my neighbors and parking...

[ronocnikral]

Well, we just moved in the neighborhood a couple of months ago. We have three cars and only enough room to park one in our garage. About a month ago, we met a neighbor and he inquired who owned the car parked across the street (red spot on map) from our house and on the side of their little townhome complex thing (there are 3 units). See attached picture. Our house has the purple thingy on it and the whinning neighbors are across 16th st, highlighted. I try to drive the car once a week just to keep it running. Some times it is about once every two weeks. Oh, and I park my regular car in front of our house.

Well, last night he knocked on the door during dinner to ask how the sale of our car was going. Well, obviously not too well because the car is still there. He politely asked if we could move it down the street in front of an empty lot (highlighted house on map that is no longer there). I am not a big fan of this idea mainly because I can't see the car on a daily basis. But, I told him I would move the car around every once and a while to give them a break. The guy doesn't really care, it's just his wife who keeps bothering him about it. Which I can respect.

So, my wife and I finished dinner and didn't really come up with a solution to where to move the car. My wife went out to water some plants and another neighbor, whom we have never met, came over and popped her mouth off to my wife about how she is sick of looking at our car. My wife just explained how we are trying to sell it blah, blah, blah. And the lady continued to express her fustration. And after meeting her, we can understand why the other guy came over, it must be like he is married to two women...

Well, since I had to hear about it I was going to park my car directly across the street from their townhomes. My wife didn't think it was a good idea to stir the pot. Although, to be fair, with the start we have had with these people, it's not like we are going to be having them over for dinner. Nonetheless, the car is still parked across the street in the highly disputed parking spot.

What would you do? I found this, which is interesting...

Sec. 26-93. Parking in excess of twenty-four hours.
It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly leave parked or standing in any public street, alley or other public place any vehicle for a longer continuous period of time than 24 hours.
(Ord. No. 07-464, § 7(Exh. B), 4-11-07)

Ideally we would just sell the car. I didn't buy the car to park across the street to make the neighbors mad, I got better things to do with my time. It's only worth $1500 or so...but hey, I could get the 70-200 f/2.8 IS lens I have been craving for that or PW's and some nice strobes. I have wanted to donate it, but my wife likes to squeeze every penny we can out of our "assets."

Creative suggestions?! I plan to just leave it for another week after last nights antics. Obviously, if they become saavy to the 24 hr deal, it will become more of a pain, in which case I would just rotate which cars I drive to work and continue to park the car in question (which has no AC) across the street. At least they will get a break every other day from seeing my car on the side of their houses.

[ggeen]

When I lived in a patio home, zero-lot line, I had a neighbor with two teen aged daughters. Which means four cars and not enough parking places. I was/am single so I offered up one of my parking spots since I only had one car.

From the satellite view, looks like there is some ground between the road and the side walk. Is there not enough room to park there? It hard to tell since some of the building look very close. -G

[CaptainTom]

Be happy that your neighbor is not on this forum to read the city code.
If so, they'd be on the phone and your car would be residing in the impound lot.
Give the car to Texas Can and write it off as a donation. The car is temporary, your neighbors may be forever.......

"oh look honey, someone is breaking in to the house across the street. I hope they steal their damned car that's been parked there for a month !"

"oh look honey, someone is breaking into the nice peoples house across the street, I'll get the shotgun and you call 911"

[ronocnikral]

Originally Posted by ggeen

When I lived in a patio home, zero-lot line, I had a neighbor with two teen aged daughters. Which means four cars and not enough parking places. I was/am single so I offered up one of my parking spots since I only had one car.

From the satellite view, looks like there is some ground between the road and the side walk. Is there not enough room to park there? It hard to tell since some of the building look very close. -G

Well, that's the funny thing...we aren't strapped for parking. The issue isn't that I am taking up "one of their street parking spots." The issue is, they don't like looking at this particular car or maybe any car. In fact, no one really parks on the street in our neighborhood. An excellent test would be to park our lexus there and see if they complain. But, I don't really want to run that test and risk our "nice" car getting hit, like our other car did the other day.

The problem with the 24 hour deal is...would the cops actually come out to ticket a car that is legally parked (other than the 24 hour deal)?? Or would they rather bust the crack dealer on the corner at the gas station 2 blocks away? I would think it is pretty difficult to get a cop to come out and ticket a car that has been stationary for 24 hours. Also, how do you prove that?

I would love to donate the car, but say it only sells at auction for $1000. That means we would only get that as our tax deduction, so basically a 1/3 of the price in our pocket next year...unless of course we adjust for it now. Or we could just sell it for $1000 and have the cash. I would most likely give it to a local high school shop if we did go the donation route.

[carrbowl]

Ask them how much they want to offer you? You are trying to sell it, and as soon as you can, it will be gone. So if they give you $1500, you'll donate it. Mr./Mrs. Neighbor "How bad would you like to see the car gone?"

They do have a way to see if it is been sitting for 24 hours, and if they get enough complaints, they will ticket it. Just hope tickets are the worst thing that happen.!!

[David Whatley]

Ask your boss, and have the wife ask also if the spare car can be parked at work, or pay to store it somewhere. If you are paying 50-75 bucks a month to store it, you might try selling it a little harder.

[johnastovall]

Originally Posted by ronocnikral

Well, that's the funny thing...we aren't strapped for parking. The issue isn't that I am taking up "one of their street parking spots." The issue is, they don't like looking at this particular car or maybe any car. In fact, no one really parks on the street in our neighborhood. An excellent test would be to park our lexus there and see if they complain. But, I don't really want to run that test and risk our "nice" car getting hit, like our other car did the other day.

The problem with the 24 hour deal is...would the cops actually come out to ticket a car that is legally parked (other than the 24 hour deal)?? Or would they rather bust the crack dealer on the corner at the gas station 2 blocks away? I would think it is pretty difficult to get a cop to come out and ticket a car that has been stationary for 24 hours. Also, how do you prove that?

I would love to donate the car, but say it only sells at auction for $1000. That means we would only get that as our tax deduction, so basically a 1/3 of the price in our pocket next year...unless of course we adjust for it now. Or we could just sell it for $1000 and have the cash. I would most likely give it to a local high school shop if we did go the donation route.

Having lived in an area where we reported such things. Yes, they will ticket it and tow it. They know by chalking the tires or little cones that are crushed when it moves. It (depending on the city) may not even be a cop but a parking or code enforcement officer. You are lucky. In Denton it was only 22 hours.

[T. Adam Martin]

I would love to donate the car, but say it only sells at auction for $1000. That means we would only get that as our tax deduction, so basically a 1/3 of the price in our pocket next year...unless of course we adjust for it now. Or we could just sell it for $1000 and have the cash. I would most likely give it to a local high school shop if we did go the donation route.

We donated an old car to Texas Can a couple years ago and got 10% over KBB for it. I understand the trepidation, but Texas Can makes every effort to maximize the donation value for your tax purposes. You may want to call them and see if they can quote you a minimum.

[gardener]

Your neighbors are going further to keep the peace than I would quite frankly. While many of our neighbors do park an extra car or cars on our street, they also tend to drive them on a daily basis which is fine by me.
I didn't buy a nice house in a nice neighborhood to see old (or otherwise) cars for sale or just sitting parked out front day after day.
And yes, I would have politely asked you to do something with it and if you didn't, I would have called the appropriate authorities to ticket and remove it by now.

[timbertoes]

Sorry, but you are showing bad ettiquite.
Park on your side.
You call them Whiney, and they see you as a Special Snowflake.

[Digigeek]

Why not park it in front of your house? If I was the neighbor, I wouldn't want a $1,500 junker parked in front of my house.

Do the right thing - be a good neighbor.

[epoh]

if it's not selling, why not just take it to CarMax? i know they probably don't give top dollar, but you'll get some $$ and get the neighbors off your back.

[ronocnikral]

hmmm...interesting feedback. maybe i should rotate cars everyday when I drive to work.

i do understand it is annoying. when we lived in utah our neighbors parked a large yellow box truck in front of our house all the time. We never really said anything. I was going to bring it up when we put our house up for sale, but it magically disappeared. on the other side of the coin, it isn't parked in front of their house, they live on an entirely different street. And while there are HOAs that limit this type of thing, we don't live in an area that has an HOA. And I would park it in front of our house if there was room for two cars, but our little Harry Potter house only has room for one.

Storing it at work is not an option either. I could ask my boss, but by the time I got through all the corporate crap that the large company I work for has, they would land on "no."

ronocnikral added 1 Minutes and 47 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by Digigeek

Why not park it in front of your house? If I was the neighbor, I wouldn't want a $1,500 junker parked in front of my house.

Do the right thing - be a good neighbor.

just because it is cheap, doesn't mean it is a junker. It doesn't have rust and I have taken it to be washed a couple of times. Part of my weekly drive. And it's not in front of their house. In fact, they can't look out any windows and see the car.

[Roy]

If there's no other place to put the car on your property why not park it in front of your own home? I've seen streets so packed with parked cars the street becomes one lane and you hope someone sees you if they are coming head on. It might be an issue of parking on their side of the street but I expect they would prefer to have the street clear. Sounds like you have some nice neighbors and I expect they are aware of the ordinance and are giving you a chance to take care of the problem before they report it. I expect they want the car gone as bad as you do.

Nevermind, my reply was too slow...

[Rson]

Ebay it.