My neighbor is asking for information about my guests?

[Deborah0]

A host shared this a while back, and I thought it would make a good subject for discussion.  

A host, call her Elaine, said that she had a difficult neighbor , call her Rebecca, who gets upset when anyone parks  in front of her house.  Elaine has duly asked her guests to please NOT park in front of Rebecca's house, and has even written that into her house rules.  She says that most all her guests comply.  She also says that all her guests have been quiet and polite ---really no problems.    Then, Elaine had a guest who smoked  cigarettes outside of the unit (since smoking is prohibited inside), after which she received an email from Rebecca, asking that Elaine please have the people smoke INSIDE her house,  because the smoke was wafting into Rebecca's  house with her apparently asthmatic kids and it was too hot for her to close the windows. Elaine then went and  asked her guests to please try not to smoke anywhere near Rebecca's house outside, apologized and gave REbecca  a  bouquet of flowers for the trouble.

Then, a couple weeks later,  a guest parked in front of REbecca's house. Her husband wrote Elaine  a note asking for the names, age, race, number of guests, arrival & departure times, model and makes of the their cars for all guests. Elaine said that she found this outrageous, and wondered how others have dealt with touchy neighbors particularly in the context of all the news in the papers about cities cracking down on Airbnb and nightmare guest stories. Then Elaine asked for suggestions on how to respond.  

What would YOU advise that Elaine do?  

When enough people respond, I will write more about what happened next in this real life situation.  

[Judalon0]

@Duke0DOn't you have a driveway and a garage? I didn't think it was possible to build a house in Los Angeles or most places and not have off-street parking for 1 if not 2 cars. Based on what you are sayng I would make clearing out my garage or driveway to allow me parking on my own property since the street-- in front of your house or not-- is public for first come, first serve. With that said, if I could not work out parking on my property I would bake some cookies & go over and give them the cookies and ask when it would be possible to set up a time to meet with all 6 guests within the next 24-48 hours. Then I'd meet with them and explain that I totally understand the street is not my property, but my partner is 70 yo and the dangers of his crossing the street and point out that they are welcome to park there and more physically fit to cross the street, and could they please help you out. Then nicely slide in that you want to accommodate the neighbor as much as possible, but renting to more than 3 unrelated people violates your local ordinance and you'd hate to have to report the violation because it is impinging on your rights and safety. If you can contact the neighbor I'd basically tell her the same thing & if no one is being more thoughtful within the week then report the situation. Just be prepared that reporting her starts a battle between you so you best have all your property issues in order because you are then open to her looking for things to report you on be it too much stuff in the yard or a boundary line, or some crazy thing. I wish you the best on this.

As a host, I would not want 6 people, family or not, in my home while I was not there to monitor them... much better chance of less damage with 1 or 2 people. Usually, what is not goo d for the neighbors is also not good for the property, so I am shocked when I hear these stories. I want to protect my investment of  my home and 6 people is a lot of use & the amount of money you can charge is not worth it in my opinion.

[Carrie138]

Well out here in Carlsbad california in my hood streets are considered public so annoying as it may be when someone snags a typical spot you park in in front of your own house or even in front of your house there isnt anything really that can be done about it. 

However it is way more courteous to have rentors use your driveway and or even garage if possible than taking up all the parking on the streets which may be very limited in some areas. 

In my opinion the lady Elaine is kind of going too far. Unless there was some sort of damage done to her car by one of theirs etc she doesn't need that sort of info. Besides what can she do with it really?

Maybe i misunderstood the question or what i just read but seems like she would be the type to write down all the plate info lol  

[Carrie138]

REBECCA i meant not Elaine sorry!