Question about having your vehicle towed

[4X4]

IMHO, it's common courtesy to park in front of the house you live in or are visiting, whenever possible. The OP should be doing that if he can. If there's simply not enough room to park in front of his friend's house, the whole street is fair game and the note writer can stick his pencil up his ass, AFAIC.
Reserved parking stalls are a different story. Don't park in mine, even for five minutes.

[4X4]

One more thing. I think it's a bit lazy and a-holeish to park across the street. Flip a Uey and park in front of the place you're visiting. That may sound a bit picky, but really, who enjoys coming home with gorceries or hockey gear or kids and having to do the unload across the street because someone parked in front of your house? Nobody does, that's who. So why inflict that upon someone else when all you have to do is take an extra few seconds to turn around and park in front of the place you're going?

[Jimmy Stang]

Last winter my neighbour was parking in front of my house consistently. The space in front of his house was vacant. I park in my garage at the back, so it wasn't a big deal to me.

Then I realized, after spending more time than normal chipping ice off of my sidewalk, and buying a tonne of sidewalk salt (while his sidewalk was bare) that he was parking there because of the ice. My house faces south and has quite the slope on the front grass, the snow would melt and then freeze on the sidewalk because of the shadow from the car. He didn't want to deal with the ice on his own sidewalk, so he parked in front of my house.

Perfectly legal, but a douchy move. So I went over there and asked him if he'd mind moving the car because of the ice and his roommate basically acknowledged that's why he was parking there.

But he moved he was good about it and moved his car and that was the end of it...

[4X4]

Originally Posted by ken0042

I would be tempted to ring his doorbell, and ask him to come around to neighbours houses and ask them who wouldn't mind you parking in front of.

Or even better, I would take that note into the police station. Tell them you are very offended by the explative, and are concerned about the safety of your vehicle. Odds are they won't do anything- but then if something does happen to your car you can note that you warned the police about it. Then take the homeowner to court for the damages.

Yeah, it would be so much better if he wasn't a jerk about it. I got one of those notes one time and the guy was a jerk, so I rang his doorbell and told him that he should be a little nicer if he wants people to not park in front of his house.

Lol. Yeah, right. Maybe if you're in the mood to get laughed at. When my truck was hit and run (one of the times), I showed up at the cop shop with a ziploc bag full of busted pieces of the guy's light and some paint chips. The cop actually chuckled when I asked him if that was at all useful to them.

[Huntingwhale]

My buddies neighbors seem to have the same issue with me and my car. If I park in front of there house, they feel the need to stare outside their window at me (or whoever else parks there) as if it is somehow ruining there day. I just park on the other side of the street now. It's not worth the tension it might put between your friend and his neighbor. I know its not a big deal and it shouldn't be, but some people are just ######s. But keep the note he wrote you in the event that your vehicle is vandalised...

[Nage Waza]

I had another thread where my neighbor yelled at me for placing my recycle bin too close to his car - he thought it may scratch is dumpy old car. His car was illegally parked, as it had only an inch or so distance from my driveway. Mind you, he had three other cars so he had to leave one in front of my house, then had the nerve to yell at me for it. I made sure the entire cul de sac knew what was up, called him a ###### and had him labeled as a nuisance neighbor with the bylaw officers. He eventually moved, thankfully.

I like the idea of changing the name of your wireless network to something like "Pleaseparkinfrontof341" or some other annoying bit of info the neighbors would find amusing.

[GrrlGoalie33]

We live in a cul-de-sac, so often parking issues get amplified. I get annoyed when people park in front of my house sometimes, but nothing sets me off like visitors parking 2 wheels on my lawn.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Lol. Yeah, right. Maybe if you're in the mood to get laughed at.

Keep in mind the reason behind what I said. Not for the police to do anything, but for the person to have some amo in small claims court.

It also depends on the cop you get; and how much work vs. reward he is going to get. Pieces of another car for a hit and run; that's a lot of work- so much that there would need to be a dead body involved. But maybe you get a cop who likes making phone calls.

Back when I used to manage a pizza shop, a couple of times if we had problematic "bad orders" we would sometimes call the police. If they weren't busy- they would sometimes place a phone call for us. One which involved a kid "pranking" his teacher the cop gave him a choice- send his parents to pay for the pizza, or he would send a patrol car. 30 minutes later I had an angry father and a 12 year old into the store to appologize. Best part of that- I told the dad not to worray about the costs; but he insisted that he pay so his son would have to pay him back.

[temple5]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Last winter my neighbour was parking in front of my house consistently. The space in front of his house was vacant. I park in my garage at the back, so it wasn't a big deal to me.

Then I realized, after spending more time than normal chipping ice off of my sidewalk, and buying a tonne of sidewalk salt (while his sidewalk was bare) that he was parking there because of the ice. My house faces south and has quite the slope on the front grass, the snow would melt and then freeze on the sidewalk because of the shadow from the car. He didn't want to deal with the ice on his own sidewalk, so he parked in front of my house.

Perfectly legal, but a douchy move. So I went over there and asked him if he'd mind moving the car because of the ice and his roommate basically acknowledged that's why he was parking there.

But he moved he was good about it and moved his car and that was the end of it...

You could have called bylaw, as a home owner he has the responsibility to clearing his sidewalk in a timely fashion.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by temple5

You could have called bylaw, as a home owner he has the responsibility to clearing his sidewalk in a timely fashion.

He said the neighbours sidewalk was bare.

[BourqueBourqueBourque]

Originally Posted by BlackArcher101

He said the neighbours sidewalk was bare.

Nice beater you have for a car.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by BourqueBourqueBourque

Nice beater you have for a car.

What's your problem?

edit: Guess your problem is trying to log back in. Good luck!

[Russic]

I tried to have somebody towed once. It was quite difficult. City Wide is the only company that'll do it and they are impossible to get on the phone (on the day I tried).

[algernon]

I have a next door neighbour who lives in one half of a duplex. I live in a single family house on a 50' lot. He ALWAYS, and I mean always parks 3 cars in the street... 2 in front of his house and one in front of mine. He will park-in anyone who dares to use a spot in front of his house.

The Prick is a "curber", as in buying and selling vehicles with out a City license. His POS wrecks leak oil/tranny/break fluid/coolant all over the road in front of my house. Sometimes he takes the last spot in front of my house as well, forcing my tenant to park somewhere else.

The neighbour also has 3 cars parked in the stalls behind his house, but there is room for at least one, if not two more cars back there. Recently, he shoveled all of the oily, gravel and road salt infested snow from the street onto my lawn and flower bed.

I have seriously considered buying a wreck or two, registering them, and parking them permanently in front of the house, but that will likely only harm my tenant, as the guy does not have a job. He sits around all-day, buys two double big gulps a day (no joke, his words) and snoops around. An overt 'war', would likely result in him having a lot more free time for retaliation than I, unfortunately.

So, short of ratting him out for his little 'business', does anyone have some advice? I asked 311, and there is no by-law to stop the loser from shoveling the street onto my property, and of course, the street parking is fair game.

[Pinner]

Pour some used oil under the cars if you need to make the mess look worse... Call the City and complain about it mentioning "the environment" get the names and position held from the staff your talking to and tell them if it doesn't get cleaned up your going "public".

[MJM]

Originally Posted by newts

Yes, I meant 5th wheel, but it's not uncommon to see my neighbor with a piece of sh*t sitting in his driveway, jacked up with at least one wheel missing. So there was some truth in what I said.

Couldn't agree more. There's an asshat in my cul-de-sac who parks his piece of crap truck on the street, and it hasn't moved in 3 months. Aside from being an ugly piece of crap, it's a hazard because it's on the turn in and any time it's slippery it has great potential of being slid into. All of my neighbours are looking into having something done about, they've talked to before and he still keeps doing it.

Didn't 4X4 set up a temporary "towing business" one winter when he was fed up with someone parking in his spot?

Whenever I see 2 cars parked in front of a double garage, my first 2 thoughts are "Hoarders" or "Grow-op"...

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by MJM

Couldn't agree more. There's an asshat in my cul-de-sac who parks his piece of crap truck on the street, and it hasn't moved in 3 months. Aside from being an ugly piece of crap, it's a hazard because it's on the turn in and any time it's slippery it has great potential of being slid into. All of my neighbours are looking into having something done about, they've talked to before and he still keeps doing it.

Are you allowed to keep a vehicle parked non-stop on a Calgary street for a lengthy period of time? Couldn't you call the city and claim it's an abandoned vehicle since it hasn't moved for months?

[MJM]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

Are you allowed to keep a vehicle parked non-stop on a Calgary street for a lengthy period of time? Couldn't you call the city and claim it's an abandoned vehicle since it hasn't moved for months?

That's what I was thinking about doing. Not sure one way or the other. I had just moved to the neighbourhood so I didnt want to start anything, but it's really starting to bother me.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

Are you allowed to keep a vehicle parked non-stop on a Calgary street for a lengthy period of time? Couldn't you call the city and claim it's an abandoned vehicle since it hasn't moved for months?

I believe it's 72 hours.