Bringing business vehicles home

Our CC&R's state that pickup trucks, cars, vans must be registered and insured and only two vehicles allowed in the homeowners driveway. We have a woman who now drives a school van registered to the school out of state and bringing it home. She is parking her second vehicle in the neighbors driveway, since she is elderly and no longer has a car. My question is this a technical violation? since the vehicle is not hers and registered to a school?

well I did check with the attorney a few minutes ago, and he said that it is a technical violation. The vehicles have to be registered to the homeowner and not a business who does not reside in the park. Pretty sneaky parking his third vehicle in a neighbor's yard. The attorney will be sending them a letter.

Would be interesting to see the verbatim quote from your docs about vehicles and parking. Perhaps you are interpreting differently than others would. But if as you say, the only requirements are 2 vehicles in a driveway and that those vehicles must be registered and insured, then I'd say this homeowner is completely in compliance. Your docs aren't specific enough to disallow what she is doing.

A few other scenarios that would be technical violations per your lawyer's interpretation: someone moves in from another state with a vehicle registered in their previous state; someone has an out-of-state visitor for a period of time parking in their driveway; someone has a significant other who lives in a different state and frequently visits; someone's kid establishes residency in another state but returns home for extended periods of time with their vehicle; etc.

Of course your lawyer is going to side with you until the owner pushes back . . . it's easy money in this lawyer's pocket already since you've engaged them and they are sending a letter. I'm actually convinced that some MCs and lawyers simply seek to push boundaries and create strife in the neighborhood to keep themselves relevant, involved, and busy. Busy = time and time = money. A little overboard on the reaction in my opinion (contacting lawyer), but perhaps your HOA has a different style that what I'm used to.

You say the owner is sneaky. I say the owner should actually be applauded for trying to comply with the documents and not negatively impact others. It also doesn't seem to bother the neighbor who allows use of their driveway. However, the situation must be so bothersome to someone else in the neighborhood that it has become an issue necessitating immediate engagement of the lawyer. Anyone talked to the lady driving the van? Maybe it's only a temporary thing.

My own personal rant . . . people get so butthurt over what vehicles can and cannot be parked in the neighborhood. I understand if aesthetics take precedence over all else; if vehicles are so oversized that other people's lives are negatively impacted; or if people are clearly not in compliance with what is permitted. But honestly, nobody is being hurt by their neighbor trying to make an honest living and parking a work vehicle overnight on their own property or in the neighborhood where parking is permitted. People need to live and let live and stop hunting for things to be bothered by.

I agree with ND. I use a take home vehicle in my job and it's parked on the street outside my home (we have street parking) and have never had any complaints about it. It's one thing if a homeowner has a bunch of cars that are inoperable and/or hog up space, or are so heavy they damage the pavement (I talked about large semi trucks in an unrelated conversation). However, if this lady's neighbor is ok with her parking the car in his/her driveway and it's not interfering with everyone else's ability to park, what's the problem?

It may be your CCRs have to be tweaked a bit because there are a lot more 3 and 4 car families these days, along with folks who have take home work vehicles. It's true everyone has to consider space and learn to share, but I think if people slow down a bit and identify the real problems, you find it's more about behavior rather than getting honked off about a telephone company van being parked in a driveway because the technician lives there.

As for management companies and lawyers taking advantage - yep, some of them do that too, which is why it's important for boards to remember these people work for the association, not the other way around. I'm never surprised when I hear about property managers and attorneys doing whatever boards want, regardless of whether it makes sense or not - as long as your check doesn't bounce, what do they care? It's ok to ask them for advice, but in the end, it's the association's responsibility to know what's important and what should be done, then act accordingly.

But until they are changed they must be enforced. I wouldn't want to live in a neighborhood festooned with pickup trucks, work vehicles and commercial vehicles everywhere. That's WHY I chose my current neighborhood. Maybe there will be a sufficient number of owners who will vote to change those restrictions some day, but that day hasn't arrived yet. There are deed restrictions that run with the land and the talk about people making a living and junky cars and trucks are no big deal is irrelevant.

Let's not exaggerate reality . . . few neighborhoods are "festooned with pickup trucks, work vehicles and commercial vehicles everywhere". If work/commercial vehicles exist, they are in the minority. Further, you can't comingle pickup trucks and commercial vehicles since many people have pickups as their daily-driver, personal vehicle.

I agree, if there are rules that prohibit the parking of trucks and/or commercial vehicles, and those rules clearly define those vehicles, then they should be followed and must be enforced. However, that doesn't appears to be the OP's situation.

In her post, there's no mention of commercial vehicles in what she cited from her docs. Only reference is to a limit of 2 vehicles per driveway, and requirement that vehicles be insured and registered. The lawyer is extrapolating (possibly for the benefit of lawyer's customer) that said vehicle must be owned by the homeowner where it is parked and insured by and registered to the same person. That's quite a stretch in my opinion based on what we've been provided so far.