Man Follows The Parking Rules At His New Apartment, But Neighbors Insist Certain Spots Belong To Them
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Imagine moving into an apartment that has a parking lot that’s first come, first served with no assigned parking spaces. What would you do if some of your neighbors were really possessive about some of the parking spaces and told you not to park there? Would you comply to avoid drama, or would you refuse since you have just as much right to park there as they do?
In this story, one man is in this situation. He doesn’t want to be involved in a parking war, but he also knows the neighbors are wrong and don’t own those parking spots. He’s not sure how to handle the situation.
Let’s read all about it.
Parking issues
I recently moved 3 days ago to my first apartment on my own. I am 28M I have been living with roommates until then.
It’s a Apartment complex type situation, it’s a bunch of houses that look the same and are attached to one another. One apartment is upstairs and one apartment is in the basement type deal.
There’s parking available to residents to park at any spot there.
But some of the neighbors are living by different made-up rules.
On day one of me living there I had the WiFi guy come to install WiFi, he parked his van right front of my apartment and my neighbor from upstairs saw this and legitimately yelled at him saying “THATS MY PARKING SPOT WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU NEED TO MOVE IT”.
I was taken aback a bit when I heard it because it was pretty early in the day and you’re yelling over parking. It left a sour taste in my mouth with that and I apologized to the WiFi guy about that.
Day 2 comes and I’m setting up furniture, I’m building tv stands and a coffee table then I hear a knock from my front door. It was an older man introducing himself and saying how I needed to move my car… he tried to appear nice about it by saying “I respect you and I say this with no disrespect” then he explained how that parking is his.
This guy has some nerve!
Then he noted that he’s my neighbor next to me, and that his family and the family above me are the same family and that they’ve been here for a long time (trying to assert dominance and seniority I guess? ).
He said I didn’t have to move it at the moment because he was stepping out but when he comes back he EXPECTS the parking to be free…
He the noted that the neighbor upstairs’s sister likes to come by every now and then. He the pointed out that he “knows” the community rule that it’s supposed to be 1 car per tenant regardless of how many people live there, and they’re a really big family. And to add on, there are no numbered parking spots, there are no parking specially revered.
He’s not sure what to do.
When the guy left I didn’t move my car. But I had to leave for the night to sleep at my old apartment because I haven’t moved my bed yet so they probably think I moved it for them but that’s not the case at all.
Part of me wants to move my car so I don’t be in some random drama over parking but part of me wants to leave my car there because I pay my own bills and I pay my own rent there as much as they do.
Unless the can show me property taxes on all 6 parking spots they’re trying to claim, I don’t think I should move my car.
They just want convenience of parking in front of their door when my door is next to theirs as well.
He needs to talk to the landlord and straighten out what the rules really are about the parking spot. If nobody has assigned parking, he needs to let the landlord deal with the tenants or get it in writing so he can prove to them that he can park there too.
Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.
Here’s a good suggestion.
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I like this suggestion of how to phrase it when talking to management.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a barn owner who wants to evict a tenant who promised to build stalls but never did.
This is a good point.
One person would simply end the conversation.
The neighbor is wrong, and he is right. I like the idea of talking to management and honestly asking for clarification. He’ll probably get the neighbor in trouble in the process for mentioning how many cars he has, but that’s the neighbor’s problem. The neighbor has to know that he’s breaking the rules.
Speaking up is the right thing to do. Avoiding drama doesn’t make it go away. It just lets the bully win.
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