I’ve got an RV type space, separate from my driveway, a couple dozen feet down the street. I don’t use it for anything. Anyway, twice now I’ve seen a black pickup parked in it. The first time last week I shrugged it off and it disappeared a few hours later. Today it’s back. I placed a sticky on the driver’s window, “Please don’t park on my property” and called the sheriff’s police. I was told I can tow it if I want, but they can’t cite the vehicle because it’s not on a public street. Anyway, hopefully the note works, but if the truck is there tomorrow it’s getting towed I guess. If I actually knew the guy and was asked nicely I might have even let him park there sometimes, but this is just rude.
I can’t really visualize this space that’s 20-some feet down the street while also being on your property, but is it obviously it’s a private space? Is there a sign?
If they continue to park there after the note, then yes, you can have them towed (at their expense). Mounting a “private parking” sign would probably prevent future offenses by others who might make the same “mistake” your pickup pal did.
This is an unincorporated area, and the spot is obviously not part of the paved street. It’s pretty far back under an oak with a section of a telephone pole as the end of the space. Not exactly municipal looking.
If I knew who he was, I’d probably be fine with that under some circumstances. I’m not going to go knocking on doors up and down the street trying to find the dude.
I feel like just putting up the sign might resolve this. It may be obviously not part of the paved street, but it also doesn’t sound like there’s anything there to indicate that it’s anything else, and the guy is parking there because it looks like no man’s land.
I thought I knew the type of space you were talking about, but now I’m not so sure. Is it a section of pavement in your yard, where you’d have to drive over grass to reach it? Or a short “driveway” that leads from the street and just ends in your yard, away from your house? Something else?
If it’s Option 2, which is what I initially thought, I’ve seen those on some properties. But I’ve also seen short sections of road that were built as part of the original development, and lead into unsold lots or even more commonly are actually the start of a side road that hasn’t been built yet because that part of the development was never actually developed - essentially an embryonic road. Those aren’t on anyone’s property and are effectively common areas. And the “Option 2” on someone’s actual property and the embryonic road/unfinished driveway common area are pretty indistinguishable unless you look at the plat map for the development. Is it possible Mr. Pick-Up genuinely doesn’t realize he’s parking on your private property?
That. This isn’t flat land: at the end of the RV spot, the land drops off precipitously downhill, so this isn’t some unfinished driveway that leads to a flat yard. It seems fairly obvious visually, at least to my eye, that this parking spot is someone’s property, either mine or the person up the hill from me.
Next time you leave a note leave a contact phone number or e-mail along with an offer to rent the space to him on a monthly basis if he wishes to continue to park there, otherwise he’ll be towed.
My old landlord used to do that with people parking on his various properties. Usually they stopped parking there, although there were a couple willing to actually rent a parking spot.
Yeah, I’ve gone back on forth on whether to leave contact info. On the one hand it’s neighborly. On the other hand I don’t know who this possible weirdo is, so why give him my number? Also it’s kind of on him to figure it out. On the gripping hand, I’d want him to have some idea where his truck went if I had to disappear it, and don’t want some confrontation at my door. Hm.
At least you were given the option of having it towed. I had a harder time when a pickup filled with junk was parked in front of my previous house once for several days. I was able to get the city to come by a few times and place a succession of tickets on the windshield, but they wouldn’t tow until it had been there for some specified “x” number of days. It wasn’t; it eventually disappeared. The thing was very unsightly, but my grounds for complaint was that parking was prohibited on my side of the street.
I concur with the idea that you should get a “No Parking - Private Property” sign. I’ve seen them for sale at various hardware stores. It will probably deter future trespassers, but if not, at least they’ll have been warned if they’re towed. It’s a fair warning and gives you added justification for asking to have it towed.
BTW, one thing I should mention: my house is on a cul de sac with tons of parking anywhere you like just down the hill from that parking spot. So it’s not like there’s no other place to park.
I’m wondering if Mr. Pickup has some relationship with your neighbors who live in that house “up the hill” from you—a friend, a babysitter, a daughter’s boyfriend, etc.—and is assuming that the parking spot belongs to those people and is okay to use when visiting them. Heck, I’d probably make the same assumption, given the hedges and greenery that separate the parking area from your house (although I usually ask, “Is it okay for me to park over there?” when I do visit someone).
Anyway, I agree with the “put up a sign” suggestion, and if I was in your position I wouldn’t have put my contact info on the sticky note either.
Whelp, the truck left. We’ll see if it comes back. I’ll order a sign, possibly something like this rather than the more confrontational “POSTED YOU WILL BE TOWED” style.
I recall a scene in one of the original Adam-12 episodes where a businessman could not have cars parked on his property towed unless he had a ‘no parking, will be towed’ sign prominently posted in advance and the sign had to meet certain requirments for verbiage including stating the code which permits such towing. Is there anything like that requirement in your neck of the woods?
