An apartment lease is a legal document that both landlord, management and tenants need to comply with.
One Redditor found themselves in a difficult spot when a disabled woman moved into their building and expected them to pick up the slack when management failed to provide the accommodations promised to her.
They did not feel responsible so they turned to the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit for moral judgment on their choice to stand their ground.
Redditor itsmyparkingspot asked:
“AITA for refusing to give my parking spot to a disabled woman?”
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
“I live in an apartment building that comes with 1 spot in a parking garage. My spot is the one closest to the elevator.”
“Two weeks ago the apartment manager came to talk to me and asked if I would be willing to give up my spot since a disabled woman was moving in.”
”I said sure—I would be happy to switch spaces. He said I misunderstood—he was asking me to give up a space in the garage entirely.”
“He explained she used a van with a powered ramp—that she would need 2 spaces to be able to use it.”
”I told him I would not give up my space. I pointed out to him that the parking spot was part of my lease.”
“Last week I came home and there was a large van with disabled plates parked next to my spot.”
”I pulled in, parking as far from it as I could. The next day I get a call from a woman about 7:30am—she said that she was the owner of the van needed me to move my car.”
“I wasn’t happy—I had still been asleep, but I went down to move my car. She did the same thing the next 3 days.”
“The next morning (a Saturday) she called me at 5:30am—and I told her she had to be kidding.”
”I went down and told her that I don’t wake up normally until 8:30am and I would appreciate it if she didn’t call before then. She told me that she had plans and not to be a jacka**.”
“I reminded her that I was doing her a favor by coming down.”
“That evening (5:30pm) when I got home the van was parked partially in my space so that I couldn’t use it. I had her number so I called.
“When she picked up she said something snarky like ‘isn’t it annoying to have to wait on someone’.”
”I told her the difference was I could have her towed and if she wasn’t down here in 5 minutes I would.”
“She told me I wouldn’t dare and hung up on me. I waited the 5 minutes and called the tow company.”
”It took the company about 30 minutes to get there and tow the van from my space. She never came down.”
”She calls at 6:30pm. I picked up and she started screaming.”
“I just hung up on her. She called back, still screaming. I hung up again.”
”About 30 minutes later I get a knock on the door and she and the apartment manager are there. She asked me what hell I was thinking having her van towed.”
“I told her that is what I am supposed to do if my space is blocked and I did warn her first.”
”The apartment manager said we needed to come to a compromise. I said that I did not need to compromise.”
“According to my lease I am entitled to a parking spot.”
”I never agreed to be woken up early every day and I certainly never agreed to give up my spot entirely.”
“She said that she was promised a spot she could use. What was she supposed to do?”
”I told her that she needed to work that out with him (pointing at apt mgr) and leave me out of it.”
“I am done running every time she calls. She called me an a**hole as they left.”
“I feel bad. There aren’t any extra spots.”
“It’s one per apartment. This isn’t her fault, but it isn’t mine either.”
“AITA for not making more of an effort to help?”
OP included an edit with more detailed information and an update after commenters inquired.
“Info I should have put in to begin with. There are no additional spaces.”
“It is one space per apartment in the building—with no extras. The way the garage is laid out I don’t see a way to give her extra space without removing one of the spaces.”
“The apartment manager has offered to reduce my rent if I give up my spot entirely.”
“I refused. I live in an area of town that has truly awful parking.”
”I am paying about 30% more for my apartment than a similar one in the same area because I want the parking space. I will not give up my space.”
“The van is back, but now she is backing into the spot. So the ramp is next to the parking space on her other side from me.”
“There is a car parked in that spot.”
”My guess is that she is doing to that person what she did with me, but I don’t know that for sure. The other person might have agreed to it.”
Redditors use one of four acronyms for judgement.
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Redditors decided this OP was NTA, though many pointed out the apartment management sure was.
“NTA. This is completely on the management company for promising her something they do not have available to sell. I have huge empathy for the woman but this is not OPs problem to fix.”
“HOWEVER, it might help her if OP calls the mgmt company out on their sh*tty behavior. Cc her on it.”~ZweitenMal
“NTA, this is some of the best tea I’ve ever read on this sub. The landlord is definitely an a**hole and also handicapped person is the a**hole for expecting you to shoulder all of this responsibility for something that is clearly not your fault or problem.”
“‘You wouldn’t tow my car,’ said by someone about to have their car towed. God damn, I slapped my knee.”~sycarte
“NTA. If this is in the US, it is 100% the responsibility of the apartment owners to provide an ADA-approved accessible parking space. If your complex is like mine, some tool in a Dodge Charger will park in that space every single day.”
“In which case it is also the responsibility of the apartment complex to patrol, especially if there is a resident actually in need of the space at the time.”
“In 0 cases is it the responsibility of some other random resident in the complex to accommodate the needs of the handicapped person. Whether the landlord told her you were cool with this or she just sucks, this is not your problem.”~happydactyl31
This apartment manager is going to need to find a way to come good on their promised accommodations. This OP was done accommodating for them.
