CC&R enforcement

I live in a gated, 55+ community in California. The first house was built about 15 years ago, and the last house was built about a year ago. There are approximately 345 homes in the community. One of the CC&R's is all vehicles must be parked in the residents garage. There are no exceptions for storage cabinets, work benches, freezers, etc., taking up room for parking. Probably 40 residents, me included, own full size pick up trucks that will not fit in the garage without preventing access to the doors and being able to get in and out of a second, smaller vehicle. So we all park in our driveways.

In 15 years, the garage parking rule has never been enforced. Today the HOA notified everyone the garage parking rule will soon start being enforced. A violation will be a $200 fine. An exemption can be made, but the resident must allow an HOA member to inspect their garage to confirm their 2 vehicles will not fit inside. Again, built in storage cabinets are not an excuse to not park in the garage.

My question, since the "parking in garage" CC&R has NEVER been enforced, can they now start enforcing it?

I agree with George. Too bad the Board didn't force all of these years, but it also sounds like you were built out and probably fewer vehicles were stored in driveways. I imagine now things seem to be getting out of control.

And owners put -- OR built -- things in their garages so two vehicles don't fit? That's no excuse.

You could try to gather support for changing your CC&Rs to permit one vehicle in the driveway, but many may have bought in your HOA BECAUSE they didn't want to see a bunch of big vehicles littering the driveways. That's exactly what my sister did and she & her neighbors make damn sure the covenant is enforced. So I don't know how much support you could find.