Time limit for violations

Good evening group.....Another meeting with rv parking issues...hopefully this will be the last ?? My situation is as follows--- The BOD has passed a Rule stating RV'S must be enclosed in a building OR stored in the storage area provided by the HOA.....People who do not want to store their RV'S or build a building have been fined $5.00 per day for the violation..... Up to $1000.00 total for the violation.Now my question is ----- Should there be a defined time period for them to comply with the Rule or do you just keep letting them pay the $5.00 per day and still be in violation ? It makes no sense to me to allow someone to just pay a fine but not have to comply with the Rule..Why then even bother having a Rule ?? Thoughts and suggestions PLEASE as I know my next task when I chair the Appeals Commitee will be to have to deliver the bad news...... Thanks as always for your help LindaC

Linda, the following is from R&Rs we wrote which may help:
"When a violation is not corrected within the specified time limit, an initial fine of $50.00 is assessed. If a violation is not corrected, subsequent citations may be issued and the fine will be doubled compared to the previous Demand letter. If necessary the Association shall get a court order to correct the violation and effect corrections required. The owner’s property shall be assessed for all costs involved. This will include, but is not limited to, the costs to correct the violation, fines, fees, attorney fees and court costs."

Ah !! The age old question about RV'S and parking them on residential lots.... Our Deed Restrictions specifically state that RV'S ARE NOT PERMITTED on the lots--- You have to store them in a storage yard provided by the Association for that use...BUT.......For some strange reason- and we had many a post here at HOA Talk about this- Our Deed Rest. contains a section that states the BOD may adopt a Rule of General Application to deal with the RV Issue...The Rule itself may only be "TEMPORARY" .....We wrangled back and forth for over 15 months...YES FIFTEEN MONTHS on this isssue....Caused a major rift in the community......The BOD finally settled on a Rule that you had to have the RV Enclosed in a building...Well most folks here do not want buildings on the land- the cost etc......So we then went back and forth about maybe a landscape rule to "screen" the RV....Well you can only imagine how that went..

So this past Sunday at the BD they went to final vote--- No landscape--- Build a building- or move it...Now mind you - parking the RV in this 40 x 40 - 16 ft high building is only TEMPORARY...because the deed rest...does not allow the RV on the property....So they fined the people $5.00 per day for the violation......We had 15 violations when this all started--- 12 complied- moved the RV to storage- and 3 fought it....The 3 lost--- After Sunday meeting when word got out that the fine was $5.00 per day- more people moved their RV'S out of storage under the assumption that they could "basically" pay $5.00 per day to park the RV on their property...

Well ,you can imagine the ruckus this is now causing.....

The question you may ask is--- Is the Rule Fair ?? Probably not--- I think (personally)it is counterproductive to have Deed Restrictions to state one thing- but then have another Deed Restriction that allows for you to "temporarily" ignore the other Deed Restrictions....Why even bother having Deed Restrictions to begin with........And as always just my humble opinion..But this has caused MANY A NEIGHBOR to DISLIKE MANY A NEIGHBOR---- What a shame .....Linda C

RogerB--- I am in total aggreeance with you on this one...However- our esteemed Attorney for the HOA has stated that the BOD may make a rule to deal with the parking of rv's....... I feel like you do--- How can you have a rule that in essence violates the Deed restrictions.....LINDAC

Hello all:

Here is our rule:

4.10 Recreation and work vehicles and trailers. These vehicles are not to be parked in the street nor otherwise stored in sight per the CC&Rs.
- Three day notice to correct problem.
- $25 daily fine begins on Day 4, plus administrative charges.
- Daily fine increases to $50 on Day 10
- Day 16 the Association may have the item removed at lot owner's expense, minimum $100 charge, and/or refer the matter to the Association's attorney for legal action.
- Repeat violations will begin with the $25 daily fine and administratvie charges, wtihout notice, and follow the same steps outlined above, with the daily fine increasing to $50 on Day 7.

It has been very effective. Since we do have some "snowbirds" in our community, we ask them to notify the office when they will be loading/unloading and to minimize the time in the community.

We have an "upscale" neighborhood (minimum prices are around $350k for a townhome or condo, up to $1.5M for the highest priced single-family homes. You might need to adjust your scale according to your community. The lower daily fine, followed by a higher daily fine seems to help keep the violations to a minimum as well.

It may be worthwhile to price out the cost of RV storage in your areas and then adjust the fines so that it's worthwhile to store off-site.

J. Patrick Moore, CMCA

Was your attorney's opinion based on this rule, or given before they made the rule? Your board does nave the authority to assess reasonable fines, but not based on unallowed "rules".
Sounds like your board needs decisive leadership; instead they have created a devisive brouhaha in your HOA that will probably not heal for quite a while. Require they build a "temporary" building for storage? The $5 a day fine would be cheaper. At least while they are on the road with their RV they won't have to pay the fine and the neighbors won't have to always look at a 16 ft building.
They should have enforced the CC&Rs as written and told the members if they want them changed to go the proper route.
Maybe your board could require they dig 16 foot pits to hide their RVs? Oops! That would be exceeding their authority too. Harold

This means that no RV can be on the property, either on the street, or in a building built for that purpose.

The only rule that would work in this case is a rule that allows an RV to park in front of the residence for up to 24 hours for the purpose of loading and unloacking.

We have that rule. It is very reasonable and gives consideration to the fact that owners have to load supplies from their home into the RV and unload their dirty laundry when they return.