Here's the situation:

My girlfriend's car was towed by her apartments security for parking in a "future resident" parking spot. For months now, she has been parking there, (or i park there the 2 or 3 nights a week i tend to stay over). Either way when i visit, one of our cars is parked there if there's a spot open since there's only 2 parking spots assigned and when i or another guest of there's comes over, there's a total of 3 cars. (her, her bro and the guest)

We were told by a member of the staff a while back that we are allowed to park in these "future resident" parking spots from the time when the leasing office closes to when it opens, as long as we don't park in the 2 spots that have a tow away sign in front, as those are reserved for parking by permit only (which we obviously avoid parking in).

My gf parked her car there last night after the office was already closed. To her dismay, when my gf went to her car this morning before the leasing office opened, her car was gone. Another resident let us know they taped notices on doors to let people know you can no longer park anywhere in front of the leasing office effective May 10th.

Problem now is, she never received such notice. She doesn't know if it was never put on her door because shes moving out next week, if it blew off in the wind, someone took it off for the hell of it, etc. Whatever happened, the notice was never received by her or her brother.

What would you guys do in this situation? My gf had a miderm this morning and i had to miss 4 hours of work to make sure she had a car to get to it, on top of that we had to pay about $200 to get the car out of impound. Impound turned out to be a banged up parking lot with a gate behind some shady place and i had to drive my IS down a really rocky road to get to it. I was pissed to say the least.

Management so far is saying she's pretty much SOL even if she didn't receive the notice.

Please no "let it go" answers, she's not about to fork over ~$200 for not listening to a notice she never got.

 

Sounds like she is SOL. The tow company / impound lot did their job and won't be refunding money. The apartment complex isn't going to into their pocket for a lame excuse like "I didn't get the notice". I'm not saying I don't believe your GF I'm saying as a landlord myself it sounds like the kind of BS excuse you hear month in and month out. Add the fact that she's moving out, they have no incentive to keep her happy. She can leave them an upper decker if it makes her feel better but I don't see a refund coming her way.

 

burn it down.

 

The good news is she is moving out. Pay and go away.

 

Situations like this, verbal permission is hearsay, always in writing signed by people who have authority to grant such. Unfortunately a lesson of $200. It will sting though you'll move from this place and life goes on.

 

What do YOU think should happen is what I'm curious to find out?

 

. Not much you can do except pay and be on your way.

 

It would come down to their word vs hers in court, no real solid evidence here (if you took it to court). As it stands the leasing office probably feels they were nice to let her park there all this time and they felt they dropped off a notice and the new rules were not compiled with. Maybe talk to a manager or someone she has a relationship inside with and explain hey I'm moving out, I've never been late on rent, I've been a good resident, there was a mistake and at least meet me 1/2 way on the tow charge.

 

Why would they though? Her and her brother both have cars and haven't been paying for their own parking spaces in the complex and have nothing in writing allowing them to park in spaces that are clearly reserved for 'future residents'.

New rule went into effect May 10th and she didn't get towed until the 23rd. He should be grateful it was her car and not his IS that ended up in the lot and all he had to do was drive down a 'rocky' road.

Man up, call it a day and move on.

 

Oh I agree, which is why I said give it a try. Hell she might not have been on time with rent, I assumed that

Never hurts to ask!

 

took the words right outta my mouth

 

Best of luck, good to be leaving there.

 

BS tax, be glad they did not damage the car and move on, don't park cause it is convenient, park where your car is safe

 

Well it definitely wasn't just us parking in those future resident spots. Many other residents did too, actually i'll say they still do since there's a couple right now without permits parked. Even employees of the apartment complex try and get spots there after they closed up. It wasn't only us that was told it was fine to park there after hours, it was known throughout the whole complex, in fact i believe they sent out a newsletter last year that said it was fine as long as cars are moved during leasing office hours. Obviously, had anyone in her apartment received a notice saying otherwise, we wouldn't have parked there.

Although she's gonna try it, i don't think the fact that she paid her rent on time for 1.5 years is gonna matter to management, they just really don't care if we got the notice or not.


Actually that's one of the reasons she parked her car there. Not just cuz its safer for the car, but for her too. Its much closer and safer than her having to park down the street and walk to the apartment complex late night or early in the A.M. if shes leaving early for class or something. Across the street, cars have been egged and on occasion people actually leave their trash on peoples cars. It's not even a bad area, its just a handful of stupid people seem to be around.

 

+1