'He taped a $5 bill to my front door': Southwestern homeowner refuses to "rent out" the shade spot on his lawn to a neighbor who insists their car can't be parked in the sun

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Sep 22, 2025 1:00 PM EDT

A homeowner does whatever they please with their land, and that might bother some entitled neighbors who want a piece of their pie, but that's too dang bad!

This guy's neighbor envies the shady spot he has on his lawn and feels like he deserves to park there. Destroying the man's lawn and undermining his authority over his own land, the neighbor continued to push for the shadow parking spot, even attempting bribery. But that wasn't going to work with this homeowner.

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    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Despite the sweltering heat of the Southwestern sun, reaching 110 degrees on the regular, the heat of this fiery argument wouldn't dissipate until someone yielded—and that wasn't about to be the property owner.

    I get it, I get it. It's a bummer to come sit in a hot car when you're getting ready to go somewhere. But if you're not adult enough to buy a sunshade or carport of your own you can't just hike up your tires on someone else's lawn and expect them to be cool with it. Even on the mildest of days, that's bound to get someone's brain boiling with fury.

  • AITA for not letting my neighbor "rent my shadow" during a heatwave?
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  • So this is going to sound made up, but I swear it's real. I live in the southwest US where it gets insanely hot in the summer. I have a
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  • pretty big tree in my front yard that casts a huge patch of shade on the sidewalk and a little bit of the street from late
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  • morning through the afternoon. My neighbor, Leo, doesn't have any trees in his yard and his driveway gets full sun all day.
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  • Last month during a major heatwave (like, 110°F / 43°C every day), Leo started parking his car partially on the edge of my
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  • lawn under the tree. Not fully in my yard, but enough to be annoying tire tracks on the grass, and sometimes he blocked my trash bins or mail.
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  • I asked him nicely to stop, and he got kind of weird about it. He said I don't own the shade and that if the tree naturally covers
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  • public space, he should be able to use it like it's sunlight or rain. He even said half joking, I thought that if I really had a
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  • problem, he'd pay me tree rent for the shade. I laughed it off, but the next day he taped a $5 bill
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  • to my front door with a note that said, This week's shade rent, thanks .And he kept parking there. I told him again I don't want his
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  • car on my lawn at all, and the money doesn't change that. Now he's mad. He said I'm
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  • being uptight, and that most people would share something nature gives them during extreme weather. His wife even
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  • posted on Nextdoor saying some neighbors are selfish about community cooling, and I'm 99% sure that's about me.
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  • I get that it's hot, and I feel for them. But I also think I should be able to keep my lawn from being used as a parking spot, no matter how shady it is.
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  • AITA for not letting my neighbor rent my tree's shade?
    via Powerful-Cow-2658
  • QfromP. Tell him to save his money for a pop-up tent.
    via QfromP
  • 2centsOfucks ⚫ NTA. "Community cooling"? This isn't a community center pool or ACed building; it's your yard, which is your property. Tell them to plant a tree or build a carport.
    via 2centsOfucks
  • CrowMeris . Dear Neighbor: Shade canopies are a thing. Buy one. Or prop up a big tarp on stakes.
    via CrowMeris

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property owner neighbors neighborhood homeowner neighborhood-drama next door neighborhood-stories property reddit thread Bad Neighbor Reddit home neighbor
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