Neighborhood Parking issues

[mamacatnv]

I'm curious what y'all think.
My next door neighbor is a single lady who pretty much waves or says hi over the fence. We have lived next door for 4 years and that is about it for the conversations.

Sunday morning at 9:30 am our doorbell rings, its our next door neighbor and she is mad! She starts yelling at us that we/"our guests" (members of our household) are parked in front of her house and she wants HER guests to park in front of her house. She rants and rants about how we have no right, she has hesitated to say anything but has had enough. I let her rant for a few minutes and then I just shut my door. Kind of like hanging up the phone on someone I just closed the door on her. She was very obviously worked up and not in the mood to have a conversation.

Points:

We live on a public street

There is plenty of parking, its not like people have to hunt for a space.

There are no HOA rules regarding parking other than one cannot leave abandoned cars or block driveways.

We cannot park in front of our house because we have a stop sign on our corner and we have to stay 30 feet away from the stop sign so we street park on one side of our driveway but not the other.

The area in question is 1/3 in front of our side yard and 2/3's in front of her house, 3-4 cars car reasonably park in the area. Neighbors boyfriend has a huge truck and if he is out front then only 3 will fit. We never take up the entire area. Neighbors boyfriend is around almost every evening. Neighbor has a double driveway but only puts her truck in the driveway, her boyfriend tends to park on the street. I assume because his truck is so big.

When my DS is home we tend to take up two spots on the street. This is what has her bent out of shape.
She was yelling at us that "our guests" should not park there as the street space in front of her house is for HER "guests".

Technically, DS lives with us, his car is registered to our address but he tends to be around on the weekends and then not every weekend as he is usually at his girlfriends. So he is not a "guest" he lives at our home.

I was flabbergasted and taken completely by surprise. We did notice the night before that the neighbors boyfriends big truck was so close to Son's girlfriends car that she could not get out unless Son moved his car. We thought it kind of odd but since no one was going anywhere that evening we let it go.

I really don't want to make an enemy out of my neighbor but I am not parking around the corner on the very busy street that people zip up and down on if I don't have too. Why should I when there is perfectly good, safer parking on my own street? Why does it matter that it is in front of her house? Reminder, there are no "rules", it is first come first serve.

I guess this is some sort of courtesy issue although the way she lit into us so early in the morning does not do much to pull on my courtesy heart strings.

Sooooo........What do y'all think?

 

[pryncess527]

I'm curious what y'all think.
My next door neighbor is a single lady who pretty much waves or says hi over the fence. We have lived next door for 4 years and that is about it for the conversations.

Sunday morning at 9:30 am our doorbell rings, its our next door neighbor and she is mad! She starts yelling at us that we/"our guests" (members of our household) are parked in front of her house and she wants HER guests to park in front of her house. She rants and rants about how we have no right, she has hesitated to say anything but has had enough. I let her rant for a few minutes and then I just shut my door. Kind of like hanging up the phone on someone I just closed the door on her. She was very obviously worked up and not in the mood to have a conversation.

Points:

We live on a public street

There is plenty of parking, its not like people have to hunt for a space.

There are no HOA rules regarding parking other than one cannot leave abandoned cars or block driveways.

We cannot park in front of our house because we have a stop sign on our corner and we have to stay 30 feet away from the stop sign so we street park on one side of our driveway but not the other.

The area in question is 1/3 in front of our side yard and 2/3's in front of her house, 3-4 cars car reasonably park in the area. Neighbors boyfriend has a huge truck and if he is out front then only 3 will fit. We never take up the entire area. Neighbors boyfriend is around almost every evening. Neighbor has a double driveway but only puts her truck in the driveway, her boyfriend tends to park on the street. I assume because his truck is so big.

When my DS is home we tend to take up two spots on the street. This is what has her bent out of shape.
She was yelling at us that "our guests" should not park there as the street space in front of her house is for HER "guests".

Technically, DS lives with us, his car is registered to our address but he tends to be around on the weekends and then not every weekend as he is usually at his girlfriends. So he is not a "guest" he lives at our home.

I was flabbergasted and taken completely by surprise. We did notice the night before that the neighbors boyfriends big truck was so close to Son's girlfriends car that she could not get out unless Son moved his car. We thought it kind of odd but since no one was going anywhere that evening we let it go.

I really don't want to make an enemy out of my neighbor but I am not parking around the corner on the very busy street that people zip up and down on if I don't have too. Why should I when there is perfectly good, safer parking on my own street? Why does it matter that it is in front of her house? Reminder, there are no "rules", it is first come first serve.

I guess this is some sort of courtesy issue although the way she lit into us so early in the morning does not do much to pull on my courtesy heart strings.

Sooooo........What do y'all think?

The rule

 

[Hikergirl]

I thinks she is SOL

 

[pryncess527]

what you are doing is your legal right, but in my experience in the suburbs, "custom" is that you do not regularly park in front of another persons house without permission. While I doubt I would behave as your neighbor did, I also think you are in the wrong and should not rely on parking in front of someone else's house on a regular basis.

 

[ImDMous]

You can park your car anywhere you want to as long as it's not a 'no parking zone' or some other controlled space. There is nothing that I know of anywhere that says the public street in front of your house is only to be used by you. She's a kook. We have someone on our street like this, he doesn't get invited to any neighborhood events and everyone pretty much thinks he's a jerk.

 

[Klayfish]

If it's a public roadway with parking allowed, then she'll have to get over it. Sure, there is some sense of common courtesy. I wouldn't park in front of a neighbors house if I didn't have to, but if I had to, oh well. She can rant all she wants, it's not her property. If you're doing it on a regular basis, and you have other options to park, then I would understand her frustration.

 

[mjkacmom]

Legally there is nothing she can do. Any reason why you don't park in your own driveway? There was a period of about 6 months when my neighbor, across the street, would have a coworker park his giant truck right in front of my house from 7 am - 5pm when they carpooled to work. I couldn't understand why he didn't park in front of my neighbors house, since he and his wife worked full time. I'm a SAHM with lots of carpooling, plus my elderly parents would stop by a lot, and no one could ever park in front of my house.

It really aggravated the **** out of me. I have a big picture window and would keep seeing that ugly truck all day long.

 

[mamacatnv]

If it's a public roadway with parking allowed, then she'll have to get over it. Sure, there is some sense of common courtesy. I wouldn't park in front of a neighbors house if I didn't have to, but if I had to, oh well. She can rant all she wants, it's not her property. If you're doing it on a regular basis, and you have other options to park, then I would understand her frustration.

Its kind of ironic, she is the one whose boyfriend parks there on a regular basis, we only take up the other 1/3 on the occasional weekends.

 

[Tikitoi]

This is good to know because this is my neighbor he parks right in fridge of my home M-F...

what you are doing is your legal right, but in my experience in the suburbs, "custom" is that you do not regularly park in front of another persons house without permission.

 

[Mokat76]

If you're not damaging her lawn or blocking her driveway, she doesn't have anything to say legally. However, if your son and his GF are parking out there a lot, I can kind of understand her annoyance. Can't the GF park a little way further down to keep the peace?

 

[pryncess527]

This is good to know because this is my neighbor he parks right in fridge of my home M-F...

I suppose I should have qualified it with has always been the custom in my area. I'm learning it is clearly not as widespread as I would have thought.

Any time we knew we'd be parking in front of our neighbors house, we'd mention it to them and apologize for the inconvenience.

 

[Heidict]

Loved that you shut the door in her face!! I am so not a morning person and to have a neighbor show up, a neighbor who I am not even friendly with, and yell at me? Slamming the door may have been a more appropriate response.

It's a public street. ANYONE can park there, including you, your son, and his girlfriend. If she doesn't like it, oh well. I bet if she had come over, without acting like a crazy person, you might have been more receptive to working with her. As she is now though...........I wouldn't go out of my way to help her.

 

[dotfurio]

Legally she doesn't have a case, but it's also always been my understanding that it's courteous not to park in front of a neighbor's house on a regular basis.

I kind of get where she's coming from. For a period we had our next door neighbors and across the street neighbors always parking in front of our house. We already fill our driveway with our 2 cars, so whenever people would come over they'd have to park down the street. My mom is handicapped so if she gave us notice she was coming over, we'd move one of our cars to down the street so she could park in our driveway. Near the 4th of July we'd have to watch our front yard and as soon as a spot cleared we'd park our car on the street so when it was time for fireworks we could sit on our lawn and enjoy them. Luckily they've both moved.

 

[mamacatnv]

Loved that you shut the door in her face!! I am so not a morning person and to have a neighbor show up, a neighbor who I am not even friendly with, and yell at me? Slamming the door may have been a more appropriate response.

It's a public street. ANYONE can park there, including you, your son, and his girlfriend. If she doesn't like it, oh well. I bet if she had come over, without acting like a crazy person, you might have been more receptive to working with her. As she is now though...........I wouldn't go out of my way to help her.

This was my reaction as well. The whole you get more bee's with honey scenario.
Her argument that her "guests" somehow trump my "guests" didn't go over so well.

 

[DaisyJ]

This was my reaction as well. The whole you get more bee's with honey scenario.
Her argument that her "guests" somehow trump my "guests" didn't go over so well.

Do you have a short driveway that your "guests" can't park in your driveway?

 

[Squirlz]

Around here you only have to be 10 feet from a stop sign.

 

[chicagodisneyfan]

I am always surprised by these threads. Since I've only lived in large cities I never got the memo that it's rude to park in front of someone else's house. Here if a car fits in a spot it's yours.
Tell the neighbor to pound sand. Short of handicapped or elderly it's nobodies business where you or your guests park.

 

[Wendy31]

Since it's a public street, of course, you're within your rights to park wherever.

However, posts like this make me thankful we live in an neighborhood where it's considered common courtesy to not park in front of someone else's house.

Like another poster mentioned, I'd hate for the view out of my front window to be someone else's car in front of my house.

 

[pryncess527]

I am always surprised by these threads. Since I've only lived in large cities I never got the memo that it's rude to park in front of someone else's house. Here if a car fits in a spot it's yours.

FWIW, I'd never extrapolate that to a city street -- the custom in my area is for quiet neighborhood streets. The kind with cul-de-sacs and no through traffic -- that describes about 75% of the neighbohoods where I live.

 

[cabanafrau]

Around here you only have to be 10 feet from a stop sign.

25 feet here.