Resident finds out neighbor has been secretly renting out their parking spot while they travel for work: 'She had been giving a cut to the building HOA'

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• After hearing the full story, the weirdest part, honestly, is not even the secret parking side hustle itself. It is how casually the neighbor seemed to treat the entire thing, like monetizing somebody else’s property without permission was just a slightly creative use of free space. What started as a simple favor between neighbors slowly turned into random strangers cycling through the parking lot, money changing hands behind the scenes, and, apparently, even the HOA getting involved somehow. So by the time the resident realized what had actually been happening during all those work trips, the situation had already crossed far beyond “misunderstanding” territory and fully entered “what is wrong with these people?” territory.

• AITA for confronting my neighbor after I found out she was renting out my parking spot while I traveled for work

  
  I travel for work pretty often, sometimes gone for a week or two at a time. My neighbor, I'll call her Diane (she's in her 40s), knew my schedule and would occasionally ask if she could use my spot for guests or whatever. I always said yes, no big deal.

  Came back early from a trip last month and there's a random car in my spot. I brought it up to Diane and she said it was her cousin visiting. Fine whatever.

  Then my other neighbor casually mentioned he'd seen different cars parked there pretty regularly while I was gone and joked that Diane must have a LOT of cousins. That stuck with me so I set up a small camera facing the lot.

  Turns out she had been listing my spot on one of those parking apps the entire time. Like actively making money off it, we're talking $15 to $20 a day in a pretty busy area near downtown. I had some money put aside so it wasn't like I was hurting financially, but she was straight up running a side hustle on something that belongs to me without ever asking.

   

  I confronted her and she got defensive immediately, said I "wasn't using it anyway" and acted like I was being unreasonable for even bringing it up. I asked her to stop and said I wanted some kind of compensation for however long she'd been doing this. She called me petty and now a couple neighbors think I overreacted because apparently she had been giving a cut to the building HOA??? Like that somehow makes it okay???

  AITA for pushing back on this

  -Beginning_Cycle_509

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• Once the resident explained the full situation online, people immediately became way more focused on the neighbor’s attitude than the parking spot itself. Plenty of commenters pointed out that borrowing somebody’s unused space occasionally is one thing, but secretly turning it into a paid side business without permission is a completely different level of entitlement. And the fact that the HOA may have known about it somehow only made the entire situation feel even stranger. Naturally, the comments quickly turned into a mix of legal advice, neighbor horror stories, and people questioning how anybody thought this arrangement would stay hidden forever.

• Pomelo9

  No. If the HOA is getting a cut, you definitely should have been.

• Icy-Till1796

  HOA needs to refund you a % of the cost of the space.

• Ok-Dealer4350

  If you are flying out on these trips, uber/lyft to the airport and leave your vehicle. That would be the end of her side hustle.

• modifiziert_

  Keep the camera on your spot, and call the tow truck on every single car you see parking there. Also maybe try and report her to the app that rents these spaces out because it’s not her property? Maybe even some legal action against the HOA.

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• InannasPocket

  NTA. There's a big difference between using a spot for an occasional guest with permission and turning your spot into a side hustle without permission, compensation, any attention to potential liability, or close attention to your schedule (car still parked there when you return).

  I'm sure in some way you are paying for this spot, it's sh*tty of her to profit off that without even talking to you about it and proposing some sort of deal. 

• CorrectOpinionsFound

  Bylaws exist for a reason. Look them up, consult with an attorney, and have the lawyer draft a stern letter demanding reimbursement and to cease and desist any further rentals to her and the HOA. How much money are we talking about so far?

• Situations like this are exactly why so many people become skeptical of neighbors, HOAs, and “friendly favors” over time. What probably started as a harmless arrangement slowly turned into somebody else making money off property that was never theirs to monetize in the first place. And once trust disappears in a living situation, even small interactions suddenly start feeling uncomfortable and transactional afterward.

  Hopefully, the resident at least managed to shut the whole thing down before the parking spot turned into a fully operational neighborhood business venture. Because if someone is bold enough to secretly rent out your parking space for weeks, it really makes you wonder what other bizarre side hustles people would try if nobody ever called them out.

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