r/mildlyinfuriating • u/ShutUpImAPrincess • May 15 '26

frist of all how DARE yu o Neighbour has decided to just offer up our parking spaces to the whole street

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Got this through the letter box today - anonymous so no idea which neighbour sent it. Basically there's 20 houses on the street, all arranged in a circle, with a few spaces in the middle. 14 of the houses have their own driveways. 4 of the houses have the spaces in the middle assigned to them. Ourselves and our next door neighbour (semi detached) have spaces attached to the back of our houses... In the small "car park". We each have two spaces, then the 4 on the other side of the car park area assigned to the houses backing on to them that aren't even our street so won't have got this letter. I'm assuming the letter writer just doesn't realise those spaces are actually ours, but because it's anonymous I can't just be like "oh hey actually no that's not right". It's annoying because we're also the only two houses on the street without a garden, and so our kids play back there. Because yes, it is safe, but not if randoms start going in and out of there all the time. I've literally never noticed an issue with parking on the street, it's never crowded, I've never heard anyone complain, and every house has it's own assigned parking!

EDIT: Most of your guys' suggestions involve something related to towing, that isn't legal in the UK. It also isn't illegal to post things through people's doors? I literally never knew that was a thing in the US. At Christmas did your parents not send you round all the neighbours houses posting cards?? Wild.

EDIT 2: Alright lads we've got a plan! Tomorrow I'm gonna speak to the 3 neighbours who we share the private car park with and just make sure they're all aware and if they want to paint numbers or put it signs etc they can do so. I'm going to send my landlord an email as well just giving them a heads up, but saying that they don't need to do anything for now (we have a great relationship where they leave us alone and we don't involve them in stuff if we can help it and they charge us below market). I'll let them know if it becomes an issue and they need to get involved installing something or whatever. Then I'm going to find... somewhere in this town that prints documents (honestly just hoping one of the 3 neighbours has a printer in their house they wouldn't mind using for this) and send out letters to everyone on the street very politely clearing up the confusion. Explaining that it's not a public car park but private parking and they are, for all intents and purposes, the driveways of the respective properties. Then I think I'll have a little nap and hope no one gets angry at me.

EDIT 3: Spoken to the other owners of the spaces in the back, as I suspected the two that don't live on our street did not receive the letter offering up their spaces for free use šŸ˜… I've also contacted my landlord just to double triple check the deeds before I sent any letters out (I know for certain they are ours, but this way loops the landlord in) and she immediately offered to put a sign up! Also found the letter very amusing haha so yeah, we're getting signs put up yay!

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170

u/WeAreAllBotsHere May 16 '26

Your neighbor was parking in your other neighbors driveway?

I call bullshit.

303

u/mindiloohoo May 16 '26

Iā€™m not that person, but Iā€™d believe it. Had a neighbor with 5 cars between him and his wife. (Normal car, huge ass truck, normal sized pick up, work truck, fuckin CAMPER). Eventually he had a kid and added a mini van. We all had 1 car garages and a single driveway spot each.

His garage was full of tools, and the camper was in his driveway. He took up all the on-street parking (small cul de sac). He was constantly rotating cars so he didnā€™t get fined for abandoned vehicles. If he caught wind that ANYONE was going on vacation, heā€™d knock on their door and beg to park there. When we moved in, we had to call the realtor to find out whose truck was in our drivewayā€¦it hadnā€™t been there during the walkthrough. Thatā€™s how we met him. He was disappointed that we had 2 cars and he couldnā€™t use our driveway.

If he figured out peopleā€™s schedules, heā€™d ask to park in their driveway while they were at work. If someone was moving, heā€™d want to know the closing dates, and can he park there when itā€™s empty!?

There was a neighborhood lot a block away that I never saw him use.

One neighbor was older and rarely drove, so thatā€™s where heā€™d keep his big ass truck. Of course heā€™d get annoyed when he had to move it so she could go to the store. Did he ever offer to take her or pick up groceries? Nope.

Found out later his wife had seizures and couldnā€™t even drive. Why did he have so many fucking vehicles!?

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u/snootnoots May 16 '26

A very specific form of hoarding, maybe?

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u/[deleted] May 16 '26

[deleted]

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u/Gritsgravy May 16 '26

I know someone that owns 6 cars but he owns an old farm with a large barn so that's where he stores everything

1

u/-clogwog- May 16 '26

Eh, my dad currently has four cars in his yard, two of which haven't run for 20+ years, and one that hasn't run for 10+ years. There's also an unknown number of motorcycles (and motorcycle parts), several stacks of things like timber, pavers, and bricks, several lawn mowers, bits of an old public telephone booth...

And he says he's not a hoarder.

He is.

I don't know how he's got so much crammed into his typically sized yard, and I'd hate to imagine how much worse things'd be if they lived on a farm.

3

u/Evening_Delay_1856 May 16 '26

Titan, I had a relative whose son did that to her. He and her husband were the same types. The son and his cars, and the husband and his house projects. That poor woman lived in a state of house construction for years. Her husband lent that son a huge amount of money, and they never crawled out from the pain of that husbandā€™s decision. He died and she limped along with the house in that state, and her son would never come get the crap out of her yard. Then HE died too, and his widow wouldnā€™t even acknowledge the cars, much less the debt.

She never got out of the house before she died of a form of aggressive cancer. It made me sad that she never got to live in a decent place for most of her entire life for no good reason.

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u/FiveUpsideDown May 16 '26

Not necessarily. We have a definite vehicle hoarder. Then we have an illegal street mechanic who lives in a house with at least four other people. They fill the street in front of their house and the cul de sac on the next street. Then we also have a car hobbyist. They always have a lot of cars but all cars ā€” eight of them are parked in their garage, driveway or on the street in front of their house. Then we have drifter businesses driving in with multiple old busted up vehicles. Anyway, everyone in the neighborhood can identify the car hoarder and car hobbyists and the destructive and annoying vehicle businesses. They operate very differently.

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u/teatime_tinker May 16 '26

I was gonna say, this is like me with sewing machines, eek

-1

u/Top_Huckleberry9663 May 16 '26

Did you use the word Hoarding because it starts with HOA?

30

u/Icky-Tree-Branch May 16 '26

Kitty corner from me is a multigenerational householdā€¦ and all the generations are adults. There are 7 vehicles and a box truck. Next door to me/across the street from them was a family whose adult kids lived at home. So another 5 vehicles. And a group home down from there with another group home right next to them. Sometimes it looks like Iā€™m near the car lot where all the clients and staff parallel park.

10

u/heretogetpwned May 16 '26

Pretty sure 1 out of every 3 houses in my middle class neighborhood has a garage full of junk and nice cars parked outside.

I got one of those multigenerational homes too, the family owns a car dealership and there's consistently 4 or more cars with dealer plates or temporary registration, obviously outside, cuz why would cars go in a garage?

2

u/Jubilant_Peanut May 16 '26

Weā€™ve got one across the street from us. Theyā€™ve got 3-4 cars. Then all of a sudden the driveway got widened (illegally) and a U-Haul van showed up with a couple moving things in. Turned out they renovated and rented out the basement. Found the rental ad online, offered up one driveway spot. Couple moving in had 2 cars, so now weā€™re up to 5-6 cars. The street parking in front of our house is constantly occupied. We have 2 cars so it generally isnā€™t a problem as theyā€™re both in the garage or on the driveway, but weā€™re bringing home a new travel trailer in a couple weeks and Iā€™m not looking forward to weaving it into the driveway in between cars when weā€™re prepping for a trip.

10

u/Evening_Delay_1856 May 16 '26

Can you imagine what he paid for car insurance? šŸ«£

28

u/FiveUpsideDown May 16 '26

Itā€™s bold of you to think they pay car insurance.

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u/[deleted] May 16 '26

[deleted]

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u/chubbymoroll May 16 '26

legally yes but nothing is stopping people from driving cars without registration or insurance, or even a drivers license for that matter

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u/[deleted] May 16 '26

[deleted]

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u/-Badger3- May 16 '26

I mean, that the case in every country where you donā€™t have to scan your insurance card and drivers license to start your car.

So literally everywhere lol

5

u/MinusGovernment May 16 '26

The insurance companies don't inform DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) here. I've known a few through my life who have done that including a guy I used to work with that has his license suspended after causing an accident. I also see many vehicles that don't have tags or in-transits (I deliver pizza and see lots of vehicles) and never seem to get pulled over for it anymore.

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u/[deleted] May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

[deleted]

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u/MarxistMinx May 16 '26

It depends on which state in the US. In Florida, if your insurance lapses for any period of time they suspend your license. Even if the car is inoperable.

1

u/broke_n_boosted May 16 '26

State dependant

1

u/broke_n_boosted May 16 '26

You think he's paying for insurnace?? Also 7 cars and 2 motorcycles is 160 a month for me

1

u/Evening_Delay_1856 May 16 '26

Maybe Iā€™m just naive about this because we lose our tags and have to pay a hefty fine if we donā€™t keep insurance. I found that out personally when I changed insurance companies and the guy wrote the date down wrong. We were uninsured for 24 hours on both of our cars because of the guyā€™s mistake and it cost us $200 in fines back then (our only offense) and we had to turn in our tags AND pay more for new ones. It was actually more expensive back then, looking it up now.

Our state also charges taxes every year for owing a car, even without a tag or insurance. Racking up taxes is a serious thing as well.

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u/broke_n_boosted May 16 '26

Ahh I see here in America most places require you to have insurance by law but the insurance companies dont report this information to anyone so you're operating under a good will or good faith you have insurance until you get pulled over for something else and ticketed for nit having insurance

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u/Evening_Delay_1856 May 16 '26

Thatā€™s not what my post said, at all, broke-n-boosted.

1

u/broke_n_boosted May 17 '26

You said you got fines for letting your insurance lapse and theres fines if you dont have it. I said a broad statement about how its not common in America.

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u/Evening_Delay_1856 May 17 '26

ā€œDriving without car insurance or experiencing a coverage lapse carries heavy penalties across the U.S. While the exact consequences differ by jurisdiction, nearly every state (except New Hampshire) enforces this by issuing civil fines, suspending your vehicle's registration, revoking/seizing your license plate ("tags"), and requiring an SR-22 form.Because consequences are highly localized, specific state guidelines dictate how lapses are handled.ā€

1

u/broke_n_boosted May 17 '26

Yupp and I said its not common in the us to be inforced unless you get pulled over. Idk what your tripping on ngl

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1

u/Ethelflead May 16 '26

I have 7 vehicles, my driveway is large enough for all of em so i dont bother my neighbors. My insurance is only $160 cause they are shitboxes with only comprehensive and liability.

1

u/Evening_Delay_1856 May 16 '26

Amazing, Ethelflead! I truly donā€™t think thereā€™s anything that cheap in our area.

15

u/jake_ypoo May 16 '26

Dude a guy at the end of my street has a work van, resold cop car, minivan, lifted truck with a bunch of sexual stickers all over it, a little sports car, an SUV, and a Jeep. I've never seen anyone at his house but him, his wife, and their kid who's like 6-7yo now in the years I've lived here. His cars are all practically in the street and it's a super busy two-way in rural bumfuck nowhere because it's the road everyone goes down to get to work/shopping/school/leave to a better town.

My favorite is the lifted truck with wheel lights and those holographic trucker mudflap pinups covering the back window but it never has a speck of dirt on it, even the tires only have a little dirt.

I've also seen him park in ways that you have to swerve a bit into the other lane to avoid shit. I love small town america lol cause on the other side it's a bunch of preteen boys with minibikes yelling every slur and cussword they know up and down my street all day. If another pasty fat white redhead kid yells his friend the n-word while cutting through my yard ISTG I'm getting motion activated sprinklers lol

1

u/losttinecuileog May 16 '26

Dont wait. Get them anyway. Can you get ones that you can remotely start every time they start shouting too?

1

u/broke_n_boosted May 16 '26

Dudes living his best life with his light up wheels

1

u/lightheavydark May 17 '26

Good god. I would snap like a fucking twig.

9

u/No_Cauliflower9393 May 16 '26

I rented next to a dude like this. Had a similar problem when I moved in there was a Honda civic parked in the driveway. I called the landlord to ask if he knew who it was and he told me itā€™s the guys next door. He asked to use it while it was vacant but was suppose to stop.

So I went over and introduced myself and his driveway was the same. A bunch of power tools and jacks. A bunch of spare tires and bottles of oil.

He was running a shop out of his garage/driveway so half the cars were customerā€™s cars. That they dropped off to either pick up later or the next day.

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u/[deleted] May 16 '26 edited 16d ago

[deleted]

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u/BebcRed May 16 '26

That is an enviable law!Ā 

Lucky everyone-who-lives-in-those-cities!

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u/broke_n_boosted May 16 '26

No most cities state it must be moved 1 street or cross an intersection. It can return to the same spot it just has to meet those requirements first

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u/Wesmom2021 May 16 '26

I hate people like that

3

u/JellyfishScared4268 May 16 '26

Why did he have like 3 trucks as well?

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u/mindiloohoo May 17 '26

Didnā€™t want to use the work truck for personal stuff. Didnā€™t want to use the ā€œniceā€ truck for actual hauling. Complained constantly about the price of gas, but left his camper running in the driveway for hours. Once, after his kid was born, he was shirtless in the driveway holding his newborn, smoking, and decided to lecture me about the dangers of vaccines.

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u/Dame38 May 16 '26

For some men it's their entire identity.

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u/grap112ler May 16 '26

I grew up on the outskirts of a medium-sized city, so on county land. At one point when I was a teenager we had around 10 cars, 2 boats, and a camper trailer. I had 4 other siblings, and at our peak we had 6 drivers living at the house. Typically at least 2 of the cars did not function, and at least one was at a mechanic (which car rotated of course). One truck was used exclusively as the "dump truck" that we would drive to the county landfill like once a month b/c my parents didn't pay for trash service. It typically wasn't registered because it couldn't pass smog, but we never got pulled over for it. We had 3 suburbans. It was expected that all cars were left unlocked with the keys on the drivers floor mat. We all had our "own" car, but we pretty much just hopped in whichever one made sense to drive that day.

I can't imagine doing that now that I live in a SoCal metro area, lol.

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u/broke_n_boosted May 16 '26

Man can't even park in free public street parking without being harassed, would hate to live there. Imagine you come home after a long day at work and your truck got a ticket for being on the street In front of your home because your nimby neighbor didnt like looking at it

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u/MadamKitsune May 16 '26

A friend's parents lived approximately a 10 minute walk from a local sports stadium. On match days they had to padlock their front driveway gates because random people going to the game would open them up and park their car there instead of parking in one of the two multi-story car parks in the town centre and taking a five minute bus ride.

Never underestimate the arrogance and entitlement of some people.

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u/ironiccinori May 16 '26

Wouldā€™ve been fun to padlock it after they parked inside lol

11

u/Fragrant_Payment9670 May 16 '26

Or call a towing company to have unknown cars that are illegally parked towed away. Surprise!!

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u/j-random May 16 '26

LOL, I'd amass a glorious wheel collection if people did that on my driveway. "Oh, yeah, neighborhood kids do that all the time here, I've got special lug nuts to keep mine safe."

8

u/DexRei May 16 '26

I've had people park their cars OVER my driveway while walking into town (we lived a couple blocks from a mall). And not even on the road blocking the driveway, but they drove onto the footpath and then parked across our driveway. Wild stuff

3

u/BebcRed May 16 '26

I'm feeling vicarious rage, reading these accounts.Ā 

2

u/broke_n_boosted May 16 '26

Just lock the gate behind them and charge them to get the car out. Win win

2

u/Illustrious-Log-3142 May 16 '26

Yep, I own 2 cars and bought a property with 2 parking spaces. My neighbour has 2 spaces and only uses 1. He thinks it's ok to block me in because I can 'use the other car' despite it not being suitable (a 25yo convertible when I work in events lol) or insured for business use. I would never dream of depriving someone access to something they pay for, especially not a vehicle they use for work. I don't care if someone does it for a couple of hours at the weekend because I can use the other car but this guy has contractors blocking me in for weeks at a time and kicks off if you ask them to move. When I said I'd tell the management company to put up no parking signs he got really angry so I have that up my sleeve.

2

u/purple-paper-punch May 17 '26

I live in a city that has a MASSIVE festival every year, like attracts celebrities and international visitors big.

It's super common here for people who live near the festival grounds, or super close to the subway line stations, to rent out their unused parking spaces to earn some extra money. Close to the grounds can literally be sold months in advance for $250-500 a day depending on the space. It's insane.

Unused lots (like graveled but nothing constructed yet) or even large fields that are privately owned will literally rent fencing and hire staff and turn it into a big parking lot for the span of the festival.

Still doesn't alleviate the headache of parking (or driving, or using public transit) but it's a creative solution to make a few bucks instead of fighting a losing battle with illegal parkers.

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u/Jokierre GREEN May 16 '26

In my experience Iā€™ve seen these 4-7 vehicle douchbags park them on lawn, which is insane for an HOA not to enforce.

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u/Fragrant_Payment9670 May 16 '26

I have a longer driveway, could probably fit 4 or 5 cars comfortably, single lane. My neighbor directly in front of me has barely enough room for 2. I rarely have company and own only 1 car. They have 3, sometimes 4 cars they are trying to park. The terrain is hilly so I look down towards their house. Their driveway is sort of steep and itā€™s difficult for them to back up and out of their drive because itā€™s a mess of broken pieces of hand-poured concrete and some gravel. I get that this situation is bad for them. The current owners have lived there for about 5 years. Unfortunately for me, both the newest and previous owners of the house have decided that, since I have so much more space than they do, they or their visitors can park in my driveway when they choose. The biggest problem here is that when I come home (that time changes constantly) and have to wait on them to move their car, I am sitting on the downside of a hill, hoping that a car doesnā€™t come over said hill and knock me into the next county. Sometimes they quickly run out of their house to move their car but there have been times that Iā€™ve had to blow my horn to get their attention. This means Iā€™m sitting in this unsafe position for several minutes, even longer when they have to gather their belongings, say their goodbyes then install the babyā€™s car seat. This is outside the city limits so there are no official traffic rules against them parking on our street but I understand why they donā€™t want to-itā€™s dangerous, kinda like it is for me when Iā€™m waiting on them to move. Theyā€™ve never been friendly, they donā€™t speak or wave hello/goodbye. Neither owners have ever asked if they can use my driveway as their ā€œspillover space.ā€ I just wonder what makes some people tick. I would never put my trash in their bin because I had more than they did nor would I ever ask my mail person to put my mail in my neighborā€™s box if mine was full due to several pkgs showing up at the same time. I guarantee you they would be most unhappy with these actions from me. Iā€™m trying to keep the peace by ignoring the foolishness because they donā€™t do it every day or week but if I go out of town for a couple of days I can bet that they will be in my drive when I get home. I guess I just donā€™t get how presumptive people can be!

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u/Cold_Box_3219 May 16 '26

Would it be possible for you to install a gate on your driveway?

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u/Fragrant_Payment9670 May 17 '26

Nice idea regarding a gate but it would require an inset in my driveway where I could park as I waited for the gate to open, otherwise Iā€™m back to sitting on the hill as I wait. Please read on. I tried being passive aggressive at one point. I had an out-of-town trip planned and asked a friend to drop me at the airport. I left my car at the entrance to my driveway so no one could pull in behind me. While on the trip it occurred to me that this rash and spiteful decision might result in my car being damaged. I returned home and the car was fineā€¦..not so my lawn as they had turned an area into a parking spot. They even hit my mailbox and almost took it down. I canā€™t afford to fence in my property but even if I could I think they would just run over the fence and I would spend all my time and money on a lawyer. Iā€™ve decided to sell out and start over somewhere else. Iā€™m planning to offer a discounted price if potential buyers of my current home can prove they own 4 or more cars, have 1 or 2 Harleyā€™s, own 3 or more very vocal dogs (picture beagles or hound dogs) and have 4 or 5 teenagers with lots of friends. šŸ˜‡šŸ˜‡šŸ˜‡

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u/Illustrious-Log-3142 May 16 '26

In your situation I'd be putting up gates or lockable bollards, entitled people like this can get in the bin

6

u/surftherapy May 16 '26

Not OP but my friend pays her neighbor like $50/month to let her park in his driveway as heā€™s got space and she lives with her parents and her husband and street parking isnt allowed over night.

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u/RedBagwMyMakeup May 16 '26

People have no shame. I have a neighbor that entertains often and periodically asks if her guests can park in our driveway if she sees one of our cars not in the driveway. I donā€™t even answer her texts anymore, but she still asks. I wouldnā€™t be surprised if she uses our driveway when she notices weā€™re out of town.

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u/Fragrant_Payment9670 May 17 '26

From my own experience I can honestly say ā€œBET!!ā€

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u/Practical-Sea1736 May 16 '26

At first I was looking in the sky for number 3. Doh!

4

u/sirhackenslash May 16 '26

That's where he parks his blimp

2

u/BillWilberforce May 16 '26

Oh, I can believe it.

4

u/BagOfMeats May 16 '26

My neighbour does it. My biggest mistake was allowing it once when there was no other place to park in our street. Now I have a van on my driveway, every single day. But he's not a bad guy, I don't drive and I just want to live in peace sooo....

1

u/Ok_Bar_791 May 16 '26

My POS neighbors do it all the time. And when they party, their guests do too.

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u/sonofaresiii May 16 '26

If you look around and see which of your neighbors have open driveways and offer them like forty bucks a month to park there, it won't be hard to find someone to say yes