What Would You Have Done?
 

We bought a CYV about 2 years ago but unfortunately our plans to move this year have not materialized because we can not sell our house. We live about 6 hours from the Villages and come down as often as we can for 3 or 4 days at a time. Our next door neighbor has a friend living with him until he can get settled and we let the friend park in our driveway when we are not there. We email him to let him know we are coming so he knows to not park there. We have no problem with this - great guy. With that said, I will get to the problem. I flew down a couple of weeks ago, arriving at the house around 10 pm. I did not have a car as my husband was driving down a few days later. The next day, I took the golf cart out to do some errands and when I returned, there was a car parked in my driveway, a car in back of that and another in the street partially blocking my driveway. I don't know who these cars belonged to or who they were visiting and it was pouring rain at the time and I had a hard time getting my golf cart back in my garage. By the time I looked outside again all the cars were gone. I purposely left the garage door open so they would know someone was there. I did not get a knock on the door to apologize. Everyone in the villas has our email address and phone number, so I would think that if someone was having a lot of visitors and they wanted to use my driveway, they should have called or emailed me and we would not have a problem with that. We are a littled disturbed that people would assume that just because we are not there permanently that they have the right to use our driveway anytime they feel like it. What if one of the cars had an oil leak and left a spot in our driveway, or my husband happened to drive in at that time.
What would you have done?

Our Villa Development has a parking lot for visitors. I assume that they all do. I would have put a note on the front widow of each intruder's car advising them that visitor parking is available just down the street.

Another thing you could have done is to take the license plate numbers and call them in to Village Community Watch.

I know that this is done in our neighborhood of designers. People will park short term in a snowbird's driveway while they are having pavers etc.

You can do nothing and you can hope for no oil spills.
You can send out a general email asking for no one to park in your driveway and even if it doesn't directly contact the "parker", he/she will hear about it.


I was taught to stay off of other people's property.

I don't know what I would do. Probably nothing.

I understand you being annoyed.

We really are not snowbirds - we pop in and out all year long - sometimes we stay for 3 days or a week and might not come back for another 3 months or 5months - No one knows except my next door neighbor as to when we will be there. So no one should assume that we will not be there until the next snowbird season. I was going to call community watch, but was reluctant because I didn't want to stir the pot!

I'm with Gracie -- I'd be annoyed but would say nothing. It seems to be a way of life in TV.

I would, however, have some sort of signal from here on in so that neighbors would know when I'm home -- a flag, a small statue by the edge of the driveway, something to give a clue. I might even ask my neighbor who does park in my driveway to put it out when I'm coming. After coming up with a clue that I'm there, I would send an email to all of my neighbors to let them know that this is how they can know I'm home.

As to oil leaks, I wouldn't be thrilled but would realize they are part of the risk of being a good Villager neighbor. (Coca-Cola does a pretty good job of getting rid of oil stains on concrete.)

Parking
 

I am a seasonal resident and I have at times given people permission to park in my driveway and on rare occasions in my garage.They all have my cell number and this is done on a case by case basis.If I come down in the off season and there is a car in my driveway that I do not recognize that is trespassing and will be delt with accordingly.My home is private property and just because I choose to be away for a period of time that does not declare my driveway a free parking area.Should for some reason the offending vehicle catch fire,I lose the use of my home and if the owner has no insurance that opens up a real can of worms.

A person parked a vehicle, stepped out, and miss-stepped on a small pebble, fell, broke their hip........and sued the pants off the owner of the place they parked.

Not in TV, but in this age, something to keep in mind. I'm pretty sure one's homeowners insurance would not be receptive to info the a person's home was being used as a parking lot while homeowner not home.

Maybe you should have parked behind the vehicles and blocked their exit so they would have to ring your bell and ask you to move for them to leave. It would send a message that you were not happy.

Good Point! I will have to agree with you - I should have done something about it right away.

In my opinion, this advice gets 5 stars. :thumbup:

How do you get their email addresses?

I think that most of us know our neighbors pretty well in a short time through the block parties and friendly gatherings that happen almost everywhere in The Villages. There is usually one enterprising person who puts together a street list with names and emails etc.,and ours even has the vehicle we drive, so everyone knows whether the car parked there is the owners or not...