Did I Have the Right to Park in My Cousin's Driveway?

[jimmy p]

Was he allowed to do this??

Quite ticked off. Yesterday night I drove to my cousins house to pick him up. Anyway, once I got to his house, the car wouldn't restart so we left the car in his driveway and found alternative transport home.

Next day I go to pick the car up and there is a note on my windscreen saying:

"As your vehicle has completely blocked our driveway, which is in constant use for our business, preventing legitimate business users and customers from using it, your vehicle has been reported to the Police for trespass and obstruction of premises.
If the vehicle is not removed in the next few hours, it will be removed, and you will be proceeded against for the cost of removal and our loss of use.
Landlord."

The landlord of my cousins house left that note. Nowhere did it say Private Parking. As far as I knew I had permission from my cousin to park in HIS driveway. There are no signs saying No Parking Allowed during these hours or anything to say it is connected to a business at all. As far as I was aware, AND my cousin was aware, it was just a driveway. What happened if one of my cousins housemates had a car?? Would they be allowed to park there? I should think so.

And as I was pulling out of the driveway, the landlord turned up and had a go at me. I bet he wouldn't have done so if I were 20 years older. I explained that the car wouldn't start and so the car was stuck and he said "well you should have left a note"... like that would have mattered, his precious customers still wouldn't have been able to park there. Then he waited for me to apologise. which I didnt... I said, "f*ck you" and left. No way should I apologise for something which wasnt my fault, and had every right to park in that driveway seeing as there are no notices about or anything to say otherwise. Am I right?

And how dare he talk down to me just cos I'm a kid. If my mum picked the car up I can guarantee that he would have talked politely to her.

 

[decibel]

ya that's ridicoulous, i don't think he can do that if there wasent any signs...u should report HIM to the police, lol

 

[Evo]

Since there were no signs posted AND your cousin lives there, there was legally nothing the landlord could do as he was probably informed by the police (if he did really call them). After a period of time the car would be considered abandoned and at that point he could have it towed away.

Unless your cousin signed an agreement that no one could ever park in the driveway, the landlord had no immediate legal recourse. The note was necessary on his part to prove he attempted to give notice incase the car was left there for an extended period.

He sounds a bit high strung.

 

[zoobyshoe]

My guess is that he freaked out because he had no way of connecting the car to any of his tenants. It sounds like he assumed the worst, that someone who had no business parking there at all was taking advantage of him, and that he proceeded to give the proper warnings so he could tow it, just in case that were true.

My guess is that he would have to have contacted all the tenants and made sure the car was not connected to them in any way before he could actually have legally had it towed. If he didn't do that, how could he be sure it wasn't a recent purchase of a legal tenant, for instance?

The other thing, is that he claims you completely blocked the driveway. Was there, in fact, any blockage? If so, he may have had several of the tenants on his back trying to get him to do something about it, which would have raised his blood pressure quite a bit.

 

[jimmy p]

There was room for people to park in the driveway because when I turned up, someone had parked next to my car. It may have been a little inconvienient but someone still managed to park there.

My cousin told me that he works for a law firm but I still don't think he could have grounds to do that. Nothing has come of it so I am not too bothered. Anyway, some of the tenants saw that I had parked there the night before so I doubt that he asked them at all, just acted by his own accord. Jackass.

 

[zoobyshoe]

My cousin told me that he works for a law firm but I still don't think he could have grounds to do that.

Here's the problem right here. This is why he took the tack he did. Lawyers try to solve all problems by intimidating letters. It doesn't mean he would actually have done it, although maybe, legally, he could have.

I don't know how it works over there, but here if you call to have a car towed because it doesn't belong somewhere, you, the caller, do not pay any fees that you could sue to have reimbursed. The city charges the owner of the car and holds it hostage, charging storage rent on it, until the owner pays.

He might concievably sue you for the "loss of use" but in fact most lawyers wouldn't bother with filing such a suit because the trouble of doing that is in excess of what they could get from you for one days rent of a parking space. I don't see why the court would reject such a suit, but since the car broke down while you were there visiting your cousin, a rentpaying resident of the building, I don't think he'd have very good chance of winning: you had a perfectly good reason to be there, and the car breaking down wasn't anyone's fault.

I think the letter he wrote was his lawyer/legal way of trying to intimidate someone he took to have no business parking there.

 

[jimmy p]

Yeah me too, the way of car towing is the same here. However I still don't think he had grounds to sue for "loss of use" because it doesn't say anywhere that the driveway is for business use between certain hours.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Yeah me too, the way of car towing is the same here. However I still don't think he had grounds to sue for "loss of use" because it doesn't say anywhere that the driveway is for business use between certain hours.

It depends. Is he referring to the fact that it is a residential rental as a business, or is there, in fact also some kind of shop or office that keeps standard business hours there? If the latter is the case it might not be necessary to post any such signs. Depends on your laws.

 

[jimmy p]

I think he probably was referring to his law firm but there is ample parking outside there I am sure, and that is across the road and down a bit, the house isn't connected or anything.

 

[member 5645]

In the US, nothing he can do. YOu can't have someone's car towed EVEN ON your business property without ample warning. A paper sign on your car (which if you trashed and said you never saw would hold up in court) is not ample warning. Posted signs, verbal warning, etc. are required.
This guy is a power trip idiot.

 

[jimmy p]

This guy is a power trip idiot.

That's what I thought which is why I told him to "go forth and multiply".

 

[i_wish_i_was_smart]

adults, sheesh, they all want respect from us but they don't want to give us the respect, he's probably very miserable worrying about others all the time

 

[Chi Meson]

adults, sheesh, they all want respect from us but they don't want to give us the respect, he's probably very miserable worrying about others all the time

kids, sheesh, they all want respect from us but they don't want to give us the respect.



Jimmi:
One of the most common human error in confrontation (adults and others alike) is the automatic assumption that the "other guy" acted with nefarious purposes (assuming the other guy was an "ass****"). It seems that both parties here made such assumptions.

The landlord should have been less offensive when he approached you (I think the letter was justified, though) and you should have been apologetic (not groveling, mind you, just acknlowledge that your accidental situation caused him a bit of trouble).

As it stand now, both parties think that the other is a "jerk." This is becuase neither party understands the full situation of the other.