un-neighborly neighbors

really annoy me. we've lived in this house for seven or so years now, and this older couple has always lived nextdoor...well the old man has always seemed the crotchety type, he never says hi (i made the effort to be friendly several times when we first moved in), and just generallys eems always in a bad mood.

last week, there was no space for our car, so we parked it in front of our driveway, just meaning to leave it there for an hour, we were going back out to dinner in an hour and when we came back from that, there most likely w ould have been a space. so we park, and the end of our car is maybe an inch at most blocking his driveway. an INCH. we go inside...come out in about 45 mins to go eat dinner-and he's called the cops and we've been given a $75 dollar ticket for blocking his driveway

i just don't understand this. fair play if he wanted the car moved, but would it have been so hard to just knock on our door and say "hey, could you move your car?" the thing is, he could have gotten out-we were literally only blocking it an INCH. whats so hard about coming to knock on our door? my bf was furious and wanted to go say something to him but i knew it wouldn't solve anything so i convinced him not to...

i just don't understand this mindset. the guy had to know it was our car, we've been here 7 years. i know all HIS cars.

not all my neighbors are like that. the lady who lives across the street is really nice. i called her once cos i found her indoor/outdoor cat in my backyard and just wanted to make sure it wasn't a stray-there was a phone number on the collar, so i called, and we had a nice conversation about cats. so we exchanged numbers, and a few months later i got a call from her at 7 in the morning. i thought that was strange, until she said "i'm sorry to call you so early, but i noticed you didn't move your car last night, and it's street cleaning, just didn't want you to get a ticket". i thanked her and ran out and moved my car, and avoided a ticket. THATS being neighborly..and i would do the same for her.

i'd feel like a total *ss if i got someone to get a ticket just cos their car was blocking mine by an inch. i first would have gone over and asked them nicely to move it.

i dont know what's wrong with some people :/

OMGosh.....sounds like some ppl from here!! I agree he could have at least knocked on your door and asked you to please move your car, ya know, that would have been the adult thing to do. But sometimes people just dont seem to give a s***!! And it is annoying as heck, I will agree!!

It sounds like all of you are having neighbor problems!
Have you ever met this guy? Maybe you could show him how to be neighborly by going over and introducing yourselves. Be the bigger person by apologizing for the parking incident (if there was a ticket, you technically were in the wrong, even though it may not seem fair) and maybe explain why you were parked there like that. Maybe getting to know this neighbor would allow better communication in the future.

I know it doesn't help you, but hes probably the type that figures he pays taxes so therefore he will use the police at any given chance.

I would bake him a cake or a pie...like blueberry and offer it to him.

Maybe next time leave a big note on the "Inch" in his driveway saying "We are sorry for blocking 1 inch of your driveway however we will be back out shortly." and then leave elevator music playing...

Originally Posted by lunasmom

I know it doesn't help you, but hes probably the type that figures he pays taxes so therefore he will use the police at any given chance.

I would bake him a cake or a pie...like blueberry and offer it to him.

Maybe next time leave a big note on the "Inch" in his driveway saying "We are sorry for blocking 1 inch of your driveway however we will be back out shortly." and then leave elevator music playing...

Click to expand...

haha..i like that one a lot, thanks for the laugh

i've tried being neighborly..didn't go so far as pie-baking, but back when we first moved in, i'd say hi to him if we were both in our front yards at the same time. the first few times he said hi sort of grudgingly, but made it obvious he wanted no further contact, and then one time i came out, it was a gorgeous summer day, i saw him and smiled and said hi and he just looked at me and walked away...it was then i decided i was done extending myself. since then, i don't really like the guy, but i'd still never do something as malicious as call the cops and have him given a $75 dollar ticket...

what bugs me is if he had just come over and said "excuse me, could you move your car?" i would have had no problem with it, would have said "sure, sorry about that" and went right out and moved it. i just feel like neighbors should stick together.

oh well.. he's only one person.. at least i've got the nice cat lady across the street

I know exactly what you mean, and I'm sorry you have to deal with it. I live in a townhouse, 4 townhouses in our building. I am one of the middle ones. I used to have great neighbors, but in the past several months have gotten new neighbors on both sides. One side is great, the lady is very nice and friendly. She has two young children, but I have heard no excessive noise or anything out of the ordinary! But on the other side, 2 fellow college guys moved in. Thought, hey that might be nice, two more college people! About a month after they moved in I had some friends over, maybe 10-12 people tops. Yes we were drinking, but we did NOT get loud, didn't even have music playing! Some of my friends smoke, and since I don't allow smoking in my house, they would go out front and stay out for short periods to smoke and come back in. Well, at 10:30 I am standing outside with a few of the people talking and laughing while they took a smoke break, and the COPS PULLED UP!! They told us there had been a complaint and we had to return inside. I was flabbergasted! I know its them that called, b/c the other families in our building were gone that weekend. It made me soo mad, b/c first off it was only 10:30 at night. All he had to do if we were bothering him, was peek his head out and say Sorry, could y'all go back inside? And to top it off, I know its not becasue he was sleeping, becaues he is always making racket running up and down the stairs, going in and outside, leaving and returning home, etc. way after midnight nearly every night!! I know neighbors can suck!

Originally Posted by lunasmom

Maybe next time leave a big note on the "Inch" in his driveway saying "We are sorry for blocking 1 inch of your driveway however we will be back out shortly." and then leave elevator music playing...

Click to expand...

We used to live around some pretty rude people. We still kind of do.. and it's a grumpy old man that lives like, two houses down.