Tenant Parking in the Common Driveway

[Jeff Jenner]

Hi All,

We own a triplex in a Chicago suburb that has 4 parking spaces in the rear that are accessed by a common driveway. One of the tenants keeps parking their car in the driveway for any length of time, sometimes over night. We have a no parking in the driveway clause in their lease, and we have asked them repeatedly to not do this over the last year. 

What else can we legally do as landlords to stop this? Or, what might help mitigate? We can write official letters, but I feel that has to be backed up by something with teeth (i.e. towing). Se did some research on towing and this seems to have a lot of legalize attached to it. Ugh>

Jeff

[Peter S.]

@Jeff Jenner, what part of Chicago?  At my properties I have a towing company handle all my parking issues.  Some locations have stickers so they tow cars with no stickers automatically, other locations we call them when we see an illegally parked car.  

Tow company will put up signs and give a grace period of maybe 3-7 days.  In that grace period you give all tenants a letter stating that the tow company will be monitoring the lot and any issue they need to talk to the tow company.  You specifically state where they can park and where they can't.  When they see a sign with a tow fee of $250+ tenants start thinking differently.  And if tenants find out that someone got towed, everyone else pays attention to the rules next time.