Monday 22 September 2008

Cheeky bastard

One thing I like about my apartment is the extras that come with it, I have access to a communal locked bike shed, a large communal garden (still being worked on though), a huge downstairs storage area and a parking space. My parking space, my very own space, which I pay 80 euros a month for, number 9 is its number and its mine..all mine. ok...

'Course I don't have a car but it does mean if anyone comes to vist me they don't have to park on the street which they have to pay for.

So...you can imagine how annoyed I am that some cheeky twat has decided my parking space is the perfect place to park his Hyundai coupe.

Being a polite sort of chap, I let it go for a few days/weeks, till things settled down, but no...still parking there, or on occasion in another spot forcing the occupant of that spot to park...in my spot.

Clearly a game of musical parking spaces is taking place here, someone does not have an allocated space and is making use of whatever he finds.

So I put a notice on the wall, in English at first, it got removed, later in Dutch, it also got removed. Hmmm

The Red Hyundai seems to be claiming squatters rights.

So last night I put a BIG sign on the wall, and also put a note on his windscreen informing him that the space was reserved and he was not to park there..
When I looked this afternoon the car was gone, and rather unNetherlands like, (they are a very tidy people) the note was on the floor.

Ok well at least I can be sure he read it.

So at 7pm when I come back from Ikea (had a nice dinner there) imagine how annoyed I am to see.....yup 1 red Hyundai happily occupying my space. Sign still in place in big Dutch Letters Geen Parkeren, ( No Parking obviously) and ignored.

Getting a bit silly now...I've put another note on the screen asking him to call me to resolve this...but somehow I suspect he wont....I left my number several times in case he wants to rent it from me (I don't really get any visitors so its dead money to me and renting it will be fine) and he's never bothered to call

Unfortunatly I don't know which flat he's in as we don't actually see cars enter the garage so its hard to find out where he is and go knock on his door.

I am very tempted to let his tyres down to attract his attention, but knowing my luck he'll be some 7ft blond body builder who likes beating people for excercise. But my patience is running pretty thin with this freeloader who's happily using a space I pay for.

This will no doubt be continued at a later date....hopefully I can spy wether or not he's a weedy little bloke into who's face I can kick some metaphorical sand....For the moment a formal complaint to tha landlord will have to do.

Hmm where can I buy a wheel clamp in Holland?



Ahthankyew


edit I checked...9 is my space, there's no room for doubt.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooh parking rage! I know the feeling, I lived in a house for a year that had about 6 cars worth of communal parking. There were no spaces or numbers, just a rectangle of tarmac. As we'd just bought and moved in, I know exactly what the lease said: it was communal for everyone to use, with no demarcation.

That of course didn't stop one of the neighbours having set dibs on one end of it, and woe betide anyone who parked in "their" spot. They'd simply park their car behind, completely blocking the parked car in. And/or come hammering on the door demanding the car was moved.

Honestly it nearly came to blows and was effecting my sleep. I was having dreams about potential confrontations etc.

I just goes to show, a few thousand years of "civilisation" hasn't evolved our territorial nature out of us yet.

Boring old Fart said...

its not so much territorial as genuine annoyance at being ripped off. The spaces in the garage are clearly marked out and numbered and each is allcoated 1 space to 1 tennant. If the Hyundai owner is a tennant then he know's full well that space is paid for each month and he's clearly being a twat by freeloading and making no attempt to ask permission or rent the space for himself.

I'm damned if I'm going to pay for someone elses parking..if it was free I'd probably not give a toss, but 80 euro's a month is not to be ignored.

You realise of course, this means war.

Anonymous said...

So what happened?

Boring old Fart said...

I got hold of him in the car park and made it clear I was not a happy bunny. He got the message and hasn't parked there since.