Okay, I live in an apartment building. We have a small parking lot, enough for 2 cars per tenant, and the landlord has so very thoughtfully had painted designations put down on the concrete (double deep by 4 cars wide) so there's no question as to whose spots are whose. There is no extra room for visitors beyond the 2 spots per tenant. Visitors are to park in the tenant's spaces if available, otherwise out on the sidestreet (the street in front of the building is no parking at all times). And if you're being a little bit thoughtful and planning ahead, especially for something like a holiday, you make arrangements with neighbors who either don't use their entire alloted space or who will be away for the duration, or you park your own vehicle(s) on the street and let your visitors use your lot space.
This should be pretty common sense stuff, right? Apparently not!
I went out for a bit of last minute shopping tonight, was gone for less than 2 hours, and came home to find my space taken up by a big white minivan. And this is the third time in the span of a month (actually, the second time a different someone parked behind me and I couldn't get out), so I'm no longer willing to be nice about it and go park on the street until the visitor decides it's time to leave. So I park in MY designated spot behind her (and I know it's a her cause I saw her sitting in the kitchen with the tenant in unit B), and because her van is so big, I was only able to leave about 4 inches between our vehicles to keep my butt from hanging out beyond. Oh, and I took down her license plate number, too.
I've called the police in the past and been told that they don't have jurisdiction in our lot. The landlord is not reachable by phone at the moment, which considering the calendar is not surprising. And I'm sorely tempted to completely ignore any knocking at the doors and windows All. NIGHT. LONG.
Yep, I'm being a Grinch now! And I will be having a discussion with the landlord this week about it.
Seriously, though, am I being unreasonable to expect that I be allowed free use of my designated spots and not have to worry about other people blocking me in or out?
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
quote:Seriously, though, am I being unreasonable to expect that I be allowed free use of my designated spots and not have to worry about other people blocking me in or out?
Nope.
Was it dark? Maybe new visitors can't see the designations? (I'm trying to think of a good reason, in the spirit of Christmas and all, why someone would do that.)
I'd be sorely tempted to ignore the knocking, too. Got any head phones? Or sleeping pills?
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Is this someone who has taken your spot before? Or someone completely new?
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
It may have been dark, I don't know when she arrived. When I left it was full light. The tenant she's visiting has two cars in their spaces, so obviously the visitor couldn't park there without the tenant using a brain cell or three. By the time I got home, it was definitely dark. Oh, and when I went out to get her license plate number after having been home for about a half hour, my car was still steaming - cold rain today - and hers had not been when I first got home, so she was there at least a half hour before I arrived.
This is a new vehicle but may be the same person. Definitely visiting the same tenant as the last two. That's why I'm going to the landlord about it, so he can reinforce the whole speech he gives when handing over keys about parking and stuff on the back porch and so on.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
When I was in an apartment, we were told of a particular towing company to call if something like this happened...
Posted by Goody Scrivener (Member # 6742) on :
That's one of the things I'll be asking the landlord for.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
My upstairs neighbour insists on wearing heavy shoes indoors. Which make a horrible noise when she clunks about in them on the hardwood floors. Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Oh, many years back, I was visiting my grandparents in their Senior Apartments. The spaces were not marked with apartment numbers, but there was a little street sign that said "Visitors Parking" with an arrow indicating "that way". So, I parked where I thought the arrow indicated. Let me add that all through the parking lot, visitor and resident, handicapped and non-handicapped, there were more than enough parking spaces to go around.
After an hour or so of visiting with the Grandparents, I went out to find my car (with no car parked to the left or the right of it) blocked in by a huge boat of a sedan, parked perpendicular behind it, with a note on my window "See me in Apt 23C". I went back to the Grandparents, to tell them about this. Grandpa was steaming mad. He frog-marched me over to Apartment 23 C, and began banging on the door with his cane. Some grumpy old man answered, and began waving his cane at me and my grandfather. I was trying to apologize and say that it was a misunderstanding -- Visitor Parking is hardly well-labeled, and I thought that I had parked in the correct place. My grandfather insisted that I had every right to park there, and the other old guy said he was sick of young people coming and taking up his parking lot with their crazy cars. The fight escalated with much waving of canes and shouting. The other elderly neighbors either came out to watch, or were hanging out of their windows to follow the fray. The other neighbors quickly caught on, as this was not the first time the guy had blocked in a hapless visitor. The elderly spectators were taking sides and calling out their opinions. Hearing aides squealed, walkers glinted in the sun, glasses were removed, breathed upon, polished and returned to the bridge of the nose. It was like a bizarre scene from "West Side Story -- 60 Years Later".
The fight ended (with not a blow thrown, but with much threatening cane-waving), with my Grandfather shouting "BAH" and turning on his heel and gimping away, and the other guy shouting "BAH!" and slamming the door. The crowd dissipated, and I was left with my car still blocked in and no idea what to do about it.
I went across the street to the public library, hung out there for about a half hour, and then returned to the man's door, meekly apologising for parking in the wrong place, promising to know better in the future, and begging forgiveness for the whole scene. He moved his car, and I got to leave.
This has nothing to do with your situation, but your story reminded me of my experience.
Posted by dean (Member # 167) on :
This reminds me of something going on at a couple of my friends' apartment. They live in a place where there is a steep hill and they live at the top of the hill. There is a firelane directly behind everyone's sliding glass door (which opens into the parking lot and fire lane because my friends live on the ground floor) and across the fire lane and the alleyway there is parking. The parking isn't designated that this parking place is for this apartment and that one for that one. And there's lots of parking for the most part. I've never had trouble finding a place to park. If that area is filled in, on the other side of the building, there is more parking, which you can reach by a breezeway. Anyway, my friends tend to host most of the parties and gatherings because one of them is allergic to cats and most everyone else has a cat or two. Their parties tend to be well-attended and to go rather late. But the problem seems to be with one neighbor who routinely complains (whether there has been a recent party or not) that my friends' guests have taken up ALL the parking (which seems a virtual impossibility). Plus if any two people go outside to smoke and talk in low voices (or even if they stand there silently and smoke) and this woman notices, she claims that we were unspeakably rowdy and kept her up all night and makes all kinds of complaints to the landlords. It makes me angry. We're pretty courteous party-goers.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
Scrivener: Your being totally pre-emptively unfair. Its ok to be unfair if you know the person your dealing with did something intentionally heinously annoying, but in this case, this sounds like a first offense for the white van. It would be really REALLY uncool for you not to move your car to let them out, and you won't convince anyone to play by the rules by calling the cops! This is the kind of move that makes people abuse you IMO, that and leaving angry notes in windshields about parking issues.
PS. people that abuse the cops by calling them over parking could be putting people who NEED the cops in danger, PLEASE stop doing that.
On the other hand: Ever come to your car in the parking lot after a few weeks of non-use, and there is a BIG handwritten notet that says: DO YOU WANT TO SELL THIS????? CALL DAVE 555-5555....
I was so angry I almost called to scream at this jerk, but then I realized he knew which car was mine. The thing is, cars routinely get broken into/stolen in my neighborhood, the last thing I need is someone to notice that there has been a note perched in my window for a week without moving (ie, my car is easy pickings) ARRRGGG DAVE ARRRRRRRRGGGGG
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Ori, you don't know what you are talking about. Police ARE there to deal with this sort of stuff...they have radios, and the calls are screened and sorted and prioritized. If she was calling them all the time or lying about the urgency you would be right, but as it stands she is right to be annoyed.
She also said she wasn't calling the police anymore, since tehy had told her they couldn't do anything about it.
Also, it ISN'T a first offence for the person in the apartment, who is responsible for their guests, IMO, at least in these types of issues.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
Yup. I agree.
I've had many, many parking lot issues in the past with visitors just not giving a hoot about who legally has the right to park in their own parking spaces.
Just because a parking space is open when a visitor arrives doesn't mean that they won't severely inconvenience someone by taking it, even if they, the visitor, thinks it's only for a few minutes or a couple of hours.
Posted by MandyM (Member # 8375) on :
Calling 911 might be an issue but there are non-emergency police numbers that one can call these days. Although I would be more than angry about this and might be tempted to call 911 and the FBI or the secret service, anyone who might get the car moved, especially since the parking spots are clearly marked! Ugh!
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