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Well, that was a mess.
Apr. 7th, 2009 10:19 pmI have just returned from a dispute with one of the tenants of the neighboring building. See, there are two driveways, one on either side of the building I live in (both buildings are houses converted into apartments, by the way). Both feed into my building's little parking lot, and each also feeds into the parking lots of the houses adjacent to us.
I got home tonight and saw that someone had parked their car in one of the driveways, blocking it. I was able to get in through the other one, but really, it's inconsiderate (and possibly hazardous) to park your car in one of those drives. I was reasonably certain that someone who lived in either my building or the one it shares a driveway with would not park there, and that parking there was illegal, so I called the towing service that removes unauthorized cars from the property.
When the tower got there he called me to talk to him, because it wasn't clear whether the blocked driveway belonged to my landlord or the landlord of the house next to ours. I also had a bit of an argument with the two young women who owned the car and did, in fact, live in the adjacent building. One of them bitched at me for calling the tow truck, saying that since she was not blocking my access to my parking lot, it was "evil" of me to call the towing company, especially since she makes it a point to knock on the door of our building when one of us parks a car in her lot. I said no, it was not evil, because I was under the impression that one is not allowed to park in the middle of the driveway. She said her lease allowed her to park there and she does it all the time (I was skeptical about this: I know people do occasionally park in that driveway, but not all the time and, I think, not legally).
The tow truck driver agreed that she probably was not allowed to park there, or at least it was a very bad idea, because the driveway was an easement feeding into the lot behind another building (ours) as well as the one she lived in. We weren't able to clear up who owned the driveway and who was allowed to park in it. The truck driver, and the bitchy young woman's friend, both figured that it was a misunderstanding. I'm not precisely sure who misunderstood what, but I didn't say that.
Anyway, I ended up splitting the truck fee (which the driver kindly discounted for us) with the two young ladies, just because I didn't want to get into a huge argument over the thing, but I said I wanted to see some proof that their landlord owned the driveway and that they were allowed to park in it as soon as they could get it to me (in the form of a signed letter). This seemed to mollify the bitchy young woman, who dialed down to merely grumpy, although I'm a little worried that she might point me out to other residents of the building or something and I don't know what will come of that.
Maybe I should have knocked on the door, but recall that I was under the impression that a resident of either building would not inconvenience others by parking there (apparently I was wrong about that), and the behavior of some of the other renters in the neighborhood - drunken parties with loud music at late hours and other general hooliganery - makes me a little wary of the prospect of talking to them. I strongly suspect that at least a few of them are under the impression that they can do whatever they please without regard to others who live nearby, and that they would object very strongly to being told or even asked to have some consideration for others. Ms. Bitchy certainly did not encourage me to feel otherwise.
So, I had a bit of unpleasantness and lost twenty-five dollars over the whole affair. I suppose next time I should only make a complaint if someone is blocking the other driveway, which I know for certain is part of my landlord's property.
I got home tonight and saw that someone had parked their car in one of the driveways, blocking it. I was able to get in through the other one, but really, it's inconsiderate (and possibly hazardous) to park your car in one of those drives. I was reasonably certain that someone who lived in either my building or the one it shares a driveway with would not park there, and that parking there was illegal, so I called the towing service that removes unauthorized cars from the property.
When the tower got there he called me to talk to him, because it wasn't clear whether the blocked driveway belonged to my landlord or the landlord of the house next to ours. I also had a bit of an argument with the two young women who owned the car and did, in fact, live in the adjacent building. One of them bitched at me for calling the tow truck, saying that since she was not blocking my access to my parking lot, it was "evil" of me to call the towing company, especially since she makes it a point to knock on the door of our building when one of us parks a car in her lot. I said no, it was not evil, because I was under the impression that one is not allowed to park in the middle of the driveway. She said her lease allowed her to park there and she does it all the time (I was skeptical about this: I know people do occasionally park in that driveway, but not all the time and, I think, not legally).
The tow truck driver agreed that she probably was not allowed to park there, or at least it was a very bad idea, because the driveway was an easement feeding into the lot behind another building (ours) as well as the one she lived in. We weren't able to clear up who owned the driveway and who was allowed to park in it. The truck driver, and the bitchy young woman's friend, both figured that it was a misunderstanding. I'm not precisely sure who misunderstood what, but I didn't say that.
Anyway, I ended up splitting the truck fee (which the driver kindly discounted for us) with the two young ladies, just because I didn't want to get into a huge argument over the thing, but I said I wanted to see some proof that their landlord owned the driveway and that they were allowed to park in it as soon as they could get it to me (in the form of a signed letter). This seemed to mollify the bitchy young woman, who dialed down to merely grumpy, although I'm a little worried that she might point me out to other residents of the building or something and I don't know what will come of that.
Maybe I should have knocked on the door, but recall that I was under the impression that a resident of either building would not inconvenience others by parking there (apparently I was wrong about that), and the behavior of some of the other renters in the neighborhood - drunken parties with loud music at late hours and other general hooliganery - makes me a little wary of the prospect of talking to them. I strongly suspect that at least a few of them are under the impression that they can do whatever they please without regard to others who live nearby, and that they would object very strongly to being told or even asked to have some consideration for others. Ms. Bitchy certainly did not encourage me to feel otherwise.
So, I had a bit of unpleasantness and lost twenty-five dollars over the whole affair. I suppose next time I should only make a complaint if someone is blocking the other driveway, which I know for certain is part of my landlord's property.
