ilanarama | my batshit insane neighbor

This morning, when I turned the corner onto our block at the end of my run, I saw a policeman walking with my husband around the corner of the house into the alley. This immediately made me nervous, as it would anyone. But when I got up to the alley and saw the policeman getting back on his motorcycle, and my husband getting into our pickup truck, I immediately guessed what had happened.

We've known Robin, who owns (and rents out) the house across the alley from us, for some time. She used to be active in the local Democratic party, but she moved to another county (some 350 miles from here) a couple of years ago, so we haven't seen much of her. The thing about Robin is - well, you know the classic definition of the optimist and the pessimist? With Robin, not only is the glass half-empty, it's FILLED with POISON because SOMEONE is out to GET HER. She's got to be the angriest person I've ever met. Pretty much every year we'd see her putting out the "For Rent" sign and cleaning up the house, and she'd come over and tell us about how the last tenant had seemed so nice but had SCREWED her and LIED to her and CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS SHIT THEY PUT ME THROUGH? For a while she stopped renting it and lived it it herself, with her, I dunno, 5 cats and 3 dogs, and then her conversation stopped being about her scumbag ex-tenants and was about her scumbag ex-husband and ex-coworkers, and how much she hated this town, and wanted to move back to the place she used to live. (When she finally did move, and came back to pick up some more of her stuff from the garage out back of her house, she complained about how much she hated the place she was living now.)

When she moved, she rented to a guy who, as it turned out, we actually knew. And like. And all was cool. There's a parking area out in back of the house, but he sold his second car because he was laid off and needed the money, and so since he wasn't using it (he preferred to part in front) we asked if we could park our pickup way at the back of that parking area - there'd still be room for his pickup, plus another car - and he said sure, why not?

Do you see where this is going? One day this spring Robin happened to be in town, saw our pickup in HER PARKING AREA, and went ballistic. She knocked on our door and gave my husband hell for parking there, so he moved our pickup for a week or so, until he figured she was safely out of the area, and then started parking there again. Well, apparently, today she found out. And called the cops. The cop was, apparently, apologetic, and agreed that the fact that the current tenant had given us permission was a perfectly legitimate reason for us to be parking there, but it is, alas, still her property, and therefore, she has a right to go ballistic. So I guess we are on her ENEMIES LIST. Along with, I dunno. THE REST OF THE WORLD.

The house, by the way, has been for sale ever since we have lived here. (Actually, since before we moved here - we had in fact looked at it first, but felt it was in too poor shape for the money she was asking then. Now, of course, the price is even higher.) I live for the day when she sells it to someone - anyone - and she is out of our lives for good.

In entirely non-related news, in a couple of hours I'm heading out of town, solo, in the Sportsmobile, headed for St. George, Utah, to run a marathon. Woo!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

hwrnmnbsol

So, while I completely sympathize with you, and generally believe that Mean People Suck [tm], your douche-lord neighbor is in the right on this one. Peoples' liability insurance covers their property, including bad things that happen on that property, so if your car were to roll over somebody or burst into flame while parked in her lot, she'd be on the hook for any resultant damages and suits. I am completely inflexible with people regarding storage on my properties for this exact reason. We live in a litigious world where property owners are expected to have complete control over everything that transpires in their domains, and you simply cannot be too careful these days.

I will also say that it is my experience that angry people tend to be the quickest to pull the trigger on borderline spurious suits, so be sure not to park on her property any more, or even have anything to do with her if you can help it.

ilanarama

I did not know that! Thank you for shedding a ray of sanity upon the situation. (Of course, if she had just said this originally, and been nice about it back in the spring, it would totally not have been a problem.)