Neighbor Has Too Many Cars at Their House

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you or a neighbor owning multiple cars. It only begins to become an issue when your neighborhood starts to resemble an outdoor parking lot. If your neighbor has too many cars at their house, is there anything you can do about it?

In general, if your neighbor has too many cars at their house, there usually isn’t much you can do about it unless they’re breaking the law in some way. Check your local laws and regulations as well as your Homeowners Association laws regarding the limits of car ownership.

While owning multiple cars is not considered illegal, it can sometimes be viewed as unneighborly. This is especially the case for neighbors occupying multiple parking spots in the area. In this blog post, we’re going to provide you with tips and tricks for handling situations like this, as well as methods to peacefully negotiate a compromise with your neighbors.

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How Many Cars Can One Residence Have? 

Parking is a common cause for neighbor disputes. This has been a problem for a long time and will continue to be so since people own many cars these days. A family of four can have four cars as each member of the family is assigned one. 

Not only that, a household can have more cars than the actual number of people living inside the house. This could be because they may have relatives visiting or have a caregiver regularly dropping by to look after an elderly or disabled family member.

That being said, one can have as many cars as they want. It’s not illegal to have a car collection, and understandably so, one would like to keep more than one car. Will that get them into trouble? Likely not.

To find out just how many you can have, check our blog post: How Many Vehicles Can You Have on Your Property Legally. You might also want to check out Can You Park Cars In Your Backyard?

Is There a Limit to How Many Cars You Can Own?

As mentioned, a person will not get into trouble for having a lot of cars because there is no limit to how many vehicles one can own. So if you see your neighbor taking up all the parking spaces in your street, then you can’t report them.

In general, as long as a car is registered and moved from time to time, there is nothing to report. You can, however, dig more into your city’s laws. If you’re not sure about the regulations regarding car ownership, check with your city to confirm just how many cars one can have on their property.

If that’s not acceptable, you can also check with your Homeowners Association to see if they have restrictions set regarding parking. If there are no restrictions, you may have the option to petition the HOA (and even the city) to have them in place.

Meanwhile, if you see your neighbor’s cars parked outside for extended periods (specifically more than 24 hours), that would be the time to call the police to investigate. For this one, it’s better not to call the emergency hotline but rather a local non-emergency number. 

You might also enjoy our post on How to Shut Down Your Neighbors Airbnb

What Can I Do If My Neighbor Has Too Many Cars?

If I live in a busy metropolitan like LA and my neighbor has too many cars in Los Angeles, that can quickly become the stuff of nightmares. It can be annoying to have inconsiderate neighbors who think they own everything in front of their house. 

If you’re thinking about reporting them to the police, though, don’t expect results. If the car owner is not doing anything illegal, there is nothing actionable here.

On the other hand, it will still depend on the situation. Your neighbor might be making too much noise with his several cars. 

Or, for instance, you are caring for the elderly. Since they may be fragile and prone to emergencies, you will need your property free from obstacles and easily accessible once paramedics come to the scene. That becomes difficult when a tenant has too many cars.

If you can relate to any of the situations mentioned below, you might be able to do something about that annoying neighbor.

• Find out if your neighbor has violated any laws in your city. If no law has been violated, maybe you can petition to have a special law so that you can go after your neighbor. 
• If your neighbor’s parked cars become a nuisance in the neighborhood, and you’re concerned they might block emergency vehicles access, you can gather the neighbors around to help you lobby for special laws regarding this.
• If you see that one or some of your neighbor’s cars is leaking hazardous waste, this could be an excellent reason to report to the police.
• If you suspect any illegal car activity or if you see the car has been left there unmoved for days, weeks, or even months, you can inform the police. When you do, use the non-emergency hotline number. Be prepared to present some evidence to back up your claim.
• If you’re positive that the person’s cars are not registered or that those cars have been used for unlicensed business, you can inform the police. And, of course, prepare some proof to support your claim.
• If your neighbor is making too much noise with their car, you could easily report them for being a nuisance.

Check out our blog post on how you can deal with a neighbor who has noisy cars.

With all the tips mentioned above, know that this can easily cause a rift between you and your neighbor. It’s either you do your best to maintain anonymity when reporting the situation, or you prepare yourself when your neighbor retaliates.

Hopefully, your neighbor will be a mild-mannered person who will understand your reaction and not some lunatic who will do the unthinkable to get back at you for reporting them.

My Neighbor Has Too Many Cars Parked on the Street

If you’re like me, who has a neighbor with too many cars parked on a street, then you’d understand just how frustrating it can be. But if it were up to me, I would begin by being the more mature person in the situation.

What I’m saying is to talk to your neighbor about it. Find out more about their situation so you can better understand, instead of making assumptions and judging them harshly. If your neighbor is downright inconsiderate and is being rude, that’s another story.

You might also enjoy our post on How to Shut Down Your Neighbors VRBO

Neighbor Thinks He Owns the Street

Anyone who’s enjoyed living a life with nice, considerate neighbors will never understand how much of a nuisance it is to have a neighbor who thinks he owns the street. If you’re one of the unfortunate ones having to deal with that situation, you have to know that no one owns a public space.

Even if your neighbor might intimidate you with a car collection, you should know that the parking space in front of your house or other people’s house is a public spot. Anyone can take it, but that doesn’t mean your neighbor can park all their cars there.

But no matter how much you want to fight it, there will be entitled people who don’t think about others. Of course, you can use your time to complain to the city, and hopefully, officials will listen and do something about it. 

You can, maybe, complain about how pedestrians and cyclists end up walking on the streets to get around several parked cars. 

Whatever nuisance your neighbor is causing, be prepared to give as much detail as possible regarding the situation.

How Many Cars Can One Person Own?

You may have trouble with someone taking up all the parking spots in your street, but the hard truth is that one can own as many cars as he wants. Some cities, however, do set a limit while others don’t. You may check with your city to confirm this.

Neighbor Takes up All Street Parking

You can get as creative as you want when dealing with your neighbors. You can write notes and stick them on their windshields; you can park close to them every single time to annoy them. And of course, as mentioned in the tips earlier in this article, you can rally other neighbors to get at the neighbor.

You can do all of those but keep in mind that your neighbor can get back at you for it. If you don’t mind the trouble, then, by all means, do whatever it takes to report your neighbor. 

Just remember that parking spots are not reserved for anyone. Your neighbor is not doing anything illegal, assuming that the cars are all registered and being used for legal purposes. 

Taking up parking spaces all boils down to being considerate – and if your neighbor is not that, surely this will be an everyday problem for you. 

Conclusion

If your neighbor has too many cars on their property, you can report them only if you have proof that their parked cars are involved in some illegal activity. 

You can also report them if the cars have not been moved for more than 24 hours since that is usually against local laws.

But if the only reason you have is that you can’t park your car, then there’s nothing the police can do since it’s a public street. Parking spots in public streets are not reserved for anyone.

The best thing to do in this case is to talk to your neighbor, and hopefully, both of you can arrive at a compromise.