Entitled dude demands his next door neighbor move her car from her own driveway at 7:30 AM so a construction crew could work on his house: 'When I asked about notice, he said he was giving me notice right now.'

Am I the bad guy for pushing back on my neighbor’s unexpected street closure?

At around 7:30 a.m., someone from their construction crew knocked on my door and told me I needed to move my car from my own driveway because they were about to start work on the house next door and the street and access in front of my house would be blocked for the day.

This was the first notice I’d received. There had been no heads-up from my neighbor or the contractor, no signs posted in advance, and apparently no permits in place for obstructing the street/right-of-way.

I tried to talk to the team working and got no explanation of exactly how long the street would be blocked, where residents were supposed to park, or how access to our homes would be handled. After 15 min of confusion, the homeowner came out and condescendingly told me I had to get out of the way. When I asked about notice, he said he “was giving me notice right now.”

What especially bothered me was the attitude of the guy telling me this. He wasn’t apologetic or even slightly abashed their private construction project was going to disrupt access and impact the while street. It was presented as though this was simply my problem to accommodate, rather than a significant inconvenience they were imposing on their neighbors with zero advance notice. The audacity was beyond!

At this point I’m standing in his driveway, asking what the heck is happening, while he’s telling me that I’m unreasonable to be upset. I was pretty upset, so worried I overreacted.

I moved my car, but I was pretty annoyed by the assumption that everyone on the street could just rearrange their day because their concrete crew had arrived. My bigger concern is that if you’re doing work that requires occupying/blocking a public street, parking area, or access to neighboring homes, that should presumably be planned and communicated ahead of time — particularly if permits and traffic-control arrangements are required.

I’m in Oakland, CA. I’ve since looked into the city rules, and there appear to be permitting and traffic-control requirements for construction that obstructs the public right-of-way, as well as advance posting requirements when street parking is being restricted.

I left a note for my neighbor saying that going forward I expect advance notice if their work is going to interfere with street parking or access to my property, and that the appropriate permits/signage need to be in place.

To make matters worse, it’s a neighborhood with narrow windy streets with significant fire danger. They’ve potentially block all emergency vehicles. I also had a procedure last week, and am not in a position to jump up first thing in the morning and accommodate their demands.

Am I being unreasonable here? Is showing up the morning of and telling neighbors to move their cars — without so much as apology — actually normal for residential construction?