Need Neighbor Help!

[Tigger&Belle]

I am sorry but I don't understand why your cars are not in your garage and driveway, but you complain that his aren't. Maybe it is time to declutter the garage and ignore him.

Now a Days you just can't risk it with some people and your family's safety is MUCH more important. He sounds like an idiot and not worth the stress.

One of our vans can fit in the garage, the other one cannot. And the one that can fit in is a very tight fit (teeny garage doors). In order to make the other one fit we'd need to get a storage shed, but our deed restrictions are so picky about the type of structure that we haven't done it yet. And we'd need to get rid of a lot of the kids outdoor stuff. We do want to do that eventually.

But that still wouldn't solve this problem since that would clear up our driveway, but the car would have to be moved out of the way every time we need to get a van out.

And of course he could clear out half of his garage and park the car that he hasn't driven for 6 years.

I'm not sure what he has in that side of the garage. It's only him and his wife living in the main part of the house, with someone renting the basement (I think he's still renting it). They might have things from their grown children in there.

We have 4 children, so that's why we have the stuff in our garage. That and we keep too much stuff.

 

[goofyforlife]

ok T&G, Since you are on a cul-de-sac that would mean it is a public street and subject to Montgomery County Parking Regs.....

They are on-line but I found the following that would apply to your situation.

Sec. 31-19. Obstructing entrances to public or private driveways.
The parking of vehicles at any time on the public ways of the county in such a manner that any part of the vehicle so parked is within five (5) feet of either curb edge of any existing opening or hereafter established entrance to any public or private driveways or shall overlap or obstruct any existing opening or hereafter established entrance to any public or private driveways is prohibited; except, that an owner may obstruct his own private residence driveway. (1978 L.M.C., ch. 7, § 2.)

Which would mean that its OK for you to overlap your drive if your car is in front of your house but not ok for neighbor.....

I think you should be able to have county fine and/or tow them.

Also saw another part of section 31 where:

You can't keep them from taking the spot in front of your house (since it's a public street) but if the part in a spot that is not adjacent to their own property lines for longer than 24 hr period; that's also prohibited.....

Good luck with dealing with neighbor though ....

 

[bumcat]

He has a renter in the basement or you think he does? Is that legal in your subdivision?
why not tell him that from now on you are going to call the police to have the car towed because you can't get out of the driveway. May sound silly but he will get the message plus he is warned first.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

You can't keep them from taking the spot in front of your house (since it's a public street) but if the part in a spot that is not adjacent to their own property lines for longer than 24 hr period; that's also prohibited.....

Good luck with dealing with neighbor though ....

Interesting about not being able to park in a spot that's not adjacent to a persons property lines. I wasn't aware of that.

Thanks for the other info! He knows he's not supposed to be there, after me giving him a copy of the postal regulations about blocking a mailbox, but I'll give him a copy of the information about blocking my driveway.

I will first try and talk to him about the situation and will try and behave in a mature fashion.


Some history: when we first moved into the house and had the moving truck here, we had our vehicles parked out of the driveway so that the moving truck could unload from our driveway. My DH's car was parked at the end of our cul-de-sac, on the other side of his house. Of course moving day was the one day that it snowed that year (Murphy's Law) and apparently he couldn't get his car out because the street was even more narrow because of the plowed snow. What normal people would have done would be to have knocked on our door, introduced themselves, and then tell the new neighbors that their car needed to be moved. Well, he came over, didn't introduce himself, and started yelling at us that we were blocking him and that we couldn't park there. Nice way to meet him, huh?

Of course looking back who knows if he was really blocked or just wanted to make it clear to us that we couldn't park there. That was the first of several encounters. More to follow.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

He has a renter in the basement or you think he does? Is that legal in your subdivision?
why not tell him that from now on you are going to call the police to have the car towed because you can't get out of the driveway. May sound silly but he will get the message plus he is warned first.

I'm not sure if it's legal or not. Used to be his son and family lived in the basement. I was glad to see them go because their young child (5yo at the time) would spend large amounts of time outside without supervision. He was a nice enough boy, but he did some things in the neighborhood (pebbles in someones a/c unit, for example) that he wouldn't have done with supervision. He used to some play on our playset, but I told him he couldn't be there if an adult were not watching him. His cousin tried to climb a newly planted fruit tree of ours (twig, really) and broke it (the little boy told me that so I wasn't assuming it was them). So I was glad to see them go.

The man that is (was?) renting from them is quiet and friendly so I haven't investigated whether or not a person can have renters. He does have a pick-up truck, which is not allowed in our neighborhood (unless it's kept in the garage at night), but I haven't said anything about that, either.

Basically there have been quite a few things that I could have reported them on, but I haven't. This car stuff is different, though. If he continues to block my driveway I will take this further.

Oh, and when he parks in front of my house I've never said anything as long as he's not blocking the mailbox or driveway. He's free to park there when the spot is empty and in that case we park in the yellow zone, but of course we're taking a chance that we'll get a ticket parking there.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I did check the neighbors car that's parked in his driveway and the tags expired in 2002, so it's in violation of our deed restrictions, and probably our county laws.

 

[bumcat]

Well there you go, you have some ammunition to start with if you need.

 

[bcvillastwo]

I had (had the operative word) a similar problem with one of my neighbors here in Virginia Beach, Va. Fortunately he moved and we haven't had any butt heaq neighbors since then, thankfully. He didn't like it that we sometimes parked a car in front of his house. Actually, it was mostlyi in front of our property line with just a few inches in front of his property. He thought that was "his" personal place to park.

I knew that confronting him wasn't the solution because he was so headstrong. I checked with the police and I was told that since it is a public street anyone could park anywhere they wanted and that it was 1st come 1st served. So, we just played the game and never spoke about it. Fortunately, he just glared at me and my kids when one of us managed to park in that spot.

Good luck, good things never come about when you have a neighbor like the one described by the OP.

 

[minniecarousel]

We had an across-the-street neighbor come to the house one time to tell my son to stop parking in "front" of his house. Funny thing was, we didn't park the car in front of his house, it was more in front of the property line between his and his neighbor. It was a rental car that I was driving since our son's car had been hit while parked in front of our house. (we had only been living there for 6 weeks when someone did this hit-and-run!) It always irked me that he obviously waited until my DH & I left to come to the door to talk to our son!

Back to your problem - sounds like this guy thrives on the drama. Most normal people don't. Is his wife at all approachable?

Good luck!

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Back to your problem - sounds like this guy thrives on the drama. Most normal people don't. Is his wife at all approachable?

Good luck!

I've talked very little with the wife. After we moved in she did come and introduce herself to us and brought flowers (that was after her husband came over to yell at us). I think that she's a nice lady, but is rarely out. The main time that I see her is when she is driving away and I don't normally even see that. For a while I wondered if she'd died. The only time that we go over there is on Halloween for trick or treating. If I see her outside I'll wave or tell her "hi", but that's about it. I think that he's the one with an issue and the one that we'll need to deal with, as much as I'd like to avoid it.

He's not the first crazy neighbor we've had to deal with. At our last house we had a real humdinger who was truly mentally ill. He had a gun that the police took from him, he drove his car across our lawn, and did all kinds of other things. We'd been friends with him so that was kind of difficult and he eventually moved away and was later deported (we're still friends with his ex wife).

 

[justhat]

Gosh T&B, what a great neighbor you have! I'm jealous. My only suggestions would be to either park the car super close to your mailbox, but still far enough away that you can still get mail or buy one of those liner things someone else mentioned and park the car in the garage. That way you wouldn't need to move it when you need to use the van, but you might still have to move a van to get to the car I guess. Not sure how you park, but could the vans be front-back instead of side by side? If so, then maybe if you park the car in the garage and the vans in a row, then you could get in/out of the house with the car without moving a van.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Then we'd be blocking the sidewalks, which is against the homeowners rules.
Not that our neighbor minds blocking the sidewalk, but he also doesn't mind letting his dog poop in my yard (and all the other yards). And when he's been doing this he's had an empty side of his driveway.

I think that I'm going to go pull up the car a little so it's closer to my mailbox.

Justhat, you can come visit me sometime and park in front of his house and watch him come out and yell at you. That's what he did to my cousin one time when she pulled in front of his house.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I have a minute while I'm making tea to write about our second encounter with our neighbor. Soon after we moved in we decided to get an invisible fence for our dog. We had a copy of the plat map and weren't required to have a survey since it's not a real fence, but just underground wires. When the company was running the wires our neighbor came out and started yelling at them telling them that they were on his property. The company had measured from the back corner of our house and was pretty sure of the boundries, but our neighbor was so mad that they told us to come out and tell them were to bury the wires. Mind you, it was explained to our neighbor that these were underground wires and wouldn't be visible. And this would keep our dog off their property. We ended up putting the fence where he said to put it, just to shut him up.

Fast forward a few years. We got another dog and didn't feel that she would do well with the invisible fence so we got a real fence (per deed restrictions ). For that fence we had to find the survey markers and realized how way inside our boundries the invisible fence was put. Our lots are strange sizes and angles, not the traditional rectangular size.

We did put the real fence just inside our border and I don't think he said anything about that, at least not that I remember.

Every one of the things that have happened have been about boundries. It's like he's a dog peeing on his property to show ownership. So strange.

My DD is leaving with the car, so we'll have to see if he pulls his SUV out in the street.

 

[Stepht5]

a car that is sitting in the driveway that literally has not been moved once in the 6 years that we've lives here, and sometimes a truck that belongs to a boarder, but I haven't seen that one lately.

Call your city aobut the car that hasn't moved... In our city it is against city ordinances to have a car that doesn't run (unless you keep it inside your garage). And chances are that if it hasn't been moved it doesn't have current tags & inspection sticker.....

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Today after the mail came I pulled up closer to the mailbox, so if he comes home later and parks in front of me it will be blocking the driveway even more than it did before. He now has plenty of room to park behind me if he desires.

Today one of my neighbors, who knows his wife a little, told me that she doesn't think that he's ever been a nice person, based on the tidbits that his wife has told. Not exactly sure what she means by that and hopefully she's not talking abuse. Wouldn't out it past him, though.

I don't want to report his car with the expired tags yet because he would know it's me and I don't want to escalate all this, but if I have to call the police I will most certainly clue them in.

I wish that I personally knew a police officer (who lived close) who could pay a little visit here when his car is parked in front of my driveway. Actually, I do know a country officer and maybe he knows someone who works out of our local office.