Enforcement in HOA in Florida

An HOA with private streets. Our attorney suggests we do not tow vehicles. We have stickers to paste on the window of vehicle stating no street parking. The scenario is every day this vehicle parks on the street for 5-6 hrs. The visitors parking lot is just about empty during the days. I placed a sticker on the car who does this on a consistent basis (park on the street). This resident called the CAM to let her know that his car is been ticketed for street parking and the Police told him its OK to park on the street if all the visitors spots are filled. Keeping in mind the Police has no jurisdiction over our private streets and during the day the parking lot is empty. This CAM is asking that the Board do not sticker cars. My concern is if a child runs in front or behind the car and gets hit by a car, we have not enforced the docs. 2 of the 5 BM's say we should put the stickers under the windshield wiper and not paste on window of car. This in my opinion is defeating the entire purpose of stickers and jeopardizing the Association. Please give your thoughts on this! BellaM2

In my (limited) experience, calling the police or the sheriff's dept. in Florida will result in them probably not knowing the correct answer, whatever that may be. They were probably unaware that your streets are private and gave the owner incorrect information about on-street parking. The police know nothing, and care even less, about an HOA's covenants, rules and restrictions. There's also the possibility - a good one - that the resident didn't call the police at all and they're just making that up.

There must be a reason why the attorney suggested no towing. Maybe your governing documents don't give the association the power to do that?

If it's one repeat offender causing the problem then maybe the time has come to fine them and/or take whatever other steps your documents call for.

We are in Florida and we tow. We have warnings posted everywhere about possible ramifications of not following the rules. When you tow a couple folks seem to fall in line and follow the rules. What specifically was the reason your attorney advised against towing? Who are your attorneys in Florida?

Once again, we have been discouraged from fining. This is a Board without backbone.

Our HOA doesn't have street parking (no streets; urban square block). We do have Visitor peking in the garage underground. The rules are in our Rules & Regulations that all must abide by. We do have the legal code, etc., & number of a towing company for those who violate. But it's rare.

Anyway, in our R&R, the first offense would be call to hearing and potential $50 fine; possibility of doubling every time thereafter.

Our streets are private, but not gated, open to the public and are "public vehicular areas" as defined by NC law. The city we live in has codes for abandoned vehicles, broken down, unlicensed, impeding traffic or access for emergency vehicles. Check with the local city and see what the laws/codes are.

We allow on-street parking for guests only (residents aren't allowed to do so) in my HOA in certain designated areas (it's a private road). We have signs indicating where people can't park. I personally think our restrictions are a bit excessive, though I see why we need some limitations, as it is a fairly dense development.

We won't tow the first time, and maybe not the second (I'd have to check), but we do and have after that. I find the idea that an attorney would advise against it to be odd -- as rules go, it is simpler and clearer-cut to enforce than most.

Unfortunately the Police Dept is never sure about which community is Private. I left a message for the Officer who made his own decisions about this HOA. 2 BMs & CAM are trying to run this show. Yes our docs say we can tow, we can enforce no parking on streets, but these 2 BMs want to create their own governing docs. They are the most corrupt BMs I have ever dealt with, so is the CAM, I just reported her to her boss. Thanks for your responses. Just highly frustrated with these issues.

Bella, are you on the Board???

What do the other directors think?

Again, do you have published fining schedule?

I omitted the word "posted" above: we have the legally required towing posting with CA codes, etc. on it in our Visitor Parking area & in our Rules.

I you have no support form the Board or CAM, you simply must gt others to join you and vote out the bad diretprs an get new ones

We have towed in the past with success, peed off a few folks but it certainly stopped the problems at the time.

Sheriff deputies round here say they can't do anything unless it is a serious issue.

The towing issue seems more complicated nowadays so we issue violations first and hope that does the trick.