Is it illegal to park on your own lawn?
 

My housemate recently brought his car from home after getting a job with a bioengineering firm. The part of town I live in has a two-hour parking limit unless you have a residential parking permit.

It is necessary to provide either two pieces of official mail, a utility bill, or a driver's license/registration with the address of the property to obtain the parking permit. The last option is out since we're students and we plan on moving to another property in June. My housemate switched the PG&E bill to his name last week, and the first bill should be arriving in two weeks. In the mean time, he has been parking on the lawn of our property until he can get the utility bill to apply for the permit.

The past week two people have knocked on our door and asked why there's a car on our lawn. Neither of them threatened to do anything (ie towing) and the local parking enforcement has never issued a ticket in the past two weeks the Avalon has been on our lawn. Question is, is it illegal to park on the lawn? Specifically in regards to California. I couldn't find any ordinances that said it's illegal to park on the lawn.

I understand it's a nuisance and the already-dead grass is getting even...deader (it's more like a patch of dirt with weeds here and there), but I was curious if anyone had any knowledge about this issue. The funny thing is the people who complained were not our neighbors. The first was a woman walking her poodle, and the second was a man, both who inquired on different occasions and admitted they were passing by the area.

My thoughts...and these are just my thought as to why.
1. Parking on the lawn is an unsightly appearance and brings the image of the neighborhood down in turn lowering the value of the properties.
2. EPA standards...with the fluids such as antifreeze, oil, trans fluid etc...leaks in the ground an containments the soil which inturns gives you the dead spots. If its bad enough I believe the city can make a person or company pay to have the ground dug up where the fluids leaked to perserve the rest of the area...

Again these are my thoughts....

+1.

if its temporary until the bill comes, don't worry about it...just get it taken care of ASAP...obviosuly you're pissing off the neighbors (which include all the people on your street not just the ones the live next door to you).

oh and it looks ghetto is why people are asking why the car is parked on your lawn.

If you mow your lawn and find a car, you might be a redneck. :p

No cars on lawns in my neighborhood and that's fine with me, it doesn't go with the country club setting.

Definitely illegal where I grew up in VA. If I owned a house in your neighboorhood I wouldn't be happy to see it. What your friend is doing is trashing up the neighborhood.

I'd guess the people knocking on your door were friends of your neighbors (who wanted to preserve the peace with you and not be confrontational).

problem here is that basically they cant legally park on the street, so you guys suggest that they sell the car and take a bus?

it is definitely not their fault, whoever mandated permits for street parking should have thought of this before.

Probably best to ask the local authorities to get the actual scoop...

If you're going to do that for the time being at least have him park it as straight and neatly as he can. And try to do something to maintain the area to at least balance the trashiness of parking it on the lawn.

i'd go to the permit place anyway and take whatever you have and explain the situation. even if you don't have the utility bill you must have a lease or maybe the sign up for cable or power, water, etc., something with the address on it?

it is only illegal if your landlord says it is. In your contract, sometimes they require to keep the lawn nice; and having a car would essentially make this impossible, therefore making it illegal to park on your lawn.

Im curious as to why the housing doesn't provide any kind of parking space - whether it be a garage, an actual parking space or something like that. Are you in a house, apt or condo?

Either way, it depends upon your city ordinance and what code enforcement lets you get away with. Why don't you give code enforcement an anonymous call and ask? In Sacto, it's illegal.

http://www.cityofsacramento.org/tran...omplaints.html

* Abandoned Vehicles left over 72 hours on the street.
* Abandoned Vehicles anywhere else.
* Cars parking on a lawn, unimproved property or behind a fence.
* Motor Homes and boats parked on the street.

The people on our street didn't complain, they admitted they lived "blocks" away. However, our house is located pretty close to the park and its a corner house, which makes it all the more visible. No one on our street has complained, and believe me, if they weren't okay with it they would've been knocking the night the Avalon set rubber on the lawn.

This made me LOL, thanks for the laugh. :D

I don't live in a country club.

We do have the lease agreement, and the first time we went we were told that would not work as it has to be within 45 days the contract was signed, which was 6/17/2010. I vouched for my housemate to go to the permit place after class and see if there's anything we can do.

I live in a house with a two-car driveway; there is no garage. The driveway consists of my IS and my roommate's Civic Si, and two other got permits for street parking at the beginning of the lease. I'll give code enforcement an anonymous (sounds super sketch lol) call, thanks for the tip! :thumbup:

I'll keep everyone posted, thanks for the feedback.

I was ticketed for barely having my left rear wheel on the lawn, and by barely we're talking millimeters. We had a family member stay with us, so we were squeezing two side by side in the front driveway. :(

Pave over the lawn, problem solved :D