Back when we lived in an apartment complex, I complained to the manager because there was an unused handicapped space in front of our building. He told me to go ahead and just park there. I did, and it was fine for several months . . . until I got a ticket.
I marched myself over to the office, and reminded him about our conversation. I asked him to give me a letter that the space was unused and that he had given me permission to park there. He wasn’t thrilled about it, but he did give me the letter.
I fought the ticket and gave the letter to the judge. He let me off, but told me to tell the manager that what he did was illegal, and he had to either let the space go empty or take the sign down.
i am not promoting parking in a handicap spot, my situation is not me parking in a handicap at wal-mart. it’s my pregnant wife was informed by the apartment manager she could park in a spot that was there but no longer in use the only reason there is a handicap there is because there used to be an elderly lady who lived there at one time and has since passed away. so the spot is no longer in use and she told us the handicap sign meant nothing. there is no one in out whole entire building who is handicap its just there..I was never concerned about it because I thought it was a private facility and city ordinance did not apply here.
We just visited a friend in a physical rehab facility this weekend, and every parking space on the frontage of the building was signed for handicapped parking (at least 25 spaces). Non-handicapped visitors could only park on the other side of the lot, on the street frontage.
In some places a handicap spot in front of a residence may be designated for a PARTICULAR handicapped person. Meaning even if you do have a valid handicap permit you might STILL be subject to fines for parking there unless you are the particular permit hold that space is for.
If the old lady has passed away the city should be notified to remove that spot. As long the sign/designation is up the law applies and the police will not be impressed by “the apartment manage said it was OK, the old lady passed away”.
this is my whole arguement the CITY did not put up the sign the APARTMENT did they are the ones responsible for taking it down and are too lazy to do so, there is no blue lines nothing just a sign. there is a total of like 8 parking spaces in front of the building 2 of them are handicaped 1 of those is used by an elderly lady everyone knows not to park there. if any one of the apartments has guests WHERE does my wife park? this was the question asked to the apartment complex. Their response was no one used the handicaped spot it is there but not reserved to anyone, ANYONE has the right to park there so you can start parking there. this is not what i said this is what the apartment manager told my wife. I am fully aware NOW that the officer is in full right to issue me a citation, HOWEVER i feel as if i shouldn’t be held responsible due to I thought for one, The parking lot is away from the road, it is one private property, and I thought the apartment had rights to tell people where they can and cannot park, I FULLY understand it is unlawful to park in a handicap spot ELSEWHERE but I feel that I was duped into thinking it was ok to park there. My other question was did this officer have the right to come onto private property without concent of the apartment and write me a ticket?
I’ve never heard of cops enforcing parking in private lots in my state. I tried calling a cop about a car at the grocery store a couple years ago and they wouldn’t come. The jerk’s car was less than a foot from my car. I couldn’t open my door to get in. He was way over the painted line.
aruvqan, please remember that insults are not permitted in GQ. You’ve been around long enough to know better. However, I’m making this a note rather than a warning because T-SQUARE made his remark more than three years ago, and hasn’t posted in more than two years.
It was your fault. You made the choice to park there. Who else could possibly be responsible? Did someone else put your car there?
Put it another way. You want to punch my mother in the mouth. I tell you to go ahead. Did you or did you not commit illegal assault against her? Should you or should you not pay the penalty for it?
if the police have their lights on they have the right to speed, if i have permission in a private property area to park somewhere i have that right this isnt a gerneral public area. this isnt me parking in a handicap at city hall. if they come to your house and give you a ticket for double parking in your own drive way are you going to pay it?
Except that we’ve already established that the lot owner does NOT have the legal power to waive the ADA for you. That handicapped sign is a legal signal that you must have a handicapped placard to park there. Even on private property, you cannot be “allowed” to park there without one.
d4niel, you should totally go to traffic court and argue this in front of a judge. Especially the part about the police officer “trespassing”. Please post the results here.
And just for fun, I’d like to know how one would double park in a driveway.
I have no clue how someone double parks in a driveway, but I do know this: if you’re ticketed for having a car in your driveway that is breaking vehicle codes in some other way, for example, a loud modified muffler or oen of those boom stereos that violates noise codes, you’re still liable for the violation. And in jurisdictions where all vehicles are required to be registered or properly licensed if they’re not in a garage or at a repair facility, you can be ticketed for having an unregistered car sitting out on your property too. There isn’t some magic door at the edge of private property that suddenly makes the law irrelevant.