Apartment parking policy

Last night, my Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay group met at my place for one of the last sessions in the Eye for an Eye campaign. (More on that in another post.) Everyone meets at my place around 7:00-ish once a month and we play for about 3.5 hours. Crazy amounts of fun with great people.

My apartment complex said that they were going to enforce a new towing policy beginning in May. Any car, whether visitor or resident, parked in an inappropriate location would be towed. Cars without a resident sticker had to be either in visitor spots or have a visitor tag hanging on the review view mirror of the vehicle. There are six visitor spots for my building and the one across the street. Three of these spaces are next to trees so residents frequently park in the visitor spots for the shade (even when a resident space is open right next to the visitor spot).

I have had times when a friend visited and had to leave because we couldn’t find a visitor spot, even up by the facility office. I’ve called the office before to find out if residents would be towed if they were in visitor spots. Yes, they will — if the resident vehicle is in a visitor spot more than two days in a row.

I’ve had some confusion about when the parking policy was going to be enforced. Last time I spoke with the apartment complex office, the towing company was being switched and an email would be sent when the policy was going to be actively enforced. I haven’t received an email yet.

Any way, we forgot about making sure everyone was in a visitor spot last night. I even forgot to give out my single visitor pass for someone to use in their car. One person in a visitor spot and the rest in resident spots.

Post-gaming, one of the guys called and says that his vehicle has a boot on the front right wheel and a towing notice plastered to the window. He called the towing company: $125 cash to have the boot removed. He was the only one who had the boot on the vehicle. The towing company was prowling the parking lot and immediately came over. It was a good thing we tend to end gaming before 11:00 PM, otherwise my friend’s car would have been towed.

And of course, there were residents vehicles parked in some of the visitor spots. Not all, but enough. Sigh.

The guy from the towing company said he wasn’t supposed to tow resident vehicles parked in visitor spots. Residents have first choice of any and all spots (including visitor spots). We paid the cash and got the boot off of my friend’s car.

I was both pissed and mortified that I hadn’t given my friend my one parking permit. (Of course, that wouldn’t have mattered any way because I didn’t have enough parking permits for everyone.) Some one else could have been towed.

This morning I went to the apartment office to complain. Not a happy camper. Technically, I understood the parking policy and that a visitor car in a resident spot is subject to towing. Fine. But what about the residents in the visitor spaces? What about those residents who are too friggin’ lazy to park in regular spots and leave the visitor spots free? Why aren’t their cars being towed?

The guy in the office pointed out that there are a lot of visitor spaces back by building 1800 (approximately three blocks from my building, back in the bowels of the complex, you know where it isn’t lit very well and there aren’t a lot of residents). And no, I hadn’t reminded my friends about the towing policy. We won’t forget it next time.

He did say that he would check on the visitor spots near my office and make note of any resident in visitor spots. If they were there two days in a row, he would call the towing company.

It isn’t much, but it’s at least something.

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