Hey all,

A little backstory before I ask everyone's opinion. I live in an apartment complex at the top of a big hill. Each unit has a single assigned parking spot, a single visitor spot in each assigned lot, and a general visitor lot at the very bottom of the hill. For the past 2-3 months, a fellow tenant has had his Focus parked there where it has not moved once. This forces people like my girlfriend, who works until midnight routinely, to park at the bottom of the hill and take a 20 minute walk uphill to the apartment.

I have been weighing my options, from posting notices to confronting the person directly.nWith my mini arriving soon, I measured and figured out that I can park to the right of it in front of a grassy area (where you are not supposed to park, but partially blocking the Focus in. Does anyone think this is a legitimate option, or should I resort to something else? I hate that my girlfriend has to walk that damn hill when he leaves his busted down car there every day.

Thanks all!

 

Contact management and let them handle it if he is breaking the rules. If he is not, there is nothing you can do.

 

Not knowing how this guy could react, wouldn't it be a consideration that he might do something to vandalize your MINI? For every action, there is an equal but opposite reaction.

 

Yeah you both are right. I think it's just my mentality of taking care of problems myself. I wouldn't want anything happening to my new MINI.

 

I agree with daflake

 

I agree with daflake as well. Maybe the owner of the Focus is upset that your gf is taking that spot every night so his way of fighting back is to just hog it for himself? You never know what goes through people's minds which is why it's probably best to let the mgmt deal with the situation.

 

Yeah I agree with daflake too. She didn't park there every night, though. 1-2 nights a week usually. Other times it was used by others who came in really late. It was kind of an agreement that its purpose was for that. I know a lot of others are just as annoyed as I am, but as far as I know, no one has done anything about it. I'll talk to management today.

 

Even better, if multiple people are annoyed, then if you all approach management perhaps that you can make something happen. It is clearly a visitor spot and he shouldn't be using it for his own personal spot. Good luck!

 

Had a similar problem a few years back where we live. I went to management first, they sent out a letter indicating the assigned parking spots etc etc. It didn't change a thing, so when the knucklehead parked there again, I went to management, they told me point blank "They have been warned, have it towed." So I walked to the owner's place, and told them that I was going to have it towed, they had 15 minutes to move it. That didn't solve the problem. I had to escalate it to point blank telling the jackwagon that if I come home and that POS is in my parking spot, I am wrapping my tow strap around it and pulling it into the middle of the road up the hill. I had a Jeep at the time and KNOW that I could have done it. I was 10 feet from having it pulled into the middle of the road when he ran out and tried to move it. It never ended up in my spot again. And no harm came from it. Probably didn't hurt that when he confronted me I was wearing my legal, registered firearm on my hip..
But I wouldn't suggest that approach.

 

Very good idea. I'll gather some people up today or tomorrow and see if they can join my quest.

Haha I'll pass on that approach. An idea I did have was to post notes all over the car saying, if it isn't moved, I'll treat it as a permanant fixture of the property and just park in front of it. At least then it would be a fair warning.

 

I don't know the rules for visitor spaces at your place. But here is how I handled a problem I had.

I live in little section where there is limited parking for home owners let alone guests. My driveway just fits my wife's Seinna lengthwise. My supposedly 2 car garage can barely fit my MINI and the Seinna (Very cramped). The visitor pads for 86 homes can maybe handle handle maybe 18 cars. There is very limited street parking also. Sad really. Anyway, not much space for extra cars.

There is one homeowner with 5 cars and it is just the 2 of them. Nothing fancy just 2 SUV's, 2 cars, and a pick up. When I moved there almost 8 years ago this couple had 2 of there cars parked in the visitors parking pad across from my house (Not meant for me and only 4 spaces). At first I wasn't concerned they lived there first. Then I noticed that it seemed the cars never moved. Visitor spots are limited to 48 hours. Then I noticed one of the cars had a flat and expired tags. After 2 weeks I used sidewalk chaulk to mark the tires. Another week and the marks were still there. I notified the HOA board of a abandoned car. The board towed the car. This guys parking was an ongoing problem for years I guess because the board members talked about prior requests to move the cars. The guy complained at the next meeting but got nowhere since several others noted that the tags were expired and it had a flat. Cost the guy like $250 to got the car back. He no longer parks cars there.

So if you mark the tires you can prove the car never moves. I don't know if it will help. Good luck.

 

Thanks that's good advice, I hadn't thought of that. Aside from everything mentioned, I plan on reading through my lease very carefully to see if there are any stipulations regarding visitor parking. Going and complaining is one thing, but if I can nail them on a specific item in the lease that can bring about clearly defined consequences, I'd much prefer to do that.

 

I swear, people are such Douches sometimes. I am going to stalk this thread to see how this all gets worked out. Some folks just don't think the rules apply to them...

 

Management. Too many crazies out there anymore.

 

I just hope it never gets to the level of "dolly man" (someone's car in a condo complex got booted unrightfully so and rather than paying the fee he put the car on dollies and wheeled it in to his garage so the security company couldn't get their boot back, it escalated way beyond belief and was a pretty awesome read, it was originally posted on vwvortex/thecarlounge if anyone is interested)

 

I remember that one! That was awesome!

 

Update for everyone:

I gathered about half a dozen other tenants, and we went over today to speak with the super and management. They said they both understood our concerns but that there was nothing they could do about it. We all combed through the entire lease agreement from each of us, and nothing mentioned visitor parking, only to park in designated parking spots, which unfortunately they do. Someone mentioned they called to have it towed, but no towing company around will get involved in what they called "personal disputes".

So at this point, it seems we have exhausted all formal channels. Very disappointing. I guess I'll be parking in front of their car once my car comes in =P

 

Just hope the owner of the rogue vehicle doesn't take anything out on your Mini Good luck!! Pics when your Mini gets here, please!

 

Maybe you and the others could get a pettion signed to revise the parking rules.

But really I think the rules as written could be used. They state that you park in designated parking spots. IIRC in your first post you stated that each unit had an assigned spot plus there was a single visitor spot. I assume this visitor spot is marked as such. This persons designated spot is his spot for his unit. The visitor spot is designated for visitors. Not residents. Somehow you have to convince management to enforce the rules as written or revise them.

Good luck.

 

I just talked to management again. They said they are going to be instituting parking passes, even for visitor spots. The rule is, each person in an apartment can have one parking pass. So in my example, I will have one for my MINI, and my girlfriend will have one for her car. The problem I see with that, is that they can list anyone and get tons of parking passes, effectively making them useless.

I'm racking my brain trying to figure out a good solution. My current idea is to put a friendly notice around the buildings and on the car asking them to move, and mark it from management. Not sure how well that will work, but my brain is making my obsessed with getting that damn car moved haha.

 

**** that guy! Leave his **** on blocks. If he cared enough he would move it. This whole thing is ridiculous. Not you OP but the whole situation.

 

are his tags on the focus current? if they are expired you could always report an abandoned vehicle to the city/county

 

Oh I understand, and I agree 100%!

That is brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! I'm going to do that today!

 

Hope this gets resolved.

 

I just called up the Police Department, gave them the information about the car, they said it sounds abandoned, and are going to send someone over to check it out. I made sure not to give my name just in case