Arizona resident sues HOA over fines...and wins!

How much is your fine for overnight parking? Although your homeowner might have won this case it would be interesting to see if he'd make the same argument if they'd fined and towed. I wonder if he considered the cost of towing in making his "minimizing financial impact" argument.

At my old association it would be cheaper to take three days of fines than to pay for one day's fine plus towing and storage. Our towing company charged $120 for the hook and $25 per day for storage. The standard assessment for violations was $50. In this scenario you'd park for three nights on the street and get $150 in fines. Park for one night and get towed, $50 (fine) plus $145 tow/storage = $195 plus the hassle of getting your car back. I'd take the ticket.

Cases like this drive me crazy. The homeowner clearly violates rules or covenants and because of some oversight by management or the Board, it ends up in court and gets dismissed or in this case, the HOA looses. I guess that wrong isn't wrong if all of the I's are not dotted and T's crossed. The worst part is the smug attitude of the victor that follows. Will he illegally park again? Probably so.

Steve,

I also agree with the Judge. Failure on the HOA and the management company's part to do this correctly.

Here are the answers the questions:

Dennis:

The fines start at $50 and increase by $50 for each offense. So, night two is $100, night three is $150 etc. Also, if there are two cars parked, it works like this- night one is $50 for car 1 and $100 for car 2- night two is $100 and $150, night three is $200 and $250. So if there were three nights in a row with 2 cars, the total fine for all three nights would be $150 (night 1) + $250 (night 2) + $450 (night 3) which equals $950 for the three nights.

In this case these were his guest’s cars, so I guess the homeowner figured he would not be paying the tow and storage anyway- so a single night’s fine would be cheaper for him. I personally think the fines are too much for this kind of offense.

Roger:

As far as the board and attorney droping the ball- I don’t think the board even considered it would be a true contractual obligation to tow- I think they just considered it a good threat! (nobody wants their car towed) In reality I have never seen them actually tow anyone.
I know the board and the attorney felt they were on solid ground to fine, that is what I found so interesting about this case. I would have never thought of that legal argument!

Mary:

This is a single family area, patio homes that are not connected. The streets are private and belong to the community.

The association has a regular attorney, but they turned this matter over to State Farm (our insurance co) who used attorney Rosa Deriux. BTW- this was not settled, it actually went to court as the HOA would not agree to drop the fines.

Here is the exact language in the rules:

Parking: No overnight parking is permissible without the written approval of ----------(HOA). A written request must be submitted…(next few sentences are N/A)
Overnight parking is defined as between the hours of 1:00am and 6:00am. Violators of this resolution will have their cars towed.

As authority for the fining part, the board used the general provisions in the CC&R’s which state that the board can fine for all violations with a $50 to $500 per occurrence.

I think all the board has to do in the future is change the language to reflect that the board MAY tow, not that they WILL. Thoughts?

RZ,

Thx for the additional info. Am I correct in thinking this is a board adopted rule and not a CCR restriction?

IMO, the judge was totally wrong in his decision. An HOA has no authority to tow on a public street; this can only be done by the P.D. Any HOA attorney worth his salt would advise the BOD of this. For the judge to base his decision on the fact that the HOA should have towed the vehicle is totally wrong. But this is a classic example of a judge ruling on an HOA issue but not understanding or knowing anything about HOAs. Was this a small claims (justice) court case?

On the other hand I do believe the fines were excessive and should not have been levied for 3 consecutive days. Also I wonder if the h/o was given an opportunity to meet with the BOD b/4 fines were levied; that is a state law requirement.

You should check your county/city land office. Another alternative, and far more easier, would be to check the governing documents of your Association. If one of the purposes of the Association is to maintain the streets, it is typically private vs. public.


Check your county/city ordinances on towing. For my county, the one sign at the entrance of a private road is all that is required. Since you indicated that their is a sign at the entrance of your parking area, I suspect that this might be the case for your area as well.

Expecting that your Association has followed the city/county towing laws, and that the parking area is controlled by the Association, the answer would be yes they could tow your car if it was unauthorized.


When you purchased the home in your Association you should have been given a copy of the governing documents and rules and regulations (basically your copy of the contract you entered into). You need to determine if the letter that was sent was informing you of a new guideline or an existing guideline. If the guideline about towing already existed, then the letter was a simple courtesy and it doesn't matter if you received it or not as you got a copy of the rules when you purchased.

If the guideline is new and the letter was informing you of it, the sign at the front of the street that you mentioned earlier, would probably relieve the Association from sending the letter. Of course, this will depend on the wording of your governing documents.

As for your question "How am I supposed to know", the sign at the front of the street and wording in the rules/regs you previously received would be how you should know about it.


Again, check your governing documents first as this will probably answer your question. Most town home developments own the parking area. Expecting that your development is typical, then this is probably true in your case as well but your governing documents will tell you for sure.

If your not sure about the rules, send a letter to your board asking for clarification.


There are many people that do not like the look of vehicles parked on the street. I'm not one of them but my co-worker is. We all just need to remember that someone else's tastes and opinions may differ from my own. However, we can't discount those tastes or opinions on that basis alone.


Good. The best way to "fight" is to become involved in the running of the Association. This can be done by volunteering for committees, special projects or running for the board. The easiest way to be involved is to attend the board meetings (not just the annual membership meeting) and listen to the issues. It's possible that there are underlying reasons behind a decision that just isn't published to the membership.

Welcome to the site.

Tim