Mysterious Bitchy Neighbor, should I do anything?

I live at the end of a dead end street. There's an alley that wraps around the back of all the houses on my street, and that's where I access my garage. Anyway, everyone on my street is pretty friendly, and most of them keep to themselves. Most of them also know that if they ever need anything all they have to do is ask, and I couldn't tell you how many times I've jumped a car, gotten locked keys out of a car (sometimes while it's running), helped bend and hang fascia, helped rebuild a cylinder head, dug neighbors out of the snow, etc. So yesterday a police officer came by and dropped off a notice saying that someone was complaining about my cars. There's one parked in front of my house with no plates, and we normally park "backwards", because it's a dead end street and I live on the left side, so when I come home it's just easier. The officer showed my fiance the emails that he got, and the person claimed that we at times have seven cars in front of our house (not true, four at the most, but usually two or three) and it's making the neighborhood look bad, and it included the line "These people seem to think they can do whatever they want". That leads me to believe that it's someone that doesn't know us. Also, in the last three years we've completely resided and reroofed the house, and I've had several people tell me that we have the nicest looking house on the street. Also, the cars in question are not junky looking. At the most there's a really nice '66 VW Fastback, OK looking '84 944, nice looking '90 325i, and OK looking '98 Chevy work truck, although usually not all at once. Most of them can be seen in "my garage". About half of the neighbors have E36 M3ty looking houses and don't pick up their trash when the raccoons get into it (our houses border a woods). The cop even said that it sounds like we pissed someone off and that we had one of the nicer houses in the neighborhood. I don't have any pics on this computer, but here's a crappy google pic. Mine is the one with the brown roof with the E30, 944, and VW fastback in front.

The garage is in the back, and there is one more car back there that I haven't driven in a while, but it's not visible unless you go through the alley. And it's not bad looking either, it's the black passat in "my garage". It is pretty dirty from being parked under a tree though.

I understand that cars are unsightly to some people (weirdos), and plan to comply fully with the law, but my main issue is that someone doesn't have the cajones to knock on my door if they've got a problem with the way I'm parking. Should I just let it go, or put a letter in the mailbox of my neighbors basically saying "I'm a nice and reasonable guy and will give you the shirt off of my back if you need it, so if you have a problem with me or my property, just let me know and I'll take care of it. There's no need to get the police involved."? What say ye, wise ones?

Write the letter. The nice neighbors will ask you what is the problem. Busybody will remain silent.

Are you breaking any laws or zoning ordinances?

Annoying, but you can't win an argument with an irrational malcontent. Just rise above it.

I've been to your house... If the VW Fox was still sitting out front, I might agree with them. Any car held together with Great Stuff foam might decrease property values...

Did anyone recently put a house up for sale?
This may have been done off the advise of a realtor. Though your fleet of cars ranging from '66 to '98 may be in good shape, they could be seen as too old to drive by someone who feels they need to get a new car (lease) every 3 years.

mtn wrote: Are you breaking any laws or zoning ordinances?

That would've been my first question to the cops. If the response was "no," I'd say "I'd like to file a formal complaint against my neighbor for being a berkeleying c*&t. Here, I'll write it on a piece of paper, and you can show it to her."

You could always do the letter. Keep it very short and sweet. "Hi, I'm Corey, and I'm pretty much the nicest, coolest dude in the world. Please feel free to give me a call @...."

If there's no neighborhood association, and no law saying how many cars you can have in front of your house, she can go eat a bag of dicks and move to a cookie cutter neighborhood where she can be the parking nazi.

Put the one with no plates in back - that is probably the only thing anyone could ticket you for. There is no limit to the number of registered, licensed vehicles you can own and park legally on a public street.

I would ignore. No letters. Your neighbors are under no obligation to like you.

pilotbraden wrote: Write the letter. The nice neighbors will ask you what is the problem. Busybody will remain silent.

Yes, kindly write an apology to all the neighbors pointing out that you are sending it to all neighbors since it was anonymous. This will also have the reverse effect of informing all your "good neighbors" that someone is stirring trouble for you.

mtn wrote: Are you breaking any laws or zoning ordinances?

This. Let them complain, after so many occurances the police will ignore them. My mom had a neighbor that wanted to park in the space in front of her house. They had space to park one car in the rear and one in the front (it was 1/2 a double) but they had three cars for two driving adults (no big deal I currently have 6 for 2 adults).

Anyway, they would call and report my van to the city and the tires would get chalked. They also did this to my mom's jeep while she was on vacation. The lady at the city clerk's office basically told me that as long as they never found an infraction, after so many complaints on the same address, they would ignore the complaints as a neighbor feud situation.

FWIW this was Indianapolis, YMMV.

mtn wrote: Are you breaking any laws or zoning ordinances?

According to the law any vehicle in public view has to be licensed, insured, operable, and moved every 48 hours or it can be considered abandoned. And parking facing the wrong way is apparently not legal. So the VW is not licensed and I only drive the 944 about once a month. So to comply with the law I'm going to park the VW in the garage, move the 944 every couple of days, and start parking facing the other direction.

Do you have two cars parked on the sidewalk in this picture?
Is the 3rd car parked? If it is, does that make it hard for the house across the street to back out of their driveway?

Does the complaint come with a fine? Criminal offense? If not they can pound sand.

Throw a block party, see who comes. The one that doesn't show up is the whiner.

99% of the people that I have confronted over the years turn out to be complete jerks. Even a really polite request for something is met with anger and incredulity. I would say that this person is just playing the odds and trying to avoid a conflict.

Even once they know you are a great guy, if the cars bother them then there isn't much you can do other than move them.

That 75 acres is looking nicer and nicer all the time....

JohnRW1621 wrote: Do you have two cars parked on the sidewalk in this picture? Is the 3rd car parked? If it is, does that make it hard for the house across the street to back out of their driveway?

It's hard to tell in the picture, but my house has a gravel parking spot instead of the sidewalk like the rest of the houses, so you can be double parked and not be out in the street any farther than any other car parked on the street. The neighbor across the street has plenty of room to get out of her driveway.

slefain wrote: Does the complaint come with a fine? Criminal offense? If not they can pound sand. Throw a block party, see who comes. The one that doesn't show up is the whiner.

No, but if the cars in question are not in compliance with the law or ordinance they can and will tow it.

poopshovel wrote: That 75 acres is looking nicer and nicer all the time....

For real.

Maroon92 wrote: I've been to your house... If the VW Fox was still sitting out front, I might agree with them. Any car held together with Great Stuff foam might decrease property values...

Haha, I can't argue with that one! Fortunately that car went through the crusher a few years ago.

What is "my garage"? How big is it?

16vCorey wrote:

JohnRW1621 wrote: Do you have two cars parked on the sidewalk in this picture? Is the 3rd car parked? If it is, does that make it hard for the house across the street to back out of their driveway?

It's hard to tell in the picture, but my house has a gravel parking spot instead of the sidewalk like the rest of the houses, so you can be double parked and not be out in the street any farther than any other car parked on the street. The neighbor across the street has plenty of room to get out of her driveway.

Why is yours different?
Could it be that the sidewalk portion was removed to thereby allow for more backing-up room for the drive across?

When I read the thread title, my mind immediately conjured up an image of a tall brunette wearing a short black skirt and black cropped leather jacket and tall black leather boots with high heels. And a hat. Black, of course. And I was like, heck yeah, you should do something.

This situation sounds far less interesting.

mtn wrote: What is "my garage"? How big is it?

Click on Corey's avatar to see all the cars in "his garage".

It sounds like you have the right plan Corey, move the cars and let it go.

16vCorey wrote:

slefain wrote: Does the complaint come with a fine? Criminal offense? If not they can pound sand. Throw a block party, see who comes. The one that doesn't show up is the whiner.

No, but if the cars in question are not in compliance with the law or ordinance they can and will tow it.

You gotta do whatever the laws say then. Easiest way to shut the neighbor up is the get your cars compliant. It sucks but otherwise they will keep giving you grief.

EastCoastMojo wrote:

mtn wrote: What is "my garage"? How big is it?

Click on Corey's avatar to see all the cars in "his garage". It sounds like you have the right plan Corey, move the cars and let it go.

Ohhh, got it.