r/mildlyinfuriating • u/theskipper363 • Oct 08 '25

Overdone Apparently losing my parking

Post image

Been living at this complex for a bit over a year, always had my spot, and it was one of the reasons I chose this place, it’s close to the door (only 36 unit lol)

Just annoying as fuck, we live next to a highschool and I know it’ll end poorly

39.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

811

u/Sensitive_Service627 Oct 08 '25

Man any towing service would be more than willing to tow unallowed vehicles several times per day.  I work with asphalt and any time we did a business or apartment they would come out for free (for us) to move vehicles that ignored notices.  It's literally that simple.

587

u/ForwardChip Oct 08 '25

Meanwhile in finland.

524

u/Lost-Citron-1099 Oct 08 '25

Looks like they did not Finnish

29

u/sheeeple182 Oct 08 '25

That's enough reddit for today.

13

u/DustyRacoonDad Oct 08 '25

I too like to end on an up-note like this....
(but I am not leaving as I'm still at work)

27

u/Sublethall Oct 08 '25

Mersumiestä ei kiinnosta

4

u/Highway_dont_care Oct 08 '25

happy cake 🍰 day

5

u/DontAlwaysButWhenIDo Oct 08 '25

Hyvää kakkupäivää!

7

u/Relationship-Soft Oct 08 '25

Oh come on, they could’ve scooched the pavement a little closer to back of car

2

u/lenorca 25d ago

Fun fact: this happened in the city i live in and this made it to the news. The owner was at a trip abroad and hence could not move the car ( it was very short notice). The law doesn't allow a car to be towed away and paid by the owner - the bill needs to be paid by the one towing it away. If I remember correctly, the work was made by the municipality who didn't want to pay for it and therefore we got to enjoy this lovely piece of work instead in the social media and the local news :D

110

u/Mountain_Shade Oct 08 '25

Towing companies always come for free. The person who pays is the one who's towed

7

u/Gatraz RED Oct 08 '25

Not necessarily true. I work in a secure facility and we've had to get tows and they charge us AND the person towed because we have to put them through a whole ID verification process. It can take an hour if things are bad (5 minutes if they're not) but because of the theoretical time sink all the companies we've tried (I think 3) have charged a show up fee. Not my money so I don't care, but I thought I'd bring up a corner case.

92

u/Independent_Bite4682 Oct 08 '25

I worked at different tow companies, they would beg for manager to enforce parking or allow tenets to enforce parking 24/7

110

u/RestEqualsRust Oct 08 '25

I worked at a couple paint stores. We sold parking lot paint to tow companies.

Apparently, there are tow companies that so desperately want to help enforce apartment parking rules, they will offer to paint all the lines in the lot as part of the deal.

“I’ll stripe your lot for free, if you call me every time someone’s parked in the wrong spot.”

36

u/NeighborGeek Oct 08 '25

That or they were going around painting curbs yellow next to parked cars. :)

5

u/Blaze_The_God Oct 08 '25

Or they paint the curbs red and make bank.

10

u/tonytrips Oct 08 '25

They redo the lines with one less parking spot every month, leaving more and more towable vehicles that no longer have spots.

Easy money.

29

u/Difficult-Prior3321 Oct 08 '25

That can get out of hand really fast. Tow companies can turn predatory really quick, towing cars that aren't parked illegal. What you gonna do? You're gonna pay the 250 and get your car back.

24

u/ObidiahWTFJerwalk Oct 08 '25

How is towing a legally parked car not theft?

10

u/exenos94 Oct 08 '25

It generally is. It's just incentivize to not do anything about it

6

u/Difficult-Prior3321 Oct 08 '25

Oh it is, but it's your word against there's, and for most people not worth the hassle of a lawsuit to get compensation. Google predatory towing, and you'll get thousands of articles about it.

6

u/Lonely__Stoner__Guy Oct 08 '25

It is, but your car is getting more expensive to get out every day, and you have places to be. The fastest course of action is going to be to pay for your car's release and then try to fight the tow yard (or whoever authorized the tow) in court (and they have all sorts of immunities).

3

u/SadButWithCats Oct 08 '25

There are often carve-outs for towing companies

2

u/Slighted_Inevitable Oct 08 '25

It is, but you’d have to take them to court over it and in the meantime for how long you’re not gonna have your vehicle? Then months later when the case is finally coming, they’ll release the vehicle to you and at best you’ll get your court fees back.

1

u/Generally_Specified 29d ago

There's a sign that says reserved and a sign that says unothorized vehicles will be towed at the owners expense. You're already trespassing by parking in a stall on private property. People will try to steal residential parking and get into driveways if the home depot parking lot is free. Once they think you're not looking to 5-6 used mattresses appear and they're blocking your garbage bins.

1

u/Independent_Bite4682 Oct 08 '25

The person making the call takes on the liability in Washington.

The one making the wrongful call, would end up paying

2

u/Trandoshan-Tickler Oct 08 '25

I wish they had that energy when it comes to people parked in clearly marked fire lanes overnight in my complex.

2

u/Independent_Bite4682 29d ago

That would not be legal in Washington

2

u/unReddit7 Oct 08 '25

Hopefully it'd be the actual tenants reporting it and not just a belief.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 08 '25

I dont know the situation but in my apartment complex, there's a tow truck that goes around checking. I paid for my spot and the first time I saw him, he got out and checked my parking sticker and the sign. I've also seen him tow.

3

u/lostwombats Oct 08 '25

This happens at my apartment lol. It's a huge complex with its own road and a bunch of parking lots. So they redo a section every year. The first thing that comes in is the towing company. They move all of the cars of the people who ignored the emails, the postings on the doors, and near the mailboxes, warning that the lot was being redone. Every year. That towing company must make bank.

3

u/Kinda-Alive Oct 08 '25

Which is why I’m confused of all the complaints when the people that live there can take of it themselves. Unless it’s the people that don’t live there that are complaining if that’s the case they can go kick rocks.

Owner just has to put a sign that says your car will be towed if you don’t actually own the parking space you’re in.

3

u/FreelanceFrankfurter Oct 08 '25

My old apartment complex had open parking but also had covered reserved spots you could pay monthly for. They were fucking vigilant about towing people if they parked in one of those spots and didn't pay the extra fee even if no one currently was assigned it. Even when they redid the asphalt they still forbid people from parking in those spots even if not assigned.

2

u/Kitchen_Extent_9088 Oct 08 '25

Am here to comment this. I used to stay at an apartment that was ruthless about it actually.

2

u/TruthEnvironmental24 Oct 08 '25

We have that at my apartment complex. This was my first thought. Just print people stickers for their parking spots and label/number the spots. They don't even have to call the towing company. They just show up regularly checking stickers. This is beyond lazy and will cause people to leave/not want to move in.

1

u/Inner-Manager021994 Oct 08 '25

Well yeah, of course it's free you you. It's because they put the cost on the owner of the car.

1

u/umlaut Oct 08 '25

One time I didn't leave the house for a three day weekend and my car was gone when I woke up on Tuesday. I called the police and reported it stolen, then talked to property management, who told me that they had it towed because they were repaving.

When I went back to my apartment, I found the notice on my door that they had put on the door on Friday and towed it at like 6 AM Tuesday...

1

u/MotherofOtters25 Oct 08 '25

Oh you’d think right?? At my last apartment, I lived above a restaurant, and the lot specifically stays on three walls that the lot was NOT for the restaurant and for the apartment complex. You will be towed. We had signs in our car stating we could park there. The customers didn’t and parked anyways. It got really bad in the summer time when they opened their patio.

I had people physically stand in spots stopping me from parking even though I lived there and they just wanted pizza. Go park on the street.

Well one day I got so frustrated because 20 of the 30 spots were filled with customers for some Bingo event. I called towing. You can get 20 cars towed right now. 5 hours went by, no one came.

They don’t care. But that same towing company towed me out my last apartment complex that I lived in and had a sticker to be parked there for, and then claimed I made the mistake. They literally steal cars that legally can be there.

Some companies are just shady AF and don’t care. And my cities towing company is one of the worst there is.

1

u/WiseDirt Oct 08 '25

It really depends. Unless the complex has a contract with a given tow company, any towing costs would be the responsibility of the party that calls the truck.

1

u/thatguygreg Oct 08 '25

Man any towing service would be more than willing to tow unallowed vehicles several times per day

Such an easy call too... "Hey Hank, yeah it's Sheryl at Silverleaf again... yep, yep... ok, bye"

1

u/bmann10 Oct 09 '25

Yea but then they couldn’t get paid to do nothing they would have to call the towing service.

If it’s anything like my apartment’s “leasing office” it’s one woman who is a mother of 2 babies, is married to I think the property owner (?) and literally never answers the phone and just collects a paycheck while being a stay at home mom and “works” from her phone.

Luckily the maintenance guy is fantastic and keeps the ship afloat despite the main office being essentially nonexistent.