Imagine living next to a neighbor who gets upset when anyone parks in front of his house. Would you respect his wishes and not park in front of his house or would you park there anyway since you’re not breaking any laws?

In this story, one group of friends is in this situation when a neighbor interrupts their game night to complain that someone parked in front of his house.

Keep reading to see how they handle the situation.

We comply with neighbor’s parking rules which would cause him more problems than us.

This situation happened a couple of years ago when I would meet up at a friend’s house every Monday evening to play board games with him and a now-married couple.

We are going to say that the friend’s name is Matt. Matt lives in one of those neighborhoods where the houses are really close together and there are a million cars parked on the street.

Matt’s neighbor was pretty upset.

One evening, we were wrapping up for the night and just chatting when we heard a knock at the door. It was the neighbor across the street and he was very upset that someone had parked in front of his house because that spot belonged to him.

The car belonged to the married couple who quickly apologized and said they were leaving shortly. They rushed to get their things together so they could move the car and avoid conflict.

However, I had a different reaction.

I thought it was extremely rude for him to knock on our door and demand us to move.

He decided to point out the error in the neighbor’s logic.

I told the neighbor that there were no assigned or claimed spots and that you could park wherever you wanted. Obviously, you park in front of your own house or the house that you are visiting if you can but otherwise just park wherever there is an available spot.

He didn’t seem to have a good counter to my argument but still continued to argue that he didn’t want us to park in front of his house.

Most houses on the street have enough room for one street-parked vehicle on one side of their driveway while the other side was often unusable due to it being too close to the neighbor’s driveway. Best case scenario on the shorter side, you would have a small spot that would be partially in front of both houses.

Due to the odd shape of Matt’s lot which was narrow in the back and wider in the front, he had a lot more space in front of his house on one side than most other houses (enough for 3 cars).

They play along with the neighbor’s rules.

This is where the malicious compliance comes in.

The married couple gets into their car and leaves complying with the neighbor’s wishes.

Matt decides to give in as well and plays along with the neighbor’s “rules”. He points to the three vehicles nearby and asks “who’s cars are these and why are they parked in front of my house?”

The neighbor looked dumbfounded and after a moment of silence, he admits that two of those vehicles belonged to his family.

But the neighbor’s rules backfire on the neighbor.

Matt replies, “so according to your rules, you should not be parking in front of my house”.

The neighbor looked stunned as his rules were actually going to hurt him much more than they would hurt us. Matt only had to worry about his and his roommate’s car which would both fit in his driveway. He only needed street parking when people would occasionally come over.

The neighbor had a full driveway and 3+ cars on the street that he needed spots for on a daily basis. He didn’t have enough street spaces that would clearly belong to him using his rules.

The neighbor walked away in defeat but apparently argued more with Matt after I left.

The pandemic hit shortly after and we canceled our in-person game nights and I’m pretty sure the neighbor continued to park in front of other people’s houses which is what everyone else does there anyways.

It’s ridiculous to complain that a neighbor parked in front of your house when you’re parking in front of that same neighbor’s house!

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person likes how the story played out.

One person thinks more countries should be like Japan.

This person’s neighbor sounds even crazier!

One neighbor went out of their way to make sure nobody could park in front of their house.

If it’s not illegal to park there, don’t complain.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.