Rules and Regs VS CC&R's

Pat, The CC&Rs control over the Rules and Regs. Rules and Regulations are often used to further clarify restrictions in the CC&Rs and are enforceable. Since your garage is a limited common area it does not belong to your unit and therefore it is possible that the assignment of that limited common area to your unit may be voided.

The CCRs dictate how the common areas are to be used, whereas rules and regulations are usually enacted by the Board to complement the CCRs. For example, if the CCRs say you can't use the common areas for playing football, the board could enact a rule stating those violating the rules may have to pay a fine. The rules can also be used to provide processes - in your example, the rules may call for warning letters to be sent first, fines have to be set by the board and steps for filing an appeal.

Rules cannot contradict the CCRs, but they don't always address every situation, which is why your documents may have language authorizing the board to set rules (go back to your documents and read them to see what they say about that). As a practical matter, communities and lifestyles change, so it's impossible for the CCRs to address everything, nor should they. Some things should be a matter of common sense.

To wit - your community may have this rule because there isn't enough space for street parking. When your community was built it may have had mostly one car owners living there, but today, many people have two or three. People are also using bigger cars than before (SUVs and vans take up a lot of room!) There may also be homeowners who decide to use their garages as pseudo storage units or convert them into rooms - and now they have to store their two or three cars on the street. That makes it difficult for other cars to get through and can cause trouble if the HOA service providers can't park their trucks to do maintenance or repairs. And what happens if there's an emergency and fire trucks or ambulances can't get through either?

Limited common areas are usually the responsibility of the homeowner and the association and there may be additional language in your CCRs stating what the association is responsible for vs. the homeowner. In this case, there may have been an issue with repair bills caused by homeowners who didn't use the garages the way they were intended and so the rule was enacted.

I assume you've spoken to the board about the history of the rule - if so, what was the response? If you haven't, you should. If there are parts of the rule that aren't clear or outdated, the board can always take a look to see if it needs to be adjusted. Hopefully, they'll also poll the homeowners to see what they think. Talk to them and see what they say - you might also want to volunteer to poll the homeowners to see what they think or join a committee to explore the question in detail and it can make recommendations to the board.