Seeking Feedback on Tenant Situation - Posted by Eric (NH)
Posted by Eric (NH) on January 15, 1999 at 22:54:41:
This evening, for the first time, I had a car towed from the apartment complex I bought last month. The parking situation is tight–approx. fifteen or sixteen spaces (unstriped) for twenty bedrooms, and the city does not allow overnight parking on the street in the winter.
Anyway, following numerous complaints from tenants about other tenants whose visiting friends took spots, I posted a notice on everyone’s door two weeks ago stating that each unit could register up to two cars with me, and that effective January 1st any non-registered cars on the property would be towed. All tenants either responded to that letter or had earlier given me their plate numbers.
Earlier tonight, I received a complaint call about an unknown vehicle, and after checking to see that it wasn’t on my auto list, I called to have it towed. I got a call a half hour later from the tow operator, saying that a tenant and his friend were out there screaming, as the friend’s car was hooked up to be towed (as an aside, the formal notice to tenants earlier was prompted by complaints about this specific tenant!). This tenant was ranting about the fact that he has two parking spots (untrue; he has two vehicles registered), and that his girlfriend wasn’t home with the second car, so what’s the problem if his friend is parked there. He then started to ask in an agitated manner about how friends and guests are supposed to park, with my reminding him that the letter specifically stated that the lot was for “registered tenant vehicles,” and that if he or his girlfriend needed to drive a replacement vehicle than they needed to contact me, as I certaintly would have no way of knowing from one minute to the next whether an unknown vehicle belonged there, as I was not about to call ten different apartments to ascertain whether anyone knew the owner of an unknown vehicle.
After I explained all of this, he mumbled, “O.K. I’ll pay him (i.e. the tow driver), and then I’ll send you a bill.” While I assume that he is bluffing, and I feel I am in the right regardless, I am just wondering from other landlords if I handled this situation properly?
Sorry that this post was so long.
Eric (NH)