Parking wars and noisy parties at unholy hours

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ma.Eugenia
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
M

Ma.Eugenia

Guest
I am so mad at a neighbor who thinks he has the right to make noise past midnight and park in fromt of our garage. :mad:

You see we live in a typical middle-class neighborhood in the city. Our house has a garage faces the front of the street and have a garden at the back. In one side wall of this garden faces a 3- door apartment where this neighbor and his family lives. Our house and their apartment unit is, separated only by a narrow walkway.

Since, their unit (which they are renting from another neighbor) does not face the street and therefore he has no place to park his car. He and his visitors uses the front of our garage as their personal parking space even though there is already a big sign there that says; PLEASE DO NOT BLOCK THE DRIVEWAY.

Things started to escalate a few months ago when this neighbor had another 🤷 of their midnight (up to around 3 to 4 AM) parties with full music blaring and his visitors staying and conversing very audibly in the narrow walkway right beside the wall of our bedroom (their unit is small so they use the narrow public walkway as an extension of their living room. To think…in the unit next to theirs lives a man suffering from late stage cancer! —they don’t care if they are bothering the sleep of their neighbors, some of whom have jobs to wake up to in the morning----just so long as they and their friends had a great time. My parents were so exasperated because they’ve done this too many times and these people know how we hate not being able to get our good night’s rest because of their insensitivity.

Then last week, his friend parked in front of our garage again. This, too, they’ve done too many times and is the source of dispute between our families.

You see, there have been times when there had been a medical emergency at home and we needed to rush to the hospital only to find out that our garage was blocked. We had to knock on doors just to find out which neighbor (nope this neighbor is not the only ones who park–but they are one of the most consistent ) blocked the driveway. This has become a source of great irritation for our family.

Anyway, last week, my dad got angry because he had to again knock on doors only to find out that this guy and his friend, yet again, were the culprits. He ordered the guy, “Tell your friend to remove his car right now!”

The neighbor shot back, “You can’t wait? My friend was just resting!”

In my mind, Hello? …who are you?..are you a very important, special person that you think you can order us to wait patiently for you and your friend …or think we should ask nicely everytime he does this over and over again or beg for your “kindness” to please, please, vacate our driveway at your own time and convenience. … He wish! :mad:

(Note: the guy claims to be a lawyer…works for agency related to tax collection)

But then, my sister got out of her car and shouted, “Stupid!”

The guy got angry went after my dad. He almost stepped inside our house had his wife not prevented him. My dad didn’t see him because his back was turned. If he so much as stepped inside we would have sued him for trespassing! He went home grudgingly, pulled by his wife, while expressing his anger very loudly.
 
The very next night, he had another party with his beer- drinking buddies. I think was more of a show of force on their part. Us…we couldn’t care less as long as they don’t block our driveway again and it was not past midnight.

Suddenly there was a loud crash in the garden right opposite the wall where they were. I went down to investigate and saw a beer bottle which apparently was thrown from their side over our garden wall hitting the side face of our house shattering in pieces one on a table and on the floor.

I called out sarcastically,“Mom…you better see this quick! A **beer bottle **fell from the sky! Call the authorities!” The level of conversation from noisy beer drinkers lowered notches at my words. Within a few minutes…we heared his visitors one by one make hasty excuses to leave his party. The guy started to shouting his anger and frustration.

A few weeks later meeting was scheduled with the authorities in our area. My mom volunteered to go alone because the week before my dad had been hospitalized. He suffers from hypertension.

Unfortunately, the person sent to investigate by the authhority and the authority himself were friends of this neighbor. The guy they sent to investigate, lives in that same area , is a drinking buddy of our culprit-neighbor.

So what to expect from their lopsided investigation—our neighbor told the group of elected officials, that we were the ones who threw the bottle at our own house. Duh!

He wanted us to be investigated for (take note) planting plants around our property. (My reaction: Huh?)

The wife of the neighbor, who came wiith her husband accused that my dad being a professional, should never speak to them with an angry tone he used.

They’re accusing my dad of unprofessionalism? Yeah, and I suppose having a noisy party in the middle of the night for his professional nurse son and his friends beside the house of a cancer patient and him identifying himself as a lawyer while not knowing common-sense laws like **do not block the driveway **,were the height of professionalism. These laws need not be written simply because simple logic should suffice to reach a conclusion to what is right or wrong.

Besides the issue wasn’t about being professionals…it was about righteous anger.

The very next day after that party, another car blocked the driveway…no one admitted whose car it was, so we were forced to take public transportation to a church which was not our usual church we go to as a family.

The most shocking thing was, the elected official’s final verdict: He said, we had no right to prevent other people from parking in front of our garage because the street is public property. In short…he gave his friends, our neighbors, the right to park all they want in front of our garage. In short…he is condemning us to be subject to our neighbor’s whims to move in and out of our own home…even at: times of emergency.:eek:

I’m thinking…I wonder how this elected official will react if we park our car in front of HIS garage. :hmmm:

Sorry for such a long thread…I really need to vent my frustration.

I have to qualify, not all elected officials or people who work in government are like the ones we have in our area. These men, are hopefully, are rare breed.

Any thoughts/suggetion on what we should do to deal with our problem? :confused:
 
I’m not sure how things work in the Philippines, but in the US, I would tow any car that blocked the driveway (after being towed multiple times, they would stop), and call the police out during one of the parties to witness it.
 
Not only that, but also in the US there are noise ordinances that make this kind of thing (esp late at night, after 10 p.m.) against the law. Not the sure about the Phillipines, but it might be worth a google search and maybe a call to the non-emergency police number.
 
I agree, can’t you call to have the cars towed?

I know where I used to live there was on-street parking, and at times, cars would block the driveway of my apartment complex, so my landlord would call and have the cars towed.

I think that seeing as it’s blocking a driveway, the owner of the car would have to pay for the towing, not you.

Maybe it’s different outside of the US, but this is what I would do. And I also agree about calling the cops during one of the parties. I’ve had to do that in my times living in apartments, and the police come while the music is still blaring and make up a report. So then at least there’s a list of reports out against them.
 
You could start parking in front of your own driveway, thus you have access to move the vehicle. My DH once had a problem similar to this, he went out and bought the cheapest car that ran that he could and would continually parking it where the neighbors loved to park in front of his house. They eventually got the point.

Also, have you spoken to the landlord? I had a friend with a similar problem with parties, she talked to the landlord and told him that she would just start calling him every time she is woken up by his tenants after 10pm. She never had to make a call and the tenants were gone shortly after that conversation.
 
Oh, the calling the landlord is a great idea. Many landlords don’t want tenants who party all the time and are keeping the neighbors awake, so perhaps they don’t know that these tenants are like that.
 
Do you have any old kitchen chairs you are looking to discard? Here in Chicago there is a winter tradition called “dibs” in which people who shovel the snow so that they can park mark their parking places by putting old kitchen chairs or other stuff in the space they shoveled out to tell others “hey, I put forth the effort to shovel out this spot; you shovel out your own spot”. Similarly, put the chairs, etc. in front of your own spot so that the other people don’t block it.

As far as the investigator being a drinking buddy of the neighbor, that is a clear conflict of interest. If you can get a picture of him at one of the parties, you may be able to get his superior to assign a different non-partial investigator (or, at least, it can help if youy need to be inl egal action). However, we are speaking from an American perspective here, and the legal system and/or level of corruption may be different there than here.
 
Hi everyone!

Thanks for your replies.

Regarding your suggestion to talk to the landlord…I think this is a good idea. I am not sure if my mom already talked to our neighbor’s landlord. We (my family) live in our own home owned by my mother. I believe, their landlord’s daughter or son–at least one of them, occupy one of the other units. They are all friends with this neighbor…and they don’t complain as far as I know.

Even the family with a cancer patient occupying the unit beside them do not complain.

My impression is that some people would rather suffer in silence than “rock the boat”…but my family’s not like that not like that…which is probably why this neighbor is shocked that we are going against what he wants. I think to them, we’re the oddity.

…or perhaps, they value their friendship, so they don’t want to say anything and willingly look the other way.

For some people, the drinking buddy-friend mentality is important.

There was a famous politician here who once said, *“Walang kaibigan, walang kamag-anak” *

Translation: (He will not favor) no friends, no relatives…but many people thought this politician was not able to live up to that slogan…and he later got deposed.

I feel that this is the same fault of the official my mother talked to. His friendship with our neighbor ruled the day.

I wish that he adopted another famous quote from the late President Manuel L. Quezon of my country who said, *“My loyalty to my party ends where my loyalty to the country begins”. *

The official could have changed it a bit with*…" My loyalty to my friends ends where my loyalty to the constituents and sworn duty begins." *…I wish!

Actually, there is already a city ordinance in the city where I live that says no loud noises past 12 midnight. Our lawyer neighbor should have known that.

Towing is a great idea too…I wish we would have the same response time as you have in the United States. I watch Rescue 911 on TV and am very impressed at the quick response to distress calls.

In my opinion, disseminantion, quick response and the will to implement with impartiality of the already existing laws are key to diffuse the situation we’re in.

The reason I was so angry was because I felt the problem with this neighbor contributed to my dad getting hospitalized because of the stress they gave him…for fighting for what was right we were attacked by their throwing of the beer bottle …and the story got turned on us. My mother sought justice from this elected official and got nothing.

Have to state, though, I am just talking about one low-level elected official and cohorts, and not making statements in any way about elected officials higher up in the hierarchy.

Thank you everyone for kind help in giving me advises. 🙂
 
“ME” Sorry to hear that you and your family are going through this. It’s horrible, when neighbors living side by side… or in close proximity… can not or will not be considerate of those around them.

This summer, we have had a problem with the family who lives behind us. They have 3 young kids, who are constantly throwing toys over our back fence. Baseballs, kites… you name it. They have tried to get into our yard. I had to put a bar lock on the back fence, to prevent this. Because my 87 year old mother sleeps in the living room (she’s unable to climb the stairs, due to extreme disability).

So after they discovered that the gate was locked tight… they started to come around to the front door and pound on it… and ring the doorbell loudly. I finally told them… “I will not keep getting your toys; if you throw them over, they will STAY there… until the next time I’m out in the yard.”

The father was nearby and he heard me talking to them, this way. And thankfully… the problem has abated some. But I can’t wait for school to start again. 😃

God bless you “ME” Hope the problem with your neighbors gets better.
 
You said the guy who came to investigate was his friend? Can’t your family tell the higher authorities that he has a conflict of interest, and himself hangs out at that house?

You have to keep pushing with the authorities. What about having his car towed every time he parks it there?
 
Can you complain to the Barangay Captain? If these people are disturbing you, they are probably disturbing the rest of the neighborhood. If a lot of the neighbors get together and complain, the authorities would have to do something. You can always move, but that is a last resort. 🤷
 
This won’t solve the problem, but my first idea is to park one of your family cars in the front of your garage, so that spot is taken by your family. After a while maybe the neighbors will get used to not parking in that spot.

Next I would get a video camera and videotape these loud parties and anything else they do. Keep an ongoing log about these activities and maybe later on you can go to the authorities with proof of your neighbors wrongdoing.
 
Hi again!
Thanks for your advises.

**Catholic 1954 **hit it right on the head as to which elected authority I was referring to when I said in post #9:
My mother sought justice from this elected official and got nothing.
Click to expand...
The meeting that my mother attended was at the “baranggay” hall of our area.

A “baranggay”, for those not from my country, is the smallest administrative division or government unit which encompasses a small area of jurisdiction . The baranggay chairman is the head in this unit and elected “kagawads” or counsellors are under him. Neighbours’ disputes are normally tackled here, in part, to prevent our justice system getting clogged up with minor cases.

Besides, with the cost of litigation, among other concerns right now…who would want to file anything in a court?

But then, those in the baranggay were not trained on legalities the law…so, as what happened in our case, the verdict was not based on right and wrong…it became based on which neighbour they like best.

As I said here:
…the elected official’s final verdict: He said, we had no right to prevent other people from parking in front of our garage because the street is public property. In short…he gave his friends, our neighbors, the right to park all they want in front of our garage. In short…he is condemning us to be subject to our neighbor’s whims to move in and out of our own home…even at: times of emergency.
Click to expand...
I did go higher…to City Hall early this week and talked to the Mayor’s Action team in City Hall who said that that they would go to our house that same day to make an impartial investigation since I told them what happened in the baranggay hall meeting and that my mother preserved the beer bottle on the same spot that it fell in the garden for weeks already… …and …well…let’s just say, I am still very hopeful that they were just delayed…

As for taking a picture of their friend who did the investigating…nice advise. We will do that next time have another one of their parties.

We prefer to park the cars in the garage because it is not safe to leave it out in the current situation we’re in. Anyone can just scratch it or do something to it when we are not looking.

Anyway, thanks very much for your advises to me. 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top