Neighbors blocking driveway, no HOA

[Kiran K.]

My tenant reported tha neighbors are blocking driveway with their vehicles or trash can etc. Tenant and I informed the neighbors but no change. Property doesn't have HOA, how do I handle these neighbors.

[Todd Rasmussen]

@Kiran K.

All responses have been good solutions but they are not your problem to solve. You have no authority, responsibility, nor interest in dealing with the neighbors regarding a parking issue. When your tenant calls, inform them that you exhausted your resources to solve the problem (asking nicely) and that parking issues are a police matter and refer them to the non emergency phone number for the local police department or sheriff's office.

If you insist on being involved: many times departments have a management level supervisor assigned to different areas of a jurisdiction to better respond to community needs. You could reach out with a letter/email with photos, vehicle descriptions/license plate numbers of the offending vehicles. Request some extra attention and no tolerance enforcement until the situation resolves. Then instruct your tenant to call consistently if there is ever a problem.

Full disclosure 9/10 times the person complaining is being overly sensitive to vehicle presence on a public street. And "blocking the driveway" ends up being a bumper is protruding a couple inches into where the curb starts to slope down.

Ask for a photo of the issue before you go to bat for the tenant with local law enforcement and I strongly recommend you extricate yourself from this situation completely.