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Do neighbors have a legal right to park (or let others park) in front of your house?


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I've been posting for months now about our neighbors-from-hell who are doing a vast amount of complete remodelling/ building an enormous addition/ tearing up their yard/ moving the swimming pool over six feet/ relandscaping/ tearing out their driveway and redoing it, etc. This has been going on since March. Trucks -- sometimes 10 at a time -- have parked up and down along our street six days a week from 6:00 in the morning on. These neighbors usually park their own vehicles along the street, and if they have visiting relatives they have them park for days at a time along the street. This means in front of my house. Minutes ago a dumpster-carrying vehicle slid a dumpster onto the street in front of my house. I saw the dumpster gouge the pavement as it slid off.

 

These people don't seem to care at all how much noise, dust, and inconvenience they cause to anyone else. I realize there's not much I can do about their construction, but golly gee, do they *have* to park in front of my house? Their driveway is long and narrow (not easy to turn around in), and I have a feeling that their visitors will be parking along the street forever, even long after the construction is over.

 

I know I should go and try to talk to them, but honestly, their behavior has been very arrogant, and I don't know if my pleas will do any good. Do I have any legal recourse in this situation?

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A neighbor had a similar issue. She called the sheriff. She was told that she did not own the street in front of her house, and anyone can park there whenever they want, for as long as they want, as long as they were not blocking her driveway or mailbox.

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You can contact your town about the damage to the pavement. If they damage the pavement or sidewalk they have to pay to fix it. As for them parking, I don't think there is anything you can do as it is a public street. If they interfere with your ability to move in and out of your driveway then that is different. I also have the neighbors from hell who LOVE to call the police on every little thing. I feel your pain:grouphug:

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When we lived in WA, a neighbor left her dilapidated car in front of our house. We were told that as long as the registration and plates were not expired, it was legal. I would guess that law would be the same in VA.

 

You mentioned a dumpster being dropped in front of your house. Maybe there is a way to have that moved?

 

I feel bad for you. We've had neighbors before who simply had way too many cars. They parked in front of their house and several others in a cul-de-sac where parking was already limited. It does strain neighbor relations, for sure. :grouphug:

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It depends. In most cases, if you are in a neighborhood the street isn't yours - it's city, county, subdivision etc property.

 

If you are on same land, you may have more rights, but there is generally a legal right of way that isn't yours between properties.

 

So there probably isn't anything you can do except park there yourself. My mom had someone part their motor home in front of her house. It drove her insane. They lived half a mile away! So when they moved it for something, she started parking a car there. It forced them to find another spot.

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You may also want to check in on your parking laws. I know in our city, not overnight parking on the streets is allowed unless you have permission (if your driveway is being sealed or repaved you can call the police station and give them your license plate # and they'll give you basically a free pass until you can park in your driveway again). If that is your town/city's law than you can call and have them ticketed.

 

You could also invest in some traffic cones and put them in front of your house ;)

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I know it's annoying. Our neighbors frequently have 5 cars in their driveway (and it's not a big driveway) plus 2 more parked in front of our house. I have had to look at old rusty cars way too much. And then, for two months this summer, the people across the street had a large storage container sitting on that side of the street. Between that and the cars parked in front of our house, it made it difficult to get out. And let's not forget the cab of a semi truck that parked on our side of the street for a couple of weeks too.

 

When my mom came to visit in the spring, she was not able to park in front of my house as she usually does, since the neighbors were there. Luckily when she came last month, there was space in front of my house for her to park. You know, I don't mind if someone parks there for a while, like a few hours, or a day, or even a couple days, it's when they never leave that it gets annoying.

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Have you complained to the city? Who issues the permits for all this work?

Do you covenants in your neighborhood that disallow this type of parking? I know that sometimes those kinds of things are written into the neighborhood agreements.

Have you tried maybe parking your own car in front of your house so they couldn't? Or have you asked them not to park there?

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Well, if you have a neighborhood association, I'd look up the rules pertaining to that and contact any folks in charge. Also, I'd contact my city/county officials and inquire about their rules. And I'd mention the road gouging.

 

I feel certain there are "quiet time" rules, as there are in most areas. And 7 AM is generally the very earliest things can start - sometimes 8.

 

No, you absolutely do no have to put up with such garbage for endless months....

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I would check with your city or village. In ours, you have to have a permit for a dumpster and it has to be in your driveway. There are restrictions on overnight street parking during the winter months. There are also restrictions on how long a vehicle can continuously occupy a public location (such as street parking). At our house, if the trucks were only coming for the day and then leaving again, and not blocking driveways or mailboxes, they would not be violating anything, but if any were being left overnight for a period of time, the village would see that as a violation.

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I would check with your city or village. In ours, you have to have a permit for a dumpster and it has to be in your driveway. There are restrictions on overnight street parking during the winter months. There are also restrictions on how long a vehicle can continuously occupy a public location (such as street parking). At our house, if the trucks were only coming for the day and then leaving again, and not blocking driveways or mailboxes, they would not be violating anything, but if any were being left overnight for a period of time, the village would see that as a violation.

 

:iagree: In our neighborhood vehicles cannot be parked continuously for more than three days. If they are parking for the day and then leaving, all you can do is park your own vehicle there first.

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check with your jurisdiction. In VA if you live on a state road (most subdivision roads are) then yes your neighbor can park there. I would report the dumpster to the city or county. Especially since the esteemed governor has decided that localities should maintain the roads, even though the state has already collected tax dollars for road maintenance. Where the localities are going to get the money for maintenance is anyone's guess, but I'm sure they will want to charge someone who is responsible for damage. Another thing to do is to specifically ask about dumpsters. A dumpster is not a motor vehicle so rules about whether that can be left in the street (particularly in front of your house) may be different.

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Definitely check the city regulations. I was told that in Troy, NY people owned the patch of street in front of their house. This was a HUGE deal come winter when people would shovel their cars out and then leave an assortment of items (buckets, folding chairs, cones, etc) in the "hole" so that they had a place to park at the end of the day.

 

I don't know if that was an actual law, but it was a de facto thing. Parking is generally by city/town rather than by state.

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Just to give them a bit grace (deserved or not - LOL) we just went through a huge remodeling job and I can't imagine what it would have been like if we did not live a bit out of the suburbs with a longer driveway and a bit more space around our house. The remodeling probably does require a lot of vehicles that they have no control over at all. During our project I had a porta-potty dropped basically in my front yard at one point - it wasn't my decision - I went out and argued with the guy but that's where he put it - I hate to think what the neighbors thought!

 

Your neighbors probably don't have a lot of control over that part of the problem. The contractors tend to do what needs to be done to get the job done and if that requires trucks, dumpsters, etc. the homeowner probably doesn't have a whole lot of control to change a lot of it. We did at certain points suggest moving this or that, or parking here or there so you may want to wait and see if that dumpster doesn't get moved pretty quickly :)

 

At one point, we had three or four trucks in our yard/driveway/along the edge of the neighbors yard, a couple of semi's delivering building material and the road in front of our house blocked because the wonderful "porta-potty" guy needed to do the weekly servicing. EEEK! I was thankful that no one complained - at least not outloud to me :)

 

I hope it gets resolved quickly!

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Parking there is nothing you can do, but I would call about the dumpster. When I rented them in the past I had to eitehr have it directly on my property, or on the street directly in front of my house, it could not be in front of anyone else's. Parking, unfortunately you do not own the street so you are out of luck. I used to have a neighbor that would freak out if I parked MY car in front of MY house because he wanted to park his truck there(his wife's car was already parked in front of their house), it was crazy. THat said I do know of at least 1 neighborhood in the city here that it's residents put private parking signs across the bottoms of thier lawns because of all the cars parking there during sporting events. It prevented too many from losing their own parking kwim.

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Most of the rules against parking in the street around here are for snow removal. A lot of towns you can't park overnight in the street from October to April. I'm assuming that wouldn't be the case in Virginia.

 

Do they do any kind of street cleaning or leaf pick-up? That's the other situation I've seen where they don't want dumpsters or non-mobile vehicles in the road.

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I would check with your city or village. In ours, you have to have a permit for a dumpster and it has to be in your driveway. There are restrictions on overnight street parking during the winter months. There are also restrictions on how long a vehicle can continuously occupy a public location (such as street parking). At our house, if the trucks were only coming for the day and then leaving again, and not blocking driveways or mailboxes, they would not be violating anything, but if any were being left overnight for a period of time, the village would see that as a violation.

:iagree:

Have you contacted your alderman?

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We had an issue with this. The one time I called was when a truck was parked infront of our house and left after the workmen had gone home. The state police sent out a trooper who left a warning and said he would have it towed if it wasn't moved in 24 hours.

 

If they are blocking the road or causing a hazard the state police can ticket them. Otherwise, unless they're blocking your mailbox or driveway, there isn't anything you can do.

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I've been posting for months now about our neighbors-from-hell who are doing a vast amount of complete remodelling/ building an enormous addition/ tearing up their yard/ moving the swimming pool over six feet/ relandscaping/ tearing out their driveway and redoing it, etc. This has been going on since March. Trucks -- sometimes 10 at a time -- have parked up and down along our street six days a week from 6:00 in the morning on. These neighbors usually park their own vehicles along the street, and if they have visiting relatives they have them park for days at a time along the street. This means in front of my house. Minutes ago a dumpster-carrying vehicle slid a dumpster onto the street in front of my house. I saw the dumpster gouge the pavement as it slid off.

 

These people don't seem to care at all how much noise, dust, and inconvenience they cause to anyone else. I realize there's not much I can do about their construction, but golly gee, do they *have* to park in front of my house? Their driveway is long and narrow (not easy to turn around in), and I have a feeling that their visitors will be parking along the street forever, even long after the construction is over.

 

I know I should go and try to talk to them, but honestly, their behavior has been very arrogant, and I don't know if my pleas will do any good. Do I have any legal recourse in this situation?

 

Depending on where you live (in a city, township or county) there is probably a zoning office that handles things like this. Most likely you can't prevent them from parking on the street in front of your house. But you can keep them from blocking your driveway or mailbox. And there would be a certain standback from a corner that any parked car would need to observe.

 

The zoning inspectors would also be able to determine if the dumpster was placed appropriately. (My parents keep getting visits when they have their RV in front of their house. They are only allowed something like 24 hours.)

 

Having said all that, you might want to give talking to the neighbor a try. Being cited by zoning isn't likely to make them friendlier. And zoning controls an amazing number of things, from signs to yard sales. So be careful what you unleash.

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Well, cars are not supposed to be parked on the street in my neighborhood and any car left for a period of several hours can be reported and removed. So if you live in a neighborhood that has covenant restrictions, then you can certainly check to see that those are not being violated. `

 

Neighborhoods can impose all sorts of restrictions. In ours, garage doors are not supposed to be left open; no garbage cans out front; no basketball goals, etc. in the street or on the sidewalks; nothing blocking the sidewalks (bikes, toys, etc.); cars are not supposed to be parked on the street (they don't really even want them in the drives, but inside the garages), etc., etc.

 

I've never heard of someone taking over a section of street for nine months! And I've never heard of work crews out at 6 AM in a neighborhood, either....

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We had something similar in that our neighbors parked most of their vehicles in front of our property, but there was no construction going on. Instead, the neighbor is a roofing contractor -- who used to park his dumpster, his vans, and his huge truck in front of other people's houses (across the street, also). Never in front of his own house, nor in his driveway. Noooooo, the driveway was for the Mercedes and the Lexus.

 

Note to Self: How did those cars get in this (poor) neighborhood?

 

We did try talking to them, to no avail. They lived here, they paid taxes, the streets belong to whoever gets there first. May the biggest vehicle win. Then a police officer mentioned to me that the commercial vehicles might be too large for the zoning. I never actually followed through with finding out if the HUGE dumpster was considered over-sized for our very narrow, dead-end street.

 

We decided not to make an issue of it. We decided to just put up with them parking in front of our house. We waved to them and said "hello" and acted like we didn't care. It was an act, in a way, but it communicated our desire to be "good neighbors."

 

Last year, the neighbor's wife died from ovarian cancer. He came to us in tears to tell us. We went to the funeral, we sent cards, we offered to help. He was been so nice to us since then. He had a change of heart about the dumpster and moved it the very first week. We haven't had anything parked there since, except his little car... the one he used to go riding in with his wife. Would you believe, I actually miss her, even though she ranted at my husband when he politely asked if they could move the dumpster for ten minutes so he could mow the lawn on the slope? She might have been a b1tch, but she was my neighbor. I miss thinking that she's alive over there in that lonely-looking house.

 

Life is too short for our neighbors, I think.

Edited by Sahamamama
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If it's a public street, there's likely nothing you can do to stop anyone from parking there, as the curb/street doesn't belong to you.

 

You could consider parking your OWN vehicles in the street to block their access to your curb if that's really a big deal. . .

 

Alternatively, you could ask the workers directly to move their vehicles & they'd probably be pretty cooperative.

 

But, really, you should probably just let it be. . . It could be worse, lol.

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Our city and our neighborhood association have rules about this, including how long you can park on your own driveway. You'll need to look up the rules or call someone to find out what the specifics are in your neighborhood/city.

 

There may also be restrictions on noise, dumpster placement, and commercial traffic that you can look into and possibly report. I know for sure that when there are dumpsters placed in our neighborhood for remodeling projects, they go on the driveways and they only stay 2 weeks or so.

 

Personally, I would probably grin and bear it (and run a loud fan for white noise to drown out the early morning noise). But if it started to really bug me, I might put some orange cones out in the street in front of my house, just to see if that would stop them from parking there lol! Or put your own car(s) there on Monday morning. But if you do that and then complain to the city/homeowners' association, they will know for sure it was you, so decide first what you really plan to do.

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The first house we bought in CA was on a cul-de-sac. The first day we were there we parked in front of OUR new house and the neighbor came running over and told us that was "HIS" spot as there was no street area in front of his house.

 

ARGH!

 

We didn't want to cause issues the first week we were there, so we complied. He turned out to be a very particular sort of guy (and younger than we were even!), but because we complied so that relationships wouldn't be strained, he also ended up being a great neighbor, helping us with some yard issues, etc....

 

We typically aren't wave causing folks and don't say much about those sorts of things, even if they bug us.

 

But, we have never had anything too major either.

 

Dawn

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We have a neighbor who generally parks in front of her own house, except when the snow plows come through. Then she moves her car a few doors down and leaves it in front of our house so she gets a nicely plowed front where she can park and we don't get plowed at all. She's been doing this for years. What's even more obnoxious is that she has a No Parking sign in front of her house -- it's not something the city put up, but, wow, if anyone ignores it, they get an earfull!

 

I have not figured out why she always chooses our house. I also don't know why she never seems to get ticketed. Other cars left on the street get ticketed when the plows come by. Just not hers. Maybe it's because she does it at the last minute -- between the time when the people putting out the tickets come by and when the plows come by.

 

Then there's her dog who runs wild and tears up our garden and leaves calling cards, her son who drops trash on our lawn, her cats that leave dead animals littering our property (as well as kitty calling cards), and her construction project that has now being going on for 6 months that involves trucks in front of our house for days on end. Frankly, I just don't have the energy to fight about it with her. I definitely don't have the energy to be nice about it. We just look on her as someone to gossip about and have fun with it.

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Anyone remember Mr. Lying Liar Who Lies? He has forbid neighbors from parking in front of his house! And they listen! No one parks there! :ack2:

 

One street over from us, a homeowner owns a landscaping/snow removal business. They have big trucks (they have about 4) with high walls to put equipment and debris, etc. In winter, the big trucks have plows. These are HUGE. And this is an old suburb with narrow streets and small lots.

 

In the mornings, when all the workers arrive, they start playing musical trucks and cars. About a year ago, a worker was driving around the block, waitng for co-workers to get in their trucks, etc. He was basically stalling for time until it was time to move out for the morning. He hit a little boy and the boy died. :crying: The little boy was riding his bike to school.

 

I just don't understand how they can run a business from a residence. And how after this happened, they are still allowed to do it?!?! I can't believe the neighbors put up with it!

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This thread is so fascinating to me as a city dweller. Our street is bumper to bumper parallel parking. We can usually find a spot within a block of our house, but mostly strangers park in front of my house every hour of every day.

 

I totally get why a dumpster would be objectionable, or work trucks, and obviously construction/renovation noise and mess are annoying. But why does it bother people to have someone parked in front of your house? Why are there homeowner association rules that forbid parking on the street? I'm not criticizing people who don't like it - I just don't get it.

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Why are there homeowner association rules that forbid parking on the street? I'm not criticizing people who don't like it - I just don't get it.

 

In our development, we have private roads that are not up to DOT width standards, so parking on the road could impede traffic, and would be especially bad during snow.

We can call up and get temporary permission for special circumstances like large parties or construction.

 

When we had everyone home at my mother's house, there were 5-6 cars. 2-3 in the driveway, 2 in front of our own house, and 1-2 in front of the neighbor's extra lot - not even in front of their actual house. They threw a fit and tried to get the town involved, but nothing ever came of it. We just tried to avoid parking there whenever we could.

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