Commecial Vehicles

Our Rules and Regulations state "Commercial vehicles are not premitted within the property, other than temporarily, unless maintained entirely within the enclosed garage. Commercial vehicles shall not include standard size sedans or standard size pickup trucks which are used both for business and personal use, provided that any signs or making of a commercial nature on such vehicles shall be unobstrusive and inoffensive as determined by the Board."

Nothing is our CCR's prohibit commercial vehicle. Would it be reasonable to prohibit commercial vehicles in general if not addressed in the CCR's. I believe a more reasonable rule would be prohibiting vehicles over a specific length due to inequate space in front of one's unit.

Tim is right..

In California, be careful about banning "commercial vehicles" in a broad stroke, because every standard pickup truck is a commercial vehicle, by DOT regs. So, try to phrase your rules to do what you want, specifically, (length, gross tons, etc.). and not just broad statements.

When you say "your intent"... is this something you have community support for?

So, is a license plate frame from a car dealer enough to make it a commercial vehicle? Per the law, it is an advertising sign and or a logo, and it is NOT a sticker.

Also, the Ford/TOyota/Chevy/Dodge emblems on a car or truck also make a vehicle illegal to park. Once again, that Ram's head on your truck is a LOGO, and it is not a sticker. Bye bye to everything that has a metal or plastic logo, embossing, or plate.

What exactly can park under this law?

This sounds like someone is confusing what the definition of a Commercial Vehicle is with any vehicle that advertises/or provides a service - which in my opinion is wrong, as they are classified differently by a DMV

In our case, the CCR's are silent on any reference to commercial vehicles. The CCR's give the Board the authority to create Parking and No Parking Areas. The reference to commercial vehicles is in our Rules and Regulations, and only in a general form.

JenniferM10: You say::
Frankly, these rules annoy me. Unless you live in a very upscale neighborhood, we all have to work. Why put rules in place that take away an employee's privileged of using a company car, or prevent a small business owner in the neighborhood from advertising on their vehicle? I understand a weight limit, to prevent damage to streets, but what's the big deal with having a decal on a car or a ladder on a truck. We want everyone to pay their dues, but we don't want to know how they earn the money? Does evidence of a blue collar job offend us? Seems silly.

Maybe I'll be slammed for this but:::::::::::::
Our homes run between 230k, and 250k, which by no means makes ours an upscale community. However it should not mean we should permit companies to use our common areas as a commercial parking lot. No matter how small a community, when guest visit a homeowner where commercial vehicles are permitted to park throughout the common area it has a negative look. Upscale or not.

We have "NO" commercial vehicles parking on our common areas, and we have over 400 parking spaces.

Our HOA strictly enforces the rules/regulations below:::::

Whereas, it has come to the attention of the Board of Directors that there is a problem at the Association concerning not only the manner in which members and their guests park vehicles on the common areas of the Association, but the type of vehicles that are parked at the Association.

Now, Therefore the Board of Directors hereby adopts the following rules and regulations to prohibit the parking of certain types of vehicles and to establish penalties if said vehicles are parked on Association property.

IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, that the following vehicles are prohibited from parking on the common areas of the Association;

1) Untagged vehicles (expired tags)
2) Commercial Vehicles having stenciled lettering, and or numbers. (phone, etc), or trucks over ¾ tons in size.
3) Oversized Vehicles as defined by the Board of Directors. At the present time, this includes, but is not limited to, cement mixer trucks, trucks with the ladders extending past the length of the truck and dump trucks.
4) Motor Homes or other Vehicles that are over twenty feet in length. Boats, Boat trailers, or work trailers of any type.

Sorry for the long read:

Jim

If you do the research, everyone classifies and defines commercial vehicles differently. VA DMV defines commercial vehicles one way, the state of VA, defines them another way, then Fairfax County defines them another way and then the various HOAs in our area define them their way. Whenever a resident has a commericial vehicle, he also has a personal vehicle as well. County zoning only requires 2.3 spaces per household and that includes the garage and the driveway. We have several residents that have 1 and 2 commercial vehicles as well as 3 personel cars. 5 cars in for one small townhouse?... That's nuts.
Today and even back 22 years ago, when our community was built, the community was never designed to accomodate all these cars and trucks. Personnally, if you have a business and a commercial vehicle, it needs to be parked in a commercially zoned area, not a residential area. Many of these trucks were getting broken into and many of them were owned by people that don't even live in our community. Since other single family areas prohibit parking commercial vehicles, folks from other communities were parking their commercial vehicles in our community.

I see what you are saying - However a Commercial Vehicle in Fairfax County is essentially the same, what Fairfax did was reduce the weight and length requirements - but overall supports the States definition of a Commercial Vehicle

I hope html mark-up works:

http://www.dmv.virginia.gov/webdoc/citizen/drivers/whatiscdl.asp
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/fcdot/parkingcodechanges.htm
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/commercial/cvra.htm

All-in-all, it is unfortunate that any HOA would bastardize the definition of a Commercial Vehicle.

RichardP13,
One could make that case that if the vehicle doesn't have to be registered with the state of California as a Commercial Vehicle - than said vehicle is not in violation.
However - if the CCR's are going to include ANY vehicle that the state of California doesn't recognize as a Commercial Vehicle - than the definitions needs to be amended to include language that differentiates what a Commercial Vehicle is versus what a vehicle that advertises.

Remember - State law/restrictions supercedes all association governing documents

I hope this mark-up works

http://www.dmv.virginia.gov/webdoc/citizen/drivers/whatiscdl.asp

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/fcdot/parkingcodechanges.htm

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/commercial/cvra.htm

SrvN1

As I originally posted, the CCR's are completely silent on commercial vehicles. We actually have towed commercial vehicles out of the property. The CCR's do prohibit trailers, boats, motor homes, recreational vehicles, inoperable or similar vehicles from being parked on the street or driveways for more than 24 hours.

There is another HOA just up the street from us that was under the same developer using the exact CCR's and Bylaws. Their Rules and Regs do not prohibit commercial vehicles, in fact they are silent. We are both single family homes with private streets and roads. Our association has a little more parking than the other.

In someone's opinion, could we have a problem if the CCR's don't prohibit commercial vehicles, should a Board have created a general rule in the Rules and Regs. I would be more apt to create rules about vehicles based on parking specifications or restrictions based on curb space, within the complex.

SrvN1

Our Rules and Regulations state no commercial vehicles, NOT the CCR's.

Hi Richard

CCR’s will generally hold up in court as they are attached to the property and are agreed upon by the majority of homeowners. Rules and Regulations on the other hand “must” be very reasonable as they are determined by a handful of members. There are a number of court cases where Rules and Regulations did not hold up, because it was a handful of individuals personal discretion.

If you want to get rid of it per the start of this posting then possibly if you believe the majority of members are against, request it be put it to a vote of the membership to be added to CCR’s. When the majority disagrees and votes down, then the R&R would need to be changed or it definitely would not hold up in a court of law.

If you believe majority would vote for having the rule ... then this is not an option to pursue.

Hi Richard:

You are more than welcome … LOL … keep the grand prize just being able to possibly help a fellow HOA member is prize enough for me.