Storage of Recreation Vehicles in Community when Covenant/Bylaws restricts doing so

I'm dealing with a couple issues in my community here in Md. 1st: Several homeowners are violating the covenant and bylaws by storing boats and RVs on their property (next their houses) when the covenant strictly prohibits this activity. 2nd: Our board is reluctant to enforce the bylaws with regards to this issue fearing homeowners will simply move the vehicles to the streets. HOA Board feels they cannot restrict parking boats, trailers, RVs, etc., on the streets because streets are now being mantained by county. My thought is regardless of who maintains/plows or what have you with the streets, they are still part of the community and the Covenant and bylaws should apply. The HOA board has no issue persuing homeowners who fail to pay dues, but they refuse to enforce other parts of the covenant and bylaws. Anyone who has advice I would greatly appreciate it.
~KeL

Kel,

Can you cite the section of the Covenants and the section of the Bylaws that prohibit the parking of these vehicles?

Keep out any reference to the name of your community.

Yep, sounds like the vehicles are not to be kept on the lot.

Your options are:

1) gather support and remove the existing board members and replace them with those who will enforce that covenant.

2) (This one is often not thought of) Enforce the covenants yourself through the courts.
Typically, CC&Rs authorize both the Association and any member to enforce the Covenants. The only difference is that a member will need to go through the courts to enforce and the member need not enforce on all violators.

NOTE: Based on what you cited, there is no covenant preventing the parking of any of those vehicles on a public street. Therefore, your Board is likely correct that to enforce the covenant could have the vehicles parked on the streets.

Because the street is public, any restriction for parking on the street will likely need to be written within the deed restrictions (i.e. the CC&Rs) to be enforceable. Otherwise, a member could simply challenge any enforcement of parking the vehicle on the street with the principal of expressio unius est exclusio alterius. That is to say the omission of a particular covenant or term from a contract reduced to writing shows an intent to exclude it (also see Sarnir R. Farran, et al. v. Olde Belhaven Towne Owners Association page 4, 2nd full paragraph).

Please note, I am not an attorney and I do not work in the legal profession. I am offering this opinion based on what you have provided, personal experiences and my understanding of any research that I may have done.

If you really want to be sure of any legal issue, seek an opinion from a local attorney versed in the specialty of the situation. In this instance, I would suggest one versed in contract law (as the CC&Rs are essentially a contract between all owners within the development).

Likely not what you wanted to hear. I hope it helps,

Tim

OP,

you have an additional option

seek an injunction ORDERING them to comply with your contract

yes, YOU, may take appropriate legal action to enforce YOUR contract

A/K/A the Covenants and Restrictions

or

let some one else do your work for you

A/K/A the UNPAID volunteer directors who may actually LIKE their neighbors

What NPS says is correct. You can enforce against those that agreed and in the case of an association, that is usually the main issue.

Streets are not residential property.

The Lot would be residential property and what you cited of that statute does not apply to RVs (which typically mean motor homes).

No Covenant restriction on street parking.

Which is preferable:

side of house

or

on the street in front

?

Hi CrystalB,

Let's be clear. I do understand what it means to be in a Home Owners Association, because I am a member of mine, as are all of the other residents in our housing plan. I also understand what it feels like to pay dues and have no action taken by the Board of Directors. I can tell you there are a number of homeowners who have stopped paying dues because of the lack of action by our Board of Directors. Regardless of what you may think, the bylaws/covenants are in place for a reason. Every member of the community agreed to abide by the covenant and bylaws. The rules weren't enacted in secrecy. Those who choose not pay dues or choose to ignore the covenant and bylaws to which they agreed, negatively affect the value of every home in the plan. As a member of the HOA, I do have the right to request action by the board. In fact, if I want to, I could take the action myself. If the board chooses to sit on the laurels, I will take action myself. Letters, governing docs, sheriff, etc.

YOU should not assume to know the situation in my HOA and cast dispersions. If YOU have nothing useful to say, take the action my board of directors has taken thus far, say nothing.

KeL

Kel,

Keep in mind that you may get reactions from neighbors similar to reactions you have gotten within this thread. Therefore, differing opinions, little jabs, etc. can be beneficial to making informed decisions by allowing you to see different perspectives on the same issue.

It has been pointed out before, you (in addition to your Board) also have the ability to enforce the covenants. Therefore, if the catalyst of this issue is one individual (err one RV), it may be easier to simply go through the courts to enforce the covenant on that one individual OR discuss the issue with the individual directly.

As far as having the Sheriffs department enforce your Associations parking restrictions, they will not. They are there to enforce county laws. If the county allows parking of RV's on public streets, then the Sheriff will simply check on the call and perhaps inform you the vehicle is legally parked. If that ordinance you discovered applies to RV's, then the Sheriff will likely mark the vehicle and see if it moved over the last 24 hours from when they saw it earlier. You may want to ask your local Sheriff's department if that ordinance applies to the type of vehicle that has made you so passionate about the issue.

Good luck with the Board. It's certainly an option. However, if the Board still says no, your only other options are to enforce the covenant yourself or to gather support and recall (or simply not reelect) the current board and replace them with yourself and other similar thinking volunteers who will enforce the covenants.