My Neighbor Vent

[DBL101]

I am sorry but I have to vent about my neighbor. It may seem stupid and petty but it is getting very frustrating. My neighbor has 5 vehicles. They all run so my vent isn't about junk. He has his truck, wife's car, vintage car, daughter's car and an old truck he uses for things like hauling wood. The cars are all kept in the garage or driveway except the old truck which has had a 10 ft long trailer attached to it. He has decided to park the truck & trailer in front of our house. This has been going on for about 6 weeks. He hardly uses it so there it sits everyday. We can't park in fron of our house (we have 3 vehicles and only 2 will fit in the driveway) and the way our house is located we have to park the 3rd vehicle about a block away. When we have company they can't park anywhere near our house unless we remove our vehicles and let them take our spots. He doesn't work and has numerous people coming over everyday and they will work on their vehicles, other projects and even they have ended up parking in front of our driveway. I decided to try and politely ask his if he could move his vehicle because we were having guests over and he answered 'I could' but he didn't. Ever since then he has had someone 'save' the spot for him whenever he needs to use the truck. He doesn't want to risk losing the space.

Anyway thanks for letting me vent.

I think it's rude to constantly take up a spot (two in this case with the trailer) in a neighborhood where parking is scarce, especially if it isn't in front of your own home.
Since you asked politely and were ignored, I would have no problems with watering, and maybe turning it up a bit just to make sure you get good coverage of the area.
I don't understand, however, why you have to park a block away. From your description, you have two cars that fit in the driveway. That means you probably also have two spots available in your garage. We have 3 cars and minimal parking, so we have two in the garage and one in the driveway. We do have to move them around quite a bit to get to the blocked car, but that's life when there aren't many spots at the curb.

 

[jen0610]

This is it exactly. We have a beautiful mountain view and it is blocked. He still has the beautiful mountain view. I guess you can say we have a history..he has alway been nastly. Example..we turned on the sprinklers and left for a while. Wind picked up in no time (very common here) and some of the water blew on his new wood fence (we were very careful not to get water on his fence but can't control the weather). When I came home I saw this and turned the water off. He comes home...comes over and starts screaming at me that I am ruining his fence and he will sue me if I do it again. The following week he lets his dogs take care of all their business on my lawn. I ask him politely to watch the dogs and he tells me if I don't like dog droppings (my edit) to clean it up.

He sounds like a real piece of work. Like rain wouldn't ruin his fence. And the next time you find his dogs droppings in your yard, do like he suggested, clean it up and deposit into the trailer he uses to haul trash in.

I am in total agreement with the posters that said that a street is public property and you do not have control over who parks there. The homeowner does not own the street in front of them and cannot demand others not park there.

If you buy a house with a view over a street, you are actually buying an obstructed view as you cannot control what is parked in front of your house.

However, the fact that somebody parks there would never deter me from normal lawn maintenance. I would not stop watering just to protect the truck. In fact, if the nasty neighbor continued to park his nasty, dead animal filled truck in front of my house, that part of my yard might all of a sudden need some new landscaping that would need additional water to help it get started.

A few thorny bushes right at the property line at the road side might do the trick. Park too close and your passengers can't get out without being scratched and the untrimmed branches could scratch paint -oops.

To continue my snarky side, I would also be scouring Craig's list for the biggest, ugliest, cheapest, rusted out RV I could find. Since it really isn't going to be used for camping, it only has to run well enough to get from point A to Point B. Aqua sounds like a good color. If it doesn't come in aqua, a few spray cans and a homemade paint job works. My huge, ugly, aqua, rusted out RV would find a wonderful storage spot in front of their house. Mountain view now turns into aqua rv view.
Maybe he would be willing to negotiate trading spots after that.

I like both of these. If not thorny bushes, really big boulder along the edge of your lawn and the road, starting at the edge of your property line going back until you are within 10 feet of your drive way. That way, if he parks the nasty truck and trailer where there are no boulders, the butt end would be extended into your driveway and then he can be ticketed and towed for blocking your access. If he chooses to still park along the property, he should be far enough from the easyment for it to considered as parking in the roadway and that would be a ticket and a tow.

 

[krnlmustrd]

I would buy three railroad ties and a bunch of gravel. Use the ties to square off an extra parking spot in your yard for your third car right off the street where he parks his truck. Fill in the space with the gravel. Now he can't park there without blocking your driveway/parking space for which you could have him towed. And you'd have that third spot for your other car.

 

[LilyWDW]

I would buy three railroad ties and a bunch of gravel. Use the ties to square off an extra parking spot in your yard for your third car right off the street where he parks his truck. Fill in the space with the gravel. Now he can't park there without blocking your driveway/parking space for which you could have him towed. And you'd have that third spot for your other car.

Check to see if it would be legal to do first. Some places require a permit to have a "driveway" or anything of that sort connected to the road. It's possible that if this would be used as a full time parking spot, that it would fall under such a law. Depends on the laws in the area and how such a thing would be classified.