Of course part of the meta-purpose of the “all cars stored indoors” policy is to prevent the proliferation of cars per household. If your garage holds three, then three is all you can have. Not six, three of which sit in your driveway or on the street that you’re occasionally working on, hoping to sell some day in running condition.
Nor 6 because you’re renting 3 of your bedrooms to unrelated other people who each have a car.
We have threads and threads about the “neighbors from hell”. HOAs are simply a reaction to the fact that nobody will willingly happily live next to a neighbor from hell. Buying in an HOA is outsourcing neighbor from hell prevention to somebody big enough to make it stick.
Just a reminder, this thread is not about HOAs. Some drift related to parked cars is normal for In My Humble Opinion, but a complete diversion to another HOA thread is not.
In general no I’m pretty used to people parking in the turn around on our dead end street. They park there then head down to visit the gated private property where a local multi generational family has owned several cottages.
I did once catch out potential thieves who parked and acted very suspiciously. I observed them casing out the house next door ( nobody home) across from where a trailer and jet skis were parked ( unlocked) They backed up close to the trailer, the driver hopped out and started to rummage in the trunk of their car. I approached to ask what’s up, was basically told to fuck off, meanwhile his passenger scooted to the drivers seat the dude jumps back in the car and she speeds away in a hurry.
This thread just ran in bizarroworld. I have no kids. Who is going to be playing hopscotch in my driveway? Should I start a thread, “Would you mind if strangers played hopscotch in your driveway?” Do kids even play hopscotch anymore? Isn’t there an app for that? Who are you to tell me what I can do with my own driveway?
Oh. Now I understand. Do you not own a TV, either?
There, there, there, there, no worries. Like I said, I do not actually support HOAs trying to implement draconian put-your-car-away policies, and I do have lots of sympathy for car-owners who would be inconvenienced by such policies. I am not coming for your driveway.
(That said, I think the “Who are you to tell me what I can do with my own…” reaction is a bit futile when it comes to HOAs. AFAICT (we don’t have HOAs in my neighborhood), almost the whole point of an HOA’s existence is precisely to tell homeowners what they can and can’t do with their own property.)
My neighborhood doesn’t have an HOA. It was one of the reasons I bought it. And we don’t have trashy houses with three cars on blocks and garishly-painted houses, and overgrown grass and all the other things HOAs claim they save us from. And back to the OP, we don’t have people that park in front of your house.
We are limited, by the city, from parking campers or motorhomes in front of your own house, or even in the driveway. But if you’re a good tithing LDS they won’t enforce that one. Me on the other hand…
I’d be bothered if it was a neighbor parking in front of my house because they didn’t want any cars in front of their own house, including their own car. Or if it was a regular guest who parked in front of my house instead of the house they were visiting. Basically, park in front of the house you’re in unless there’s a good reason to park in front of a different house.
In the past few years, I’ve seen a number of personal vehicles with drivers parked on the street in our neighborhood. They mostly seem like gig workers who are stopping after making a delivery to do something like look up their next delivery, wait for a request to come in, eat lunch, etc. Unfortunately, I’ve also seen pee bottles scattered around, so I’m guessing they’re doing that as well.
If you’re worried about a car in front of your house, you can usually call the non-emergency number and just report it to get it into their records. Your city may have a way to do it online as well. Chances are, there’s no reason for the police to come out. Instead, just report the make, model, and license of the suspicious vehicle. If something does happen in the neighborhood, they’ll have a record of it and can follow up.
I have no issue with people parking on the street in general, but they should be cars that are regularly driven. There was a household a few blocks that for a long time had a pair of early 2000s era Corvettes in sort of rough condition parked on the street. Every house in the neighborhood has a two car garage and a driveway wide enough for two cars. Presumably they parked their daily drivers there and left the 'Vettes on the street. They’d leave them there until the city flagged them as “abandoned” and threatened to tow them, and then move them to a slightly different spot, just far enough to make them “not abandoned”. I don’t see them there anymore, so they’ve either gotten rid of them or found a new place to store them. (For all I know they just moved the 'Vettes into the garage and park their daily drivers in the driveway or street now).
It’s a public street, and anyone has the right to park there. But i also live in spacious suburbia, and if someone parked in front of my house for no reason, i probably would be annoyed.
I’m not annoyed when the school fundraiser attracts so many people they park in from of my house, nor when the neighbors have a party.
Weirdly, i was annoyed when one of the neighbors parked in front of their own house. They live on a curve, and it blocked the sight lines. And their driveway was empty. And it is illegal to park overnight here, although outside of snow season the police will give you a variance if you ask for it. So they were in violation of the law. One of the other neighbors complained, and they moved their car into the garage.
I’m also annoyed when contractors park trucks in front of my driveway and block me in, but that seems normal to be annoyed at.
It happens to me surprisingly often, probably because the stretch of street in front of my house is straight, so the big trucks can park there. I’ve never called the police, though. I just find the contractors and ask them to move.
Generally that is all that is needed. I’ve also had contractors ask if they could park in my driveway as it is double-wide and I’ve almost always said yes.
My driveway is steep and tricky for trucks. Sometimes my tree guys ask if they can park their cherry picker in my neighbor’s driveway. So far, the neighbor has always said, “yes”. But I’ve never had a stranger park in my driveway without asking, just in front of it.
In my neighborhood, the average house has a two car garage, three cars, and often at least half of the garage is used as semi-longterm storage for non-car items.
Note:
I have no problem with garages being used to hold bicycles, motorcycles, riding lawnmowers, even small boats. I struggle with boxes, furniture, mattresses, etc.
When I lived in suburban areas without basements, substantially zero cars in the neighborhood parked in their garage. The “garage” was really the basement with a big door and no stairs. They were almost all chock full of stuff. Much of which was, yes, boxes.