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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The towing company won’t tow your car if you’re parked legally in a public space.

But if there’s any doubt just move your car, why fight with what sounds like it might be a crazy person?[/quote]

I live on a city block where parking is really tough. This area is behind the sidewalk between two townhouses (one of them being mine) and might therefore seem private. According to the DC zoning map the part of it next to my house is not part of any lot. The other half belongs to the other townhouse. However, the person claiming it is theirs does not own or live in either of these two houses. They have just been parking there for years. Yesterday, we left the car there after coming from a long weekend and needing to offload the car and found an anonymous extremely rude threatening note on our windshield asking us to immediately move the car.  I am just wondering how credible this threat is. [/quote]

It's not a credible threat. Weird that some random dude is parking his car between two houses that he doesn't live in!

Install a fold-down parking bollard in the spot: https://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/H-7171/Safety-Guards-Barriers/Fold-Down-Safety-Bollard-45-x-36?pricode=WB6672&gadtype=pla&id=H-7171&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIn9HsoM26hAMVlElHAR2jRwt8EAQYASABEgLIh_D_BwE

If you use the space long enough (15 years), eventually you qualify for adverse possession in DC: https://www.findlaw.com/state/dc-law/district-of-columbia-adverse-possession-laws.html

[/quote]

I spoke to the DC surveyor office and they confirmed this is public space. It used to be a public alley which does not exist anymore, just this area between the two houses remained. Half of it is public and the other half belongs to the townhouse on the other side. I don’t think you can gain adverse possession to public property. [/quote]

In that case I would try to buy the other half of the parcel from the city. Very odd that your neighbor got half the parcel, but your house gets nothing. Your neighbor could start using that parcel in a way you don't like - building a fence, storing junk, etc. - and you would have no recourse. [/quote]

As I said the part next to my house is recorded as public alley. The other half was always part of the lot of the house on the other side. They did not put a fence around though so it now looks like one area for two cars. The reason I started looking into this is that the guy who parks there also started storing his trash there and then pulling it in front of our house on trash day often with loose bags of trash and boxes around the bin which then get kicked around or blown around by the wind. I confronted him about that and now he pulls the cans out after we switch off our lights before trash day and puts them to the side of the other townhouse. [/quote]

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