Driveways

We have an issue with residents parking in vacant driveway in our development. We had a foreclosure that has recently been purchased and the closing was scheduled for 1/29/16. Residents were parking in the driveway of that unit since the original homeowner moved out (two years ago). Our PM sent letters to these homeowners and fines (one was a homeowner and one was a tenant) and informed them NOT to park in the driveway. The PM recently sent letters to the two residents parking in the driveway that the unit was sold and even today there was a vehicle parked in the driveway from one of the other units!!!

One member of our board feels that "issue" will correct itself when the new owner moves in. This board member is the one who does not want to enforce parking rules, for his own personal convenience. He says we will "get everyone mad" and the development is "no fun" anymore.

When landlord received the letter from our PM his tenant got mad and parked all his vehicles in front of my home in street which is also in violation of declaration. He harassed me by turning the alarm on an off of all his vehicles remotely for over 1/2 hour and idiled all his other vehicles (remotely). I went outside and asked him to move his vehicles from the street and he refused. He started yelling and swearing etc. and threatened me. The police were called by the tenant. They told me I should file a complaint with the magistrate.

I called our PM who contacted his landlord. The landlord says there is no language in our declaration that states that our driveways are "exclusive use" or that they were deeded to each unit by the Declarant so he feels that the only violation his tenant is committing is block the driveway by parking in it????.

I asked our attorney to look into this and although there is documentation regarding our driveways, in our declaration and other documents, there is no specific language stating that the driveways are "exclusive use" to the unit (although implied) or that the driveways were deeded to the unit by the Declarant.

I feel that the Board needs to clarify this so that we don't have residents thinking they can park in driveways that are vacant for any reason. ie a homeowner can be on a business trip, can a resident park in their driveway without permission?

Does anyone have any knowledge on this or advice? thanks

We have a house that was vacant for years. Mortgage company foreclosed and acquired title in August. 5 months later nothing has been done. Still no payments.

Do we have any interest in protecting the rights of the new owner? No way.

Are we interested in having fewer cars parked on the street? Absolutely.

Also, as Tim says - makes it look like the house isn't vacant any more.

When I go on vacation, I actually tell my neighbors how long I will be gone and give permission to one or the other to use my parking spaces if they need it.

I see it as cheap insurance to deter crime (just like having a light on a timer).

My neighbors appreciate the offer and they may or may not exercise that option.

I personally don't care if they use the spaces or not, providing that the spaces are empty when I return.

so what would you do if you gave permission for your neighbor to use your driveway and fluid leaked from their vehicle and now the driveway has oil stains on it?

The unit in question... the new homeowner has not given anyone permission to park in his driveway. This was confirmed by our management company.

So when he moves in and there is a vehicle in his driveway should he ring doorbells until he find out who the vehicles belongs to? I would think he would contact our PM.

My neighbor would offer to clean it up.

If they didn't, I would ask my neighbor to clean it up.

If they refused, I would clean it up and never give permission to them again.


In my opinion, this exceeded the Associations responsibility and authority.

If permission wasn't granted, then the individual is trespassing on private property and it's up to the owner of the property to make a complaint to the police.


I would think he should contact the police.

Unless your Association has parking passes or has vehicles registered, then the PM should also instruct the individual to contact the police. The police can identify who the vehicle belongs to and the issue can be resolved far more quickly then through the Association.

Snow plow equipment dents garage doors and cracks curbs. Stones kicked up by lawnmowers break windows and sliders. Lawnmowers also break vent covers and window well covers. Vehicles leak fluids onto streets.

IMO, the board already has enough of these incidents involving HOA contractors and HOA property - No good reason to look for more.

Maureen has appointed herself Parking Warden. Be careful.

Not about finding support for changing the rule Maureen. About finding support for enforcing the rule.

Ok. Let's say you I have 5 vehicles and you change the rule to "only 3". You warn me. I ignore the warning. What are you going to do?

my idea would be to "grandfather" the vehicles that are already on property and if the 3 vehicle limit is adopted and the declaration is amended by majority vote it would be 3 vehicle limit for all new homeowners and tenants going forth as of the date of the vote or setting an effective date.

Residents would know before they purchase or rent they are limited to 3 vehicles. As I stated in my previous email some of the landlords are already limiting the number of vehicles to 3 before they rent their homes.

We have overflow parking outside both our gates 6 spaces that can be used by residents and ONE visitor space can be used (as needed) garage and driveway is to be used first (that rule is already in place). No one utilizes the spaces outside the gates because they don't want to park and walk, but they are available.

Then how would you enforce the 3 vehicle rule?

Also, if someone who has 3 vehicles have a guest, does the guest count as one of the three vehicles?

As for the 3 homes with 17 vehicles, that is almost 6 vehicles per lot (which seems like a lot of adult/teenage drivers for a townhome).

If your County/City has a rule on number of unrelated persons living under one roof, you may want to consider having the city investigate those homes.

I'm wondering if you know the difference between a rule and the enforcement of the rule.

You have gone on at length about what rules you would put in place and the details of your violators. But not one word about what your association is willing to do to enforce a rule when someone doesn't comply.

I'm getting the impression that you think that if you put out a reasonable rule (from your perspective), people will comply.

Unfortunately, I don't think it works that way.

You have rules today that aren't being followed. And people are angry that your board hasn't done anything to enforce compliance. You might fool yourself into thinking that the new rules will make a difference, but it's all smoke if you don't have a plan of enforcement.

MaureenM1(Penn) In retrospect one partial solution might respectfully have been placing one or more heavy but temporary, well marked concrete CURBS ( or bollards ).

But even if consent could have been obtained for such intervention by the association, had it been successful wouldn't it merely shift some of others' mis-parked vehicles into areas of even greater vexation ? And possibly created other problems ?

It's great that somebody cares about the community. But in the bigger picture as raised by others above, respectfully just how far should an association step outside enforcing property or civil rights that are not directly its own or at least somehow required by legislation/governance documents ?

Towing is a great option. We have one horseshoe shaped street. There are 34 visitor spaces dotted throughout and we have a tow company come through between the hours of midnight and 6AM. Then again at a random time. The tow company has a contract with us to enforce our parking policy and if they tow someone they keep whatever they charge.
Our parking is enforced and they make some money.
I have learned that asking people to be considerate of their neighbors by self regulation does not work, unfortunately. Before we enforced our rules, we had a nice way of doing things, and only about 2 people would comply. So eventually we had to drop the hammer. No problem now!

The new owner came to his home yesterday and found a vehicle parked in the driveway. He found out I was the President and came to my home when I got home from work. I explained to him that no one should be parked in his driveway without his permission and I am very sorry that this was the first impression of our development.

The Board and PM dropped the ball on this one since we have a rule that you cannot park in another homeowners driveway with out their permission.

He was nicer about it than I would have been!!

If the HOA didn't move a muscle for two years and allowed them to park there, the HOA should keep their noses out of it. For many reasons, but as it was stated, it will resolve itself if given the chance and in this instance it's a no brainer that it will take care of itself when the new owners move in.

AS a side note, you should reflect on your own personal reason why this is so important to you now, two years later, are you sure that your concern is coming from the right place or is it coming from your not liking the person who doesn't enforce the parking rules and this is the final straw?

The Board put a rule in place several years ago and it was enforced as much as it could. As I stated in another reply, we don't have a full time security person on our payroll. When it was reported to our PM it was dealt by warning letters and fines.

We have board members that also break the rules. Their excuse for not enforcing parking rules is "that they don't want to make people mad" at the board.

Correct.

A simple, statement along the lines of:

That's lousy. Have you contacted the police about the trespassing?
I suggest you do that as this is not really an Association issue.

Would have placed the responsibility on the parties involved.
However, since Maureen has the opinion it's an Association issue, it was addressed the way it was vs. how others with a different opinion would have addressed the problem.

A clear example that each Board must do what they believe is best for their community.

{a} The new HO may call police and report trespassing/abandoned vehicle.

{b} Call police AND the local towing company - DeFalco is preferred.

In all 50 states one is allowed to remove unauthorized 'stuff' from one's property.

thank you Kerry, this is very helpful and could be adapted to our HOA.