Can I park Here?
April 4, 2010 8:21 AM   Subscribe

It costs me ~$60 per month to rent a parking spot in my apartment's lot but my apartment building is neighbored by a shopping plaza with a fairly large parking lot. Local businesses and a few big name franchise establishments (such as a coffee shop and grocery store) reside here. What's to stop me from canceling my apartment parking spot rental and simply park my car in the plaza lot when I need to?

At most my car would be parked for a period of 18 hours before I use it, and consequently when I return, I'd shift it to another spot in the plaza. There is no signage indicating that I may not park my car for extended periods of time. I would obviously avoid the spots which have been reserved exclusively for customers of a particular store.

I am located in the GTA in Ont, Canada if this makes a difference. Please disregard convenience (especially in the winter-time) from your responses as it is equally convenient for me to walk to my vehicle in the plaza as compared to in my apartment lot.
posted by FusiveResonance to Travel & Transportation (20 answers total)
 
it's private property. nothing is stopping them from seeing you as a non-customer/freeloader and towing your car after a while. I would try parking there for a while to check out if they say anything before I'd cancel my spot.
posted by krautland at 8:24 AM on April 4, 2010


There is some simple math here.

Let's say getting your car back, if it is towed, costs $180.

That would have purchased you three worry-free months at your apartment's lot.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.



I used to work at a museum with a lot much like the one you describe. The museum would tow the cars that were there overnight. It wasn't like moving from one part of the lot to the other afforded any stealth.
posted by fake at 8:27 AM on April 4, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yeah, local businesses sometimes take under-the-table kickbacks from tow truck operators to contract with them to tow unattended cars after business hours, or after a set time (4 hrs or so). Then you pay the tow company the tow fee and the impound fee, which is going to total up to a few hundred.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:28 AM on April 4, 2010 [1 favorite]


What if you asked the owner of the shopping center to officially rent a spot? If they have all the extra space, they may give you a better deal.
posted by JuiceBoxHero at 8:34 AM on April 4, 2010 [2 favorites]


In the distant past, a friend and I once successfully left a car parked in a distant corner of a major shopping center for some weeks until he could afford to get it fixed.

I think some of this depends on how vigilant the shopping center needs to be. For instance, I live in a college town, and there are a couple of shopping plazas I know of that tow aggressively because if students use them as parking, it can be hard for customers to find a spot. It hurts business. If the shopping center near you doesn't have that kind of problem, they might not have invested the money to have non-customers' cars towed, and you might be all right.
posted by not that girl at 8:35 AM on April 4, 2010 [1 favorite]


Well, I grew up in Kansas City, where there were a lot of big free parking lots, and where this sort of thing would have gone completely unnoticed (or uncared about). And in that situation, proprietors of the local businesses, asked this question, would shrug and say "As long as he doesn't think I'm responsible for the safety of his car."

...which, I think, is probably the real reason that your apartment offers parking. It's not a racket; it's an option for you to a) always know you have a spot, no matter what, and b) keep it away from the riff-raff.

If you don't care about that stuff, then the major issue would be to keep your car looking clean and non-suspicious. Also, don't park it in spots that are likely to be envied by the shoppers or the people who work there.

In New York or LA, it's a given that anyone trying this would eventually get towed. But those are cultures of car-towing and expensive parking. There are plenty of regions that have cultures of people not even thinking that hard about who owns the ground they're parking on, because there's so much space.
posted by bingo at 8:43 AM on April 4, 2010 [1 favorite]


What everyone has said above re: private property and towing expenses. Also, as someone who has rented a parking spot in the GTA for the past 9 years, (depending on where you are exactly) $60 is an absolute steal.
posted by meerkatty at 9:15 AM on April 4, 2010


If there is a mall security guard, bring him a coffee and hint if it would be an issue. The a coffee every so often. But some places are real psycho about spaces.
posted by sammyo at 9:55 AM on April 4, 2010


Grand Theft Auto?

Greater Toronto Area.
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 10:10 AM on April 4, 2010


What's to stop them from towing you?
posted by 6:1 at 10:38 AM on April 4, 2010


The only way I can see it working is if you take note of where the graveyard shifts park their cars. i.e. go there at night, see where the remaining cars are, check if they have any sort of parking permit displayed.

Are you sure there isn't a residential road nearby (un-metered with no parking restriction signs) where you could just park on the street.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 11:43 AM on April 4, 2010


Two questions to ask yourself:
"What will I do with the $60 I save each month?"
"Is that worth more to me than having a secure spot to park my car?"
posted by 2oh1 at 12:06 PM on April 4, 2010


What's to stop you? Nothing, really - as long as you're up for the consequences mentioned. But, about the legality? Would that matter? That's still private property, and you'd be parking on it illegally. So, would morality be a consideration? It's just not the right thing to do, unless you ask for permission first.

So, say you don't have the ability to do this legally. I'd say that aside from taking up space on someone's property (Say, like someone hanging around your apartment for free all day because, hey - you're not using it while you're at work...) you'd be stealing in the way you'd be taking space the plaza provides for someone who would potentially use it to patronize the businesses. In the winter, lots need to be clear for plowing. Just because it's not personal space doesn't mean it doesn't belong to someone. Just because it doesn't seem that wrong doesn't mean it's a good thing to do.

So, providing your conscience can bear that (and, I don't mean to sound like a judgy jerk, but I've worked in small businesses where things like that matter and I try really really hard not to do stuff like that as a good example for my kid), if it's an Impark lot, the ticket you receive could be issued for a fee higher than what the city would set.

And if there's any place on a street that seems like it would be okay, even without signs, you still can't park for more than three hours. As someone who pays the city to jockey for street parking, all I can say is that you can shop around for cheaper parking, but it's almost never free. That's one of the many odious and unfortunate costs of living in this city. So, ask an authority first. Look for cheaper parking. Use Zip cars or Auto share. I'd say use the TTC, but we all know that stand for "Take The Car".
posted by peagood at 1:45 PM on April 4, 2010


Response by poster: Peagood:

In the winter, lots need to be clear for plowing.

I wouldn't park in the plaza lots in the winter as then, I would park in the underground lot. $60 is worth it to have my car free of snow each morning. This is the reason why I initially asked for winter to be disregarded from the discussion.



I've worked in small businesses where things like that matter

I'd understand your situation in a smaller business with a small lot, but this lot is definitely quite large for the number of car owners which frequent it. I've never seen this lot at max capacity.
posted by FusiveResonance at 3:22 PM on April 4, 2010


I'd do it in a pinch but wouldn't count on it for full-time parking privileges.
posted by pintapicasso at 3:27 PM on April 4, 2010


What's to stop me from canceling my apartment parking spot rental and simply park my car in the plaza lot when I need to?

Ethics.*

*Unless you're strictly only going to be parking there during non-business hours.
posted by schmod at 3:39 PM on April 4, 2010


i knew someone who did this (although not in a mall; in a place where he rented a studio space) and it wasn't worth the angst he'd always go through wondering if they were going to tow him.
posted by sdn at 6:12 PM on April 4, 2010


I work at a grocery store, and we don't have signs of any sort in the lot limiting when/how long you can park. Nevertheless, if you leave your car there more than a day or two, without permission, we will call the towing company and you will be towed. Do we get kickbacks from the company? No.
posted by Slinga at 6:14 PM on April 4, 2010


Maybe I have too much on my mind but having to remember exactly where I parked each night (since every night will be different) and having that moment of panic when my car is not where I thought I parked it, would not be worth $60 personally.
posted by saucysault at 7:51 PM on April 4, 2010


I did this in Waterloo for a time. In my case the condo didn't have very much additional parking available0. I offered to pay the manager of a local pizza chain for use of one or two spots per month. They declined payment and agreed to let me park there in writing, on the condition that we take the crappiest spots in the lot (which were also closest to my place anyway) and that they be my default pizza providers. That parking spot was actually closer to my apartment than some of the on-site options, and gave me a wonderful excuse to gorge myself on pizza.

I used to get blocked in regularly by the plows in the winter but that doesn't sound like an issue for you.

In retrospect my plan could have backfired. My direct approach could have alerted them to my plan but being on a first name basis with the management team of a pizza place resulted in a few free pies and no tickets or towings. Maybe try that with a store or two? I know the big box stores in Waterloo have security and parking enforcement for this sort of thing. That might be a practice unique to university towns.
posted by KevCed at 9:14 AM on April 5, 2010


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