Visitor Parking in Virginia

It's all in the CC&Rs. Read them, study them, have the HOA atorney explain them.

If the HOA owns the visitor spaces, it can specify who and what can park there and when and for how long.

Ron is right on target (as usual) when he says that if the HOA owns the spaces, then they have to right to say how they are used. These would be common elements and the board could decide at any time on how they are to be used. If you're in a community with Fee-Simple townhomes (not condo), with a mix of garage and non-garage; no doubt some of the garages have been converted into shops, storage facilities, play rooms, etc. Now many of the zoning and planning authorities have been stuck on the magic number of 2.3 which is the total number or spaces per home in the community. Of course this number includes the space in the driveway and the space in the one car garage. We all know that with house prices in No.Va. comes increased density, more roommates, basements rented out to tenants, and many families have more than 2 cars. Some communities restrict the visitor spaces to visitors only, some have time limits, and some just have jungle rules (first come first served). Most often the builder doesn't rock the boat and if you have a set of boiler plate builder docs that were written in the 80's or 90's, more than likely, the builder just left them open to everyone. While the zoning office might have something to say if someone converted a garage into living area or some of other business pursuit; it's a fact that many garages just don't get utilized, while the non-garage suffer due to the fact that the garage owners park all their cars in the visitor spaces.

The Board can pass a simple resolution and change the parking rules for the visitor spaces (see an attorney on this). You may also want to talk to one of the 4-5 impound (towing companies) in Northern Va (if that's where you are) and ask them about a sticker system. Most of them will provide the stickers and registration process in exchange for an enforcement agreement whereby the impound company monitors the spaces.

We tried a compromise system whereby it more or less keeps the honest people honest, it's very difficult to monitor and subject to abuses.

I have seen many of the newer documents in the new communities in this area, as well as Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia; and what I'm finding are some well written documents where they force residents to use their garages and they prevent people from turning their garage into a glorified storage bin. Some documents (and I suspect that these are condo-garage), even call for garage inspections. I'd like to see our documents amended to mirror some of these newer docs and right now we're in the process of having our attorney completely review all of our CCRs', Docs', resolutions etc., in order to make sure that they are up to date and comply with all current laws. There's got to be a simple solution for this some time in the future. If anyone has any ideas on this.. I'm all ears.

MikeD13,

Welcome to the Forum,

This is a three year old thread.

Typically, it's best not to reactivate old threads. This is because laws change and what was good advice then may not be applicable now. Adding advice based on current law to an old thread can confuse people reading the thread.

Therefore, it's best to start a new topic (rather than reactivate an old thread).

Tim