Covenants restricting large vehicles

Helen,

You can't stop someone from filing a legal action against the Association, just as a member cannot stop the association from filing a legal action against them. It's part of the risk taken when doing enforcement.

If the street is not part of the members lot, then that covenant wouldn't apply to anything parked on the street anyway. This is because the covenant specifies "on the driveway or in the yard of any lot . . ." Oops.

If the streets are privately owned, the Board could probably pass a resolution to ban various vehicles from parking overnight (by the way it's best to use between the hours of x and y instead of the generic "overnight" as that has it's own issues associated with it). If the streets are public, you may or may not be able to adopt a policy. However, there might be city/county laws that are applicable.

If your concerned about losing a legal challenge on the trailer, spend some money and run the issue through your attorney for an opinion. In my mind, I see no difference between a cargo trailer and a utility trailer. Based on the covenant you cited, you will likely have a harder time forcing the farm equipment to be moved because that covenant doesn't prevent tractors from being parked there (that's after you address the "street" issue).

A case of a boiler plate covenant that isn't really suited for the development. If there is enough land to farm, then farming equipment should have been considered.

The other option is to use this issue to amend the covenants and rewrite that section to something like:

Boats, trucks larger than 3/4 ton, any trailer, commercial vehicles, mobile homes, pickup trucks with camper bodies and any equipment used for farming shall not be parked overnight on the driveway or in the yard of any lot so as to be visible from the street or on the streets of the Association.

I know it's not exactly what you wanted to hear but I hope it helps,

Tim

I know here in Texas, a trailer can not be parked on the street if it's not hooked up to a vehicle and it can't be blocking anyone's driveway or impeding the sidewalk. You might check with your city code compliance or police on this. Don't know if this helps you at all. If other neighbors don't want this, and it's not clear in your documents, then try an making amendment to your Restrictions with specific language prohibiting it.