You’re driving home after a long day at work or a protracted trip, the navigation says 5 minutes, you almost feel the cramp in your right ankle fading in anticipation of finally getting to kick it and relax at home… When you can’t find a single place to park near your home and are left driving around, hating life.
So just wanting to leave a car wherever is something we all can get, but when these neighbors planted their RV in front of the storyteller’s house for weeks, she understood that it can’t go on.
More info: Reddit
There's nothing quite as infuriating as a neighbor stealing your parking spot - especially if they're blocking your view too with their huge car
Image credits: Harold Wainwright (not the actual photo)
A homeowner took it to AITA because they were wondering if they'd be a jerk to report their neighbors' RV for blocking their view
Image credits: u/abitravels
Image credits: Joshua Rawson-Harris (not the actual photo)
The neighbors' recently purchased RV had been parked there for weeks and the poster started looking at what they could do legally
Image credits: u/abitravels
Image credits: Frankie (not the actual photo)
At the end they wanted input to know if they'd be rude or a jerk for reporting their neighbors' vehicle and getting it removed for good
The original poster (OP), a person by the nickname of abitravels, took it to the AITA sub to be judged whether she would be a jerk for attempting to get rid of her neighbors’ RV.
According to her, they recently parked an RV (that's a recreational vehicle, if you’ve never thought about what that stands for) the size of a semi truck in front of her house, obstructing her view to the beautiful tree-lined street that she chose the house for in the first place.
According to RV Troop, there are large versions of RVs - clocking in at more than 30 feet and up to 30k pounds (9.1 meters and 13 tons) as compared to regular ones at around 20 feet and 10k pounds (6 meters and 4.5 tons).
There’s actually classes to identify RVs by sizes, from A to C. Simply put, C-sized RVs are the things you see on vanlife pages, the B tier is dedicated for your classic vehicle, seen in movies all the time, and A is reserved for the biggest behemoths, more resembling buses than a classic RV.
Hopefully all of that puts it into perspective just how big these darn things can get. And some “get off my lawn” type of energy can be gleaned from this post, if only slightly, but I totally get it - who wants a huge hunk of metal stinking up their view? Especially when the trees are in full green and it’s so nice out there.
Also, the “get off my lawn” crowd gets a bad rap and unjustly so, in my opinion. Why should you enjoy people just trampling your private property?
Image credits: Walter Martin (not the actual photo)
Parklio has some really good suggestions for dealing with people blocking driveways, such as the dos and dont’s, how to secure driveways from unwanted parkers and discussing the legality of it all. For example, in the US, blocking your driveway is illegal, as emergency services may need that access.
Unfortunately, a driveway isn’t the thing being blocked here.
As the road is a public space, there isn’t any law preventing people from parking in front of your house. For RVs, the city ordinances vary greatly, but it does seem that there are certain limits - they may only be able to park 5 days at a time, similarly to OP’s mention or only have a month of street parking in that spot.
Also, if the vehicle is large enough for the city to consider it a “major motor vehicle,” it cannot be parked in residential areas, unless it is actively being used, for example loaded or unloaded.
Besides legal measures, Worst Room suggests several ways of dealing with spot-stealing neighbors. Talking to them is the first option, but if that doesn’t work or you know that it won’t work at all, you may consider speaking with your landlord or HOA, who may suggest a straightforward solution.
You can also look into resident-only parking spots or simply wait your neighbor out and then take up that spot when they’re gone.
It goes without saying that you shouldn’t damage their car (or their face) or put up illegal signage as it will simply land you in far more trouble than it’s worth.
The community judged the poster not-the-jerk and suggested ways they can push their neighbor out of the spot and get their view back.
Share your own thoughts and parking spot hogging neighbor defeats in the comments below!
The community judged the poster not to be a jerk and suggested what they can do to beat their neighbor
