In residential areas of many cities, owners of rowhouses and brownstones who have a garage or driveway often put up no parking or tow signs where the street meets their property, in order to prevent people from parking there and blocking access. (I housesat at one of these places one summer and felt sorta bad, since I wasn’t using the driveway but that was one fewer parking spot on a very densely populated street in Brooklyn.)
What is the legal basis of the owner’s right to have a towing company remove a car that is otherwise legally parked on the street in front of their garage/driveway? Do they have some kind of easement? If so, what kind of easement? Is it recorded somewhere? Or do municipalities have ordinances explaining this situation?
Other questions: Does the owner have to call the tow company, or will the tow company just enforce it on their own? Will the police or traffic authorities get involved? Is the owner allowed to park there, effectively getting both a garage and a guaranteed parking spot in front of their home?
You are not legally allowed to park across a curb cut that indicates a driveway [and frequently the curb cut indicating a cross walk] in most communities in the US, no idea about elsewhere.
IIRC, it’s usually a local ordinance. It could also be part of the State Vehicle Code. The street, the driveway ramp, and the sidewalk are part of the public right-of-way. The property owner doesn’t own it, but DOES pay tax on it!
Police/Sheriff and/or Code Enforcement call for a tow, plus the vehicle will probably be cited.
~VOW
What “otherwise?” As in, what’s the legal basis to arrest someone for putting a bullet through a person’s head with a gun that is otherwise legal to fire?
It is illegal to block a driveway, anytime, by anyone. Yes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Yes, by the owner of the driveway. ANYTIME, ANYONE.
In Kansas City, MO, it is illegal to park within three feet of the driveway’s lane; presumably the typical flare where the driveway meets the street represents this.
I had a friend whose driveway was frequently blocked, trapping her car in (she lived a block or so from some popular bars)…she’d call the cops, they’d come and ticket the car and call the tow truck.
Now if she parked there herself, the cops generally probably wouldn’t have done anything, without a complainant they presumably had other things to do - but I wouldn’t count on it…
For some years I lived in a dense and over-vehicled area of town, and due to my crazy work schedule I came often after midnight a lot–on certain days of the week it was practically guaranteed. On those occasions I sometimes literally couldn’t find a place to park within three blocks of my house.
I didn’t have a garage. But…I had a driveway, in the back, off an alley, guarded by a six-foot gate. Except when I needed it most, someone was always parked there, blocking access to me, the homeowner.
So I got a sign. All it said was No Parking In Drive. I tacked it to my fence. And it worked.
At some point more than a month but less than a year later I arrived home to find that the gate was locked from inside. I left my car parked by my gate, intending to walk around the block, go inside, through my house, out the back door and unlock the gate and bring the car in. But it was 3 a.m. and I was tired so I figured the car wasn’t blocking anybody. It was ALMOST in my driveway. So I went to bed.
The next morning I had a ticket for “blocking driveway.”
98 Standing or parking in front of a public or private driveway. The owner or renter of a lot accessed by a private driveway may park a passenger vehicle registered to him / her at that address in front of such driveway provided the lot does not contain more than 2 dwelling units and that such parking does not violate any other rule or restriction.
This happened to me quite a bit at one house I rented. There were a few occassions I was late to work because I was blocked IN my driveway and had to wait for LAPD to come out to ticket/tow it. “No Parking” signs did nothing so I got some white reflective paint used for street painting, painted a huge ass rock and put it in the street next to the curb at the start of my driveway. That helped a little.
You mentioned Brooklyn, which leads me to suspect that you are from NYC, like me. Around here (and especially in Brooklyn and Queens) there is a growing problem of people converting spaces like their front lawns into what the authorities and media call “illegal driveways.”
Now I am no lawyer or police officer, but I suspect that the lawn conversion is not illegal per se (though it may be), but the unauthorized installation of a curb cut is. (A curb cut is the depression in the curb edge that reaches street level so you can easily drive across the sidewalk.)
I’m curious to know if a ticket for blocking an illegal curb cut would stand up in court.
The curb cut and driveway apron are per permit process. When we got a concrete driveway put in (SCal), Code Enforcement shut the operation down until a permit was posted.
And a ticket for blocking a driveway most definitely will stand up in court. Upthread, I posted that the driveway apron, the sidewalk, and the curb are part of the street right-of-way. You may own the house, but you don’t own the right-of-way!
Parking in the yard will earn you a ticket in some communities as well, if the yard is grass and not paved.
~VOW
A friend of mine lives in a part of DC with a lot of bars, it is not uncommon to have someone either park in her driveway or block it. She calls the cops, they ticket the car and have it towed.