impounded which costs a heck of a lot for the big trucks
When we lived in an apartment, my dh had to rent a space at a nearby business to park the truck when he was home. When we lived in the country he just parked in our driveway with no problems.
OP, this could just be a relative of your neighbor passing thru and had to layover. We used to visit friends/relatives in other states when he had a load close by.

 

[Disney Doll]

Unless "quite a few days" is more than a month, I wouldn't be giving my neighbors any issue about it, especially if they have been good neighbors.

Now, if it is making it hard to get out of your driveway based on the positioning of the truck, I might call and nicely ask them to reposition the truck a bit so it's not directly in the line of your driveway.

 

[Sadie22]

A man in our neighborhood owns one of these rigs. He's not home with it a lot. When he is, it's always on his driveway, not on the street. I heard at an HOA meeting that some had complained to the HOA about it being started up very early in the AM a time or two. It's not in violation of any county ordinances. We do have a county ordinance about how close someone can park to a mailbox.

If the vehicle interferes with your access to your property, definitely ask about it. Maybe it's not even the neighbors' or a friend of relative of the neighbors, and they're annoyed about it, too.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

It seems that if the front part of the truck alone isn't over 11000 lbs then it's legal. But if it were parked on my street for more than a day or two, I'd make contact with neighbors to get the 'scoop'. If it was going to be short term, and my neighbors were nice about it, I'd leave it be. BUT, my neighbors are nice enough that they'd tell me ahead of time if something like this were going to happen.

Usually those laws apply to how heavy the LICENSE is on the truck, not the actual weight of the truck. And a semi would be licensed for 80,000lbs. And the tractor is going to be over 11,000lbs even with no trailer attached.


That said, I'm of the MYOB frame of mind when it comes to stuff like this. If it were a fleet of trucks, or unlicensed vehicles parked on the street that'd be another story. Besides, a road tractor with no trailer attached may be BIG, but the overall length isn't much more than a pickup truck.

 

[a1tinkfans]

In our township ANY vehicle with a commercial plate cannot be legally parked overnight on any street. One has to park it on their own property, which by me is few and far between or park it somewhere else.
That being said, perhaps if it has been atleast a week and you "think" it may be the neighbors/relatives, why not ask and see what they say...but best to be prepared, cause once you ask, they will certainly know if you wind up calling authorities...if it stays for a long time and is not supposed ot be there...

And while we're talking neighbors, Id like to thank mine once again
for blowing your 1/2 acre property of leaves into the street (which is also illegal here) to end up on my 3X cleaned front lawn (which has no trees) which is Xmas Decorated.... ....vent over

 

[tvguy]

So, does South Bend not have any citizens that own their own semi tractors? What are they supposed to do when they come home after a long haul? Park in some commercial area and take a taxi?

You can't leave any vehicle (even your own) here in the same place on a public street for more than 72 hours. As long as you move it once every 72 hours, you're fine. If I go on vacation, I always put my cars in the driveway. However, it normally isn't an issue if the vehicle is legally registered to the address it is parked at, and doesn't have flat tires.
I know we have an issue with a neighbor now who is a contractor. He has 2 construction trucks, and 2 construction trailers he keeps here. And it doesn't help that he has 3 other cars, 2 boats and a travel trailer too. His house has a 2 car garage, a 3 car driveway, and a very long RV acccess that can hold 3 vehicles. As a renter, or maybe just his overall mindset, he doesn't seem to care that once in a while he clogs the entire street. And twice in the 6 months he has been here, he has had his vehicles broken into
Guy 2 doors down is a contractor, he rents spaces at the RV storage place for his vehicles. Only time his trucks are here is if he comes home for lunch. But as a homeowner, he has an interest in keeping things neat at his house.



As for folks who own big rigs, most here rent a parking space at the closest Self Storage place or RV storage place. At least here, it seems like you are never more than a mile from one of those self storage places.

 

[Callie]

This truck randomly shows up, and when it leaves, it wakes my mom up. Not to mention it blocks the street.
Also, we've mentioned to them time and time again to not park behind our driveway, specially in the winter, and they continue to do it.
They also leave their trashcans in the middle of the lawn, with trash overflowing all over!
They also have people over all the time, that block in our drive so we can't even leave!

My mom has decided to talk to the owner of the house (these are renters). She is really good friends with her, and then maybe the landlord will tell them not to do it anymore.
These people just have no concept of being making it easy to get down the road. Park people double wide, in the middle of the road, and it is on a curve, with a hill, and an emergency route so lots of firetrucks come through and its hard for them too.

 

[LuvsDragonflies]

In a lot of towns semis can't just park in the street. They have to be parked on your own property and some towns even make you house it in the back yard or a garage.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

This truck randomly shows up, and when it leaves, it wakes my mom up. Not to mention it blocks the street.

What do you mean by "blocks the street"? It's parked inconveniently in relation to your Mom's driveway? Or, it's blocked illegally?

 

[Callie]

What do you mean by "blocks the street"? It's parked inconveniently in relation to your Mom's driveway? Or, it's blocked illegally?

They park it right behind our driveway, and since its so big, it makes it nearly impossible to back out. Also, because its big and wide, it blocks up the street width wise.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

So, it's a very narrow street then. Gotcha.

 

[Andtototoo]

So, does South Bend not have any citizens that own their own semi tractors? What are they supposed to do when they come home after a long haul? Park in some commercial area and take a taxi?

In our town, you may not park a commercial vehicle or any kind of closed trailer on a residential street or even in your own driveway unless it's a police cruiser or over a lunch break. You must find parking elsewhere for any commercial vehicle. Even if it's a regular car with a pizza delivery sign on the top. In addition, no vehicle or trailer of any kind can be parked on a city street for 48 hours at any time of the year. The city ordinances are quite clear on the matter and they are enforced. The only exception is a smaller U-Haul type moving truck and that is allowed to park overnight for one night only and only if it's for the homeowner's personal use.

The rules used to be much looser. Then we had a neighbor who parked his entire company's fleet of large commercial vehicles on our street every night, holiday, weekend. Neighbors tried to talk to the guy about it and he told them where to go. People went elsewhere alright -- straight to the city alder for the district. Enough people complained that the alderperson proposed a new parking rule that prohibited large commercial vehicles from being parked on residential streets over nights, weekends and holidays and the city council voted it in. He then paved over a good portion of his front lawn as a driveway and parked the fleet there to get around the new ordinance. More complaints, another new rule. Neighbor had to remove the parking lot from his front yard. Neighbor eventually moved out to the country and paved over his land for a parking lot.

 

[tvguy]

In our town, you may not park a commercial vehicle or any kind of closed trailer on a residential street or even in your own driveway unless it's a police cruiser or over a lunch break. You must find parking elsewhere for any commercial vehicle. Even if it's a regular car with a pizza delivery sign on the top. In addition, no vehicle or trailer of any kind can be parked on a city street for 48 hours at any time of the year. The city ordinances are quite clear on the matter and they are enforced. The only exception is a smaller U-Haul type moving truck and that is allowed to park overnight for one night only and only if it's for the homeowner's personal use.

The rules used to be much looser. Then we had a neighbor who parked his entire company's fleet of large commercial vehicles on our street every night, holiday, weekend. Neighbors tried to talk to the guy about it and he told them where to go. People went elsewhere alright -- straight to the city alder for the district. Enough people complained that the alderperson proposed a new parking rule that prohibited large commercial vehicles from being parked on residential streets over nights, weekends and holidays and the city council voted it in. He then paved over a good portion of his front lawn as a driveway and parked the fleet there to get around the new ordinance. More complaints, another new rule. Neighbor had to remove the parking lot from his front yard. Neighbor eventually moved out to the country and paved over his land for a parking lot.

I was going to comment about how over the top this is, until I remembered we have a community here called Gold River.......you can't park ANY vehicle on the street or in your own driveway overnight, ever. It has to be in the garage.

 

[beaucoup]

We used to have a truck driver friend who would stop in & stay a couple days whenever he was in this part of the country. He would park his truck down by the mailboxes in the guest parking. Some "neighbor" called the police.



What, I'm not allowed to have company stay over & park where they are supposed to?