3rd party "patrol" company parking requirements

Welcome to the forum, Capabel.

Most likely your board of Directors voted to put this policy & patrol company in place. Did you miss that meeting of your Board? If so, request a copy of the approved minutes of that meeting. There might be details there.

Do each of your homes have garages? Double?

Most of us urban high rise condo dwellers have very little (if any!) Visitor Parking spaces. We have 200+ units and 16 VP spaces. Only our guests may park there, not owners. Our kiosk gate security office requires all of the info that your HOA now requires for these guests. But we residents give them the info to "authorize" our guests even getting in the gate. Residents' employees/vendors may not park in these spaces. Visitors may use a space for up to 72 hours.

Apparently your HOA has "extra" parking spaces in your common areas that residents may use. It appears as though your Board is trying to reduce the number of residents who hoard these extra spaces for days or perhaps weeks on end. They have the right do do so and don't need a vote by homeowners in this case.

I am not involved in the legal profession, but at first glance, the only privacy issue that looks like it might be legit to me is the Board's right to enter your garage in a non-emergency. I'm assuming your garage is deeded to you?

Cap

What is you parking situation top down? Meaning private garages, private driveways, open spots, visitor spots only, etc.

While the restrictions might sound tough, under the right conditions they could be easy enough to follow unless someone is trying to beat them like parking/storing cars they do not use, unregistered cars, etc.

Personally I believe towing opens a Pandora's Box and should be a last resort if allowed at all. Some use towing as a first line of defense and they create all types of problems.

Capabel, Mike's post reminds me that in CA, HOAs are required to send proposed rule changes to owners, who have 30 days to comment to the board. Then, the board at a subsequent meeting approves the change or not. Did this happen? Even if it didn't, I don't think there's much you can do except get other owners riled up to speak out at a Board meeting. I have a feeling, though, that the new rule sin't unreasonable.

I see you've replied to John46 with your overall situation, but I can't tell how many total units you have in your HOA.

Why can't the online form be on a secured website?

Oh, John46--up to your usual verbal shenanigans!

Our HOA doesn't require the guest's email addy, phone#, mailing address for the guest. Why does the HOA need that info anyway? We only are interested in the guest's name & car info.

And we require the resident's name, unit# phone #. But, as I said, the resident gives the info to the gate officer before the guest arrives or phones it down to the kiosk. If a guest stays too long, backs into another car, or whatever, it's the resident who's contacted.

We wouldn't put the resident's unit#/phone# on an unsecured site! Or the guest's private info either! Go to the next board meeting and complain!

Btw, the Board undoubtedly approved the parking company's "rules." That vendor is following your Board's instructions. If the vendor has its own protocol, your board still agreed to it.

How many "open" parking spots for residents are there? Are they different spots than "guest parking"?

Capabel, As I noted above, the Board can make rules, but only, per state law, if they send them out to Owners for a 30-day comment period. Note: not for an owner vote, but for owner feedback.

They also must specify some sort of fine schedule an must call the unit owner to a hearing for the alleged violation.

Meantime, get copies of the minutes of previous open board meetings so that you can read how this all happened. I take you don't attend these meetings?

How did you learn about this change? I feel like there's some info missing.

But don't start sending out letters, etc., until you have all of the facts.

Cap

As a property manager who has set up parking policies for associations that face a lack of parking within their communities.

For starters, because of the economy, and with more children either staying with their parents, or moving back in, it has put a strain on available parking within one's community.

I will try and give one example. I had a community of 106 condo/townhouses in Los Angeles, close to a major university. Many of the second phrase units were purchased by investors renting to medical students at the university. Each unit had a garage capable of parking two vehicles, and the CCRSs required that, if you owned two cars, both MUST be parked in the garage. We only had 71 parking spaces outside the units and no designated visitor spaces. It was first come, first served.

As Carol pointed out, the BOD has the ability through the CCRs, to create "fair and reasonable" rules. They must be mailed to each and every owner, not resident or renter, and the owners are given thirty days to comment. At that point in time, the BOD can either pass the new rules or amended them, and go through the whole process again. That's the process and no renter has a say, kinda of what is going on in Washington today. Yes, parking pass system would have to be implemented, maintained and monitored.

Now to try and answer the questions you have in regards to the information required and time frames imposed. The rules are not from the patrol company, but from the association itself. Each patrol company works on a set of guidelines specific to the communities they service.

1. Yes all vehicles need to be registered to the address. Only those cars having business with the community, should be allowed to parking on common areas owned by its owners. Visitors must be visiting someone within the community. Seems fairs to me.

2. If it is a family member moving back in, the vehicle registration might show a different address. Somehow, it must show the current address, via some form of identification and there are plenty like mail delivered to that member at that address.

3. Yes stickers or parking pass need to be displayed, no brainer.

4. Garage inspection can be enforced through the provisions of the CCRs. As I mentioned above, two cars are required to be parked within their garage. The owners knew that prior to moving in.

5. Overnight guests need to registered. If they don't, there is the real possibility of being towed.

6. Guests can only park 14 nights in 5 months. Any longer, they might be considered residents. If a phone number is given on registration of pass, by law the towing company MUST call them prior to removal of vehicle.

7. Any fines would have to be in the general rules and regulations of the associations and would go through the same process as creating the rules.

Not seeing the form, I can't comment on all aspects of information you are saying is required. When I create a form I do have required information stated as such and some not.

As a property manager, I have the ability to make exceptions, if the information is communicated to me beforehand. Can't do anything after the fact. If a car was towed legally, then it is and will be the responsibility of the person to whom the car is registered. To release the car, the fee is paid to the towing company, not the HOA. As far as the 72 hour rule, those are municipal codes which would take precedence.

In the community I live in, which is single family homes, we have a parking problem, but only on one street section out of 10. We were looking at creating a new parking policy and when we did a preliminary sign up, three of the first four responses EACH had 7 cars. I am sure this wasn't the case 12 years ago when the community was first built and occupied.

If the answer is "yes", then

a) may have been held prior and owner didn't attend. If they were approved and passed the correct way, there would be minutes of that meeting.
b) Civil 1363.140 (c) outlines the process for reversing a rule change. It would be a majority of the members at a duly held meeting at which a quorum present. First a petition for a special meeting would have to presented to the Board and a meeting called for. In this case, if there are 300 homes, then they would first need a quorum of 151 to show up and then a majority of those to vote for a change. Since proxies are seldom used in California, good luck in getting 151 of your neighbors to show up for a meeting. But it can be done.
(d) maybe follow the rules. Based on the information the OP posted , they are not unreasonable in today's environment.

Dave

Unless proven otherwise, I have to assume the rules were properly adopted. The contract a Board signs with a towing company would say their authority is expressly given to them by the Board of Directors. They would be foolish to act on there own without a parachute.

Dave

Understood. I have worked with Boards that didn't follow procedure and we had to start from scratch. They didn't like, but in the long, possibly saved them in litigation.

Reading over the CC&R's the board can make add and or remove changes to the "community parking" as they see fit. Not sure if B comes into play because of this or not, but I doubt it.

As far as D the rules can't be followed without a huge burden for example the sticker rule saying it must be in the rear of the vehicle on the drivers side. I have dark limo tent on my SUV and no one would anyone even see a sticker if I put it there which I'm not because it will cause damage to my tint. The rules are written to accommodate the patrol company and most of them either don't make sense or contradict other rules. For example you can you have a car that is driven daily, but you can purchase a 2nd permit. If you have 2 cars and 2 permits do they really expect you to drive them both daily and move both of them every 72 hours? Makes no sense at all.

Here is the section of the CC&R's that covers parking rules.

The Board may establish additional regulations as it deems appropriate in its sole discretion with regard to any of the Parking Areas not assigned to individual Units, including without limitation designating "parking," "quest parking," and "no parking" areas thereon; and shall have the power to enforce all parking and vehicle use regulations applicable to the Property, including the power to remove violating vehicles from any portion of the Property pursuant to California Vehicle Code Section 22658.2 or other applicable statutes. If the Board fails to enforce any of the parking or vehicle use regulations, the general purpose local government in whose jurisdiction the Property is located may, but need not, enforce such regulations in accordance with state and local laws and ordinances. The Association shall maintain labeling as "quest parking" on all quest parking spaces so that these spaces are readily visible.

Capabel, here's my quote from waaaaay above "in CA, HOAs are required to send proposed rule changes to owners, who have 30 days to comment to the board. Then, the board at a subsequent meeting approves the change or not."

CA Civil code trumps your CC&Rs in that tho' the Board can make new rules, the above procedure must be followed. Sorry, I missed elsewhere that you're a tenant not an owner. It's not common for an HOA board to hold a meeting and invite tenants, but I think that's a good sign. Yes, ask your owner to get the minutes from the meetings your owner missed.

And, again, I, and I think others, doubt the parking patrol vendor is operating under his own rules. He works for the HOA and the HOA Board instructs him about his duties in a contract. The Board's decision may have been made some months ago.

How long has this patrol company been on contract with the association?

You want a copy of the rules, as distributed to the membership by the board PRIOR to the company being contracted; the minutes of the meetings where the board 1) approved the rules, 2) solicited bids for a service company, and 3) approved the use of the current company.

That's normal. Minutes are a log of decisions. They're not transcripts of conversations or discussions.

"XYZ was approved as a vendor for parking enforcement"
Perfectly fine.

When were the rules established, approved, and distributed BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS? If something came from the enforcement company on their letterhead, it doesn't matter and doesn't count unless it's a duplicate of what the board distributed. They can say "no blue cars are allowed on the left side of the street", but if the HOA board didn't say it, it doesn't matter and isn't enforceable.