In many neighborhoods, there is an abundance of street parking.

Unless there are “no parking” signs or restricted parking rules, visitors can park anywhere along the curb as long as long as they’re not blocking a driveway.

In today’s story, one neighbor seems to think that the street parking in front of his house is only for him, but someone turn the tables to teach him the rules.

Let’s see how the story unfolds…

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

I would say that this is a minor case of malicious compliance but it still felt good.

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.

A neighbor was upset that the married couple parked in front of his house.

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.

He tried to explain that the married couple didn’t do anything wrong.

However, I had a different reaction.

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

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.

Matt has more available parking in front of his house than most of the other houses do.

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).

This is where the malicious compliance comes in.

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

Matt turned the neighbor’s rules against him.

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.

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.

The neighbor continued the conversation with Matt after they left.

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 say someone can’t park on the street in front of your house.

That is not a rule.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story…

This reader loves how the story played out.

Another reader thinks the neighbor has too many cars.

This person had a neighbor who was possessive of her street parking too.

Another reader’s neighbor didn’t want anyone parking in front of her house either.

What is it with people thinking they own their street parking?

That is not a thing.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.