If there's one issue that's bound to spark a row between previously-friendly neighbours, it's parking.
Whether you're parking perfectly, or trying to claim an extra spot on your road, or your neighbour over the road is behaving badly, it can cause tension.
One woman knows this all too well as she's found herself in a spot of trouble with another resident, who is fuming about her parking - and has started putting green stickers on her car to highlight the issue.
Taking to Reddit for unbiased help, the anonymous woman explained that whenever she or any other resident park in a spot technically reserved for hikers, this woman kicks off and has even called her fiancé's workplace to complain.
In a post on Reddit's Legal Advice forum, the woman, from the US, asked for help trying to sort the situation - but people were divided on how to proceed.
She explained: "My fiancé and I have lived in our apartment complex for nearly three years now. The complex is huge, so there's a couple of small lots for extra parking, plus everyone has a garage and a spot in front of their garage.
"My fiancé and I have 3 vehicles since he has a work van, so we always have at least one parked in the small lot at the end of our building.
"This particular lot has two spots with "Reserved for hikers" (nothing about towing) signs, as there is a teeny tiny (0.5mi) trail behind our building.
"The trail is owned by a conservation group that has a number of trails in the area, including a massive preserve literally at the other end of our road - point being, no one uses this tiny trail except for the complex residents.
"For the most part everyone tries not to use the two hiking spots, but occasionally the lot gets full in the evening and people have to park in the two empty spots.
"Considering it's currently winter and there's snow everywhere, plus the trial is closed at night, this should not be an issue. I've seen the conservation's truck come by twice, ever."
But after her fiancé parked in the spot overnight, his company got a call saying that one of their vans was parked illegally on private property and would be towed.
The couple checked in with their apartment office - who told them they don't monitor those spots and had no plans to tow his car.
The situation escalated when he parked there again, and found a note telling him to move, before the woman also phoned his work complaining about him using the space meant for hikers.
After they received a few more notes, the situation escalated as the resident then started leaving stickers on their car - which took more than an hour to remove, leaving the woman afraid of damage to her car.
Explaining the situation, she wrote: "Two weeks ago, I had left my car parked in the hiking spots during a very snowy weekend and came out to find a bright green parking sticker on my windshield right in the middle of the driver's line of sight.
"It said I was parked in reserved area but the "tow by" section was blank. Getting it off was horrid, it took half an hour of scraping plus windex and rubbing alcohol.
"Last night my in laws were staying over, and when we went out to get dinner we noticed a neighbour was parked in the hiker spots and had a note hanging from the rearview mirror saying "If you put another amazon parking sticker on my truck I'll sue you for harassment. You're on camera" Genius.
"We come back from dinner, the only parking spot is the other hiking spot, so FIL parks there. This morning there's the same f****** sticker on their windshield in the same place. Takes just as long to remove.
"Now we're p***** and plotting revenge. The conservation is closed cuz it's Sunday and I'm 99% sure it's not them, but tomorrow I'll call them and our leasing office to cover our bases."
The post finished with her asking what legal options she may have as she tries to stop this woman from putting stickers on their car.
Hundreds of people have since responded to the post, with many divided.
One person wrote: "I would contact the property office after every single incident. If the spots are in their property they will have incentive to stop the harassment. Same with the conservation. Maybe see if they are willing to add hours to the sign (reserved between 8am-8pm or something like that).
"Right now you have no evidence of who is a fault and you are technically breaking the rules."
Another added: "If you park in clearly reserved spots that are reserved for use other than what you park there for, no matter how full the rest of the lot might be, no matter how inconvenient it might be to find some other place to park, you can expect stickers to keep showing up.
"That's like banging your head against a brick wall and then expecting people to listen to you complain about your headache later on.
"You can sue this person for the time and effort it takes to remove the stickers. Set your expectations accordingly."
A third wrote: "If you're not hiking, stop parking in the spots reserved for hikers. This isn't rocket science, and you don't need to be asking how to get revenge. Just stop doing it."
Are you involved in a parking row? Email yourmirror@reachplc.com
