Had my first “incident” in my apartment which I moved into almost 2 weeks ago. Before I moved here there was a truck parked in te assigned parking space for apartment #1 (my new apartment) the truck was parked there for more than a year says my
Neighbor. they towed the truck when I moved in so I could take the assigned parking. No one parked there but me until yesterday. I got off work yesterday to find that the car that normally parked next to me was in my spot. Was a bit Aggravated but decided to let it go. When I left for work this morning it was still there but left shortly after my girlfriend said. Got home form work today and the same car was in my spot. Had no reason to be. There were plenty of other unassigned spots all over. And no one parked there for over a year before I was there so it’s notU like they ever parked there befor. Now it was personal. I wasn’t happy.
Anyway instead of having the car towed at the owners expense like my lease clearly states that i have a right to,I left a note on the car saying
“please don’t park here. It Is my assigned spot which I pay for as part of my lease. No hard feelings
-apartment 1”
I was much nicer than I wanted to be. I can tell that a lot of people don’t park in their assigned spots here but usually people park in the same spot every time and even though people don’t use their assigned spot this is still my spot.
When I went to go to the store the car was gone. When I came home
It returned to parking in the spot it did before. Awkwardly they were just getting home from the store as well but no words were said.
Haha I could tell they were mad because they clicked their doors locked and made the car beep after they went inside.
But yee don’t park in my spot. Ha
I never try to start any static with anyone but can’t let anyone walk over you.
I think I handled it as I should though what do you guys think?
Now I get to be worried about getting egged or someone keying my car.
Good thing my cougar is parked at my step dads. Ha
Sorry for typos I only get Internet on my phone at the moment.
Man I hear you. Dealing with public or communal parking can really suck. I can’t even express how happy I am to finally have a driveway and a garage.
I think the way you dealt with it was 100% proper. No angry words, totally civil, expressing your concern and simply stating your position matter-of-factly. And the fact that you wrote a note rather than have the car towed is both kind of you and also totally the right thing to have done. If you went straight for having it towed, then I’d expect some serious risk of vandalism.
I totally agree with tmh. The note you left was respectful and tactful, couldn’t have been misinterpreted for anything less. Sounds like you may have a pissin’ war brewing, no matter how diplomatic you are in this. Good Luck!
Well you can do what I did way back when - i parked on the drivers side and made sure that I was as close to them as possible.
After trying to get in your car through the passengers side for a week straight during the winter will change there mind.
If they did anything to the car I was driveing at the time the Ins company propably would have totaled it and cut me a check for $1.50.
Knock on their door and talk to them eyeball to eyeball. You’re a person. They’re people. It’s a simple situation.
" Hey, I’m your neighbor in #1. Don’t know if you saw the note I left for you but points to car that’s my space. It’s marked for my unit. I know that truck was there for a long time and you may not have noticed, but that’s my space. Your space is points to space there. So there’s no confusion. When you park in my space, I have to park in someone else’s, and I just moved in and don’t want to cause anyone problems by parking in their space. I’m just trying to be a good neighbor." And as you do this you maintain eye contact with the dude, if there is one, not aggressive but definitely not submissive. Just assertive. This is how it is. Sorry you were confused by all the moving and trucks and what not (build him an excuse in), etc. Then, maybe invite them all to a housewarming or bbq, even if they suck, just to show there’s no hard feelings. I move about every 6 months/year thanks to work and live in a lot of apartments/condos. This comes up more than I’d like.
And since I’m always messing with some project, I always have someone bothering me about stuff or trying to take my spaces when my motorcycles or trucks or projects are gone for 10 minutes. I feel your pain.
Never done the apartment living, and I don’t think I could handle having neighbors that close all the time. Well thought out response… you handled it correctly.
Two yrs ago I rent a condo on Maui and came back late with a little double vision going on and parked in the wrong parking spot. They keyed the car…glad it was a rental. Rental company didn’t care and acted more like it was expected.
Well when I left for work this morning my cars tires were still inflated and my paint looked ok so I think they took it ok. But I am well prepared for a pissing war haha. Don’t want to mess with someone who has paint stripper, bottle rockets, fire crackers and a wrist rocket handy. Anything they throw at me I will be able to give it right back twice as bad. Though I never want to go that route. I don’t even want to have to leave notes on peoples cars. I am not the confrontational type. But that does all change once someone has stepped on my toes.
Unfortunately my girlfriends grandpa passed away the other day and she has been staying home a little more. When I got home and told her someone was in my spot she freaked out and I had to stop her from banging on the neighbors doors. Shes been all stressed and upset so I guess it was like the straw that broke the camels back. But after a massage and a margarita she calmed down and we both laughed at how she reacted.
The last thing I want is a feud with my neighbors but if they want to go that route they will be sorry. I just want to make sure that I am the one who tried to settle it in a civilized manor first. NEVER DRAW FIRST BLOOD.
I made copies of the part of my lease which states all the parking rules and made a basic “dont park here again” note along with it for future use. So instead of letting anger get to me I will have a typed note ready to leave on cars haha.
But if that car is parked in my spot when I get home I now know where they live and will be having a conversation with them and I will be giving them the copy of the lease about the parking and how they will have to pay to have their own car towed. And that will be the last warning.
Also this is my first apartment. Up until now it has always been roommates in houses. I’ve been warned about how hard it is living in apartments but so far it’s still much easier than roommates. And I’m only 22 with no credit history so I can’t buy my own house. But hopefully soon I can start working on my credit and saving money so I can have a house and my own garage. The cougar would be done so much faster!
Apartments - ugh! Lived in two of them before my girlfriend and I moved into “our” rental house two months before we married. First one was in back of an old guy’s house, and he had a total of four stalls under cover on the side of the house. They only had two cars, I had my Gran Torino; so it worked fine. Next apartment had a single-car carport and renters were allowed to park another in the (dirt) drive through the complex. This worked out okay, until some moron living in the middle had a huge party and his friends’ cars were parked three-wide at either end of the drive. Trying to get to work, I ended up being the fourth guy down there knockg on his door telling him his passed-out buds needed to move their cars. His reply was that if one more person came beating on his door this early ion a Saturday about the problem, he was gonna sic his Doberman on them.
Not being the most compassionate, thoughtful, patient, caring “adult” at age 20 (the term I heard thrown at me regularly for about 3 years was “hothead”); I simply replied -very loudly- that, should he choose to do so, the matter could be sorted out by the cops that responded to the “shots fired” report when Mr Samuel Colt & I put the dog down.
Since the whole apartment complex smelled like 20 acres of bruning alfalfa and the neighborhood was getting a contact high from the second-hand smoke during the height of the party, and his place still reeked of it the next morning; he decided to get the cars moved. The retired couple next door to me solved future problems by raising H3ll with the landlord. This was not the first (or 5th or 10th) complaint about the guy and he was “asked” to find another place to live.
Nowadays, I maintain a “quite, peaceful, live-and-let-live” attitude and demeanor that keeps me out of trouble; but as I age, I find myself not too happy in my subdivision. A good friend of mine managed to parlay his retirement plan with a life insurance payout into 15 acres of land out on the South Mesa area of our community. He has 13 acres in alfalfa with his house, yard, pool, shop and horse pens/arena smack in the middle; all of it posted “No Trespassing”. Alfalfa is usually cut and baled when it reaches 18-22" in height; so he not only has an over-abundent supply of ‘horse chow’ for his 4 hay-burners, but (and I quote) “a clear of fire for several hundred feet in any direction from the house”. It’s probably only 2-3 more years before my son moves out on his own, making my wife and I a childless couple; but the whole concept of a “private compound” still interests me.
Ya I can’t wait to someday have my own land and a shop. So far no problems with neighbors and my spot. I’m a live and let live kind of guy too. And I do it by the book so if someone pisses me off then 99.9% of the time
I’m in the right. I’m 22 but I’m not a stupid kid. I do have bottle rockets and fire crackers but I’ve had them for years. I don’t just light them to piss people off. But I will use them against ya if I have to haha. But I work hard and I enjoy my peace. I live being able to come home and finally relax just me and my girlfriend and she is the same way. We don’t party much because partying is drama. I love my family and my friends. Good friends. Life long friends. Too many people in ur life equals more problems. So anyway I guess what I’m trying to say here is I dont like bull shit. Give respect and get it back. Have common sense. Treat others how u wanna be treated and don’t park in others spots hahaha. And don’t let anyone treat you with disrespect.
Pretty sure we aren’t, Milo; I think we’d have heard of each other by now. Perhaps we’re related through our wives, if your wife is a hometown girl from somewhere around there. Mine has family all around the Cleveland area; she in fact grew up in the town where LoHo resides.
As far as the “mindset”… well, various types of people have various pursuits - and we Cougarphiles could almost be a fringe group! Look at it this way: other guys get all hot and bothered every time a new “Shelby GT 500” comes out from Ford; we’re more interested in the 40-50 yr-old muscle; the kind you ca’t just order from Ford anymore. More specifically, Mustang -vs- Cougar… you can get almost anything repop for old Mustangs - even an entire bodyshell. Maybe 10% (and I think that’s over-generous) of Cougar body panels are available. And those are mostly for 67-68’s… we each have 73’s that last year of the “Classic Cougar”. Smog de-tuned, big -azz “park bench” 5MPH front bumpers… Nobody (except a few) likes them, and it’s reflected in the aftermarket selections.
Right off the the top of my head; I can think of 3 “last genertion”-specififc Cougar parts. The great XR=7 replacement door panels (maybe I can pull $600 out of next year’s tax refund); the '73 XR-7 walking cat for the grille center; and the little walking cat for the center pad of the rim-blow wheel. My Cat has a broken tail like a ot of guys!
‘People like us’ have certain character traits, we can modify them to appear like "normal folks"most of the time. But, now-and-then, we finally get to the point wherein we find ourselves searching for the “proper” way to say “Excuse me, I don’t mean to be a PITA; but if you don’t get the HAY-ELL outta my face, Imagonna be tatto-ing “Louisville Slugger” on YOUR face! Got it?”
Hope all that made sense; I spent most of today in bed, running and breaking a fever over and over again; some kind of nasty respiratory bug. Been awake for about an hour now, but my internal GPS is having trouble finding enough satellites to figure out where the heck I am!
