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It is best to try to get along with your neighbors when you can, but some people just make that impossible.

What would you do if your neighbors kept parking in front of your house, and even in your driveway, when they needed to work on their vehicles?

That is what was happening to the person in this story, so she threatened to have their cars towed and reported code violations to the city until they stopped. Now she feels bad for what she did.

I do think she was a little extreme with some of this stuff, but at the same time, the neighbors didn’t leave her much choice. Read through the full story to see what you think.

AITA For Calling Code Violations on My Neighbors?

I (28f) bought my first home in a cute neighborhood.

Getting along with your neighbors can make life a lot better.

I worked hard and fought tooth and nail for my little slice of land, and I am proud of it. I wanted to be cordial and friendly with all my neighbors, so I tried to be a good neighbor.

I wanted to assimilate into the community. I think the neighbors across from me mistook my kindness for weakness. This is where things got bad.

People are allowed to turn around in a driveway, even if it is annoying.

They had many cars, often playing a game of Tetris to move cars in and out of their driveway. I never gave them permission to use my driveway.

They started using my driveway to turn around. Not so much of an issue as it was annoying, but they kept pushing it further.

Ok, now this is crossing some lines.

A few weeks later, they parked one of their broken-down vehicles in front of my house. It was immobile, needed tires changed, and likely needed engine work.

Another one of their cars often wouldn’t start, and they would roll it into my driveway to work on it. The times to get the car running got progressively longer.

Using the street is one thing. Using her driveway is just not ok.

The 1st time it happened, I let it go. It was 5 minutes. I get it, things happen. The 2nd time I watched my neighbor throw a fit over his car not starting, 10 minutes that time.

I felt like they were treating the street and my driveway as their own personal junkyard. My thought process was, ‘If you don’t put your foot down, where does it end?’

Hopefully, they don’t do it again.

It happened again. Car wouldn’t start, driver threw a tantrum, 20 minutes went by that time. I was ANGRY. I went outside as they were going in and said, “Listen, you guys can’t keep using my driveway for your stuff.”

They backtalked me, mumbled something I couldn’t quite hear, so I turned around and yelled, “I’m sorry?!” To which they apologized, but it was one of those “**** you” apologies. They clearly didn’t mean it.

At least that vehicle has been moved.

The car in front of the house was still there, so I checked the tags to see if they were expired (they were), and called dispatch for a tow. They didn’t tow it, but gave them a ticket. Nothing happened.

I called 3 days later, and the officer told them to move it, or it would be towed. They finally did. Good for me. Fast forward a bit to that weekend.

The street is first come, first served. She doesn’t control it.

A friend of theirs parked their truck in front of my driveway, blocking it for another time, 30 minutes. There was space in front of their house.

Sitting in my living room, I saw one dude trespass to use my cans, so I called him out. He walked back to the group around the truck, then they mocked me.

If they are going to be rude, they shouldn’t violate the city codes.

That was the last straw. I felt like they didn’t care what I thought. That day, I called in code violations on their house.

The city did numerous checkups on them. After that, they left me alone. They don’t so much as use my driveway to turn around anymore.

Getting fines is never fun.

They go about their business, and I go about mine. No doubt, they were hit with fines due to my call.

Months later, I am wondering if I was wrong. Targeting someone’s wallet doesn’t feel good morally, but I didn’t see another option.

AITA?

For some of it, yes, she was in the wrong. People are allowed to park in the road, for example. But it sounds like they were trespassing and just being rude in general, which is not acceptable.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

This commenter doesn’t think she did anything wrong.

They didn’t respect her property. Why should she respect theirs?

This commenter thinks the neighbors brought it on themselves.

The neighbors started this. She just finished it.

They were pushing her from the start.

They really left her with no choice, though. She had to hit them where it hurts. The neighbors made it clear that they weren’t going to be reasonable.

She really has nothing to be sorry for, and it isn’t like her neighbors were going to be friends with her anyway.