Parking Rules

Hello everyone I have been living in my home since 2002 ( thank God I have been able to pay it off). I have always been involved with the board here and there and served on the board as well. There is some tension in our community right now and it has to do with commercial vehicles. There are some homeowners that own their own business and park their vans or pickups in their drive way ( common area). The property manager in conjunction with the
board is now trying to enforce towing of said vehicles. Some homeowners are furious because they were never advised of these rules when they purchased their homes. There was an amendment done back in 2005 to the parking rules without 2/3rds of the voting interest. As far as I'm concerned, there was never a meeting or discussion regarding parking rules. Below is the amendmen:

Corrective Certificate of Amendment to the Rules and Regulations of Century Serena Lakes, Recorded on 11/2/2007 CFN NO. 2007R 1062772, to wit:

5.30 “All owners’ vehicles must be parked in front of the owner’s unit. All pick up trucks or vans that are otherwise in compliance with Rule 30 of these Rules and Regulations must park in front of the owner’s unit.

5.31 “Commercial Trucks, Trailers, Campers and Boats. No trucks, commercial vehicles, campers, buses, mobile homes, motor homes, monster trucks, tractor pull trucks, limousines, all terrain vehicles (ATV’s). All terrain carts, go-carts, house trailers or trailers of every other description, recreational vehicles, boats, boat trailers, horse trailers, or buses shall be permitted to be parked or to be stored at any places within Century Serena Lakes Townhomes Homeowners Association, Inc, nor in dedicated areas. For the purposes of this Section “commercial vehicles” shall mean any vehicle in which commercial equipment or activity is visible from the exterior of the vehicle, including but not limited to the windows and excess of ten thousand (10,000) pounds, or any vehicle containing three (3) or more axis regardless of weight, or any vehicle displaying commercial signs, lettering, logos or advertisements, or any vehicle intended for transportation of goods, or any vehicle which is not designed and used for customary, personal/family purposes. The absence of commercial-type lettering or graphics on a vehicle shall not be dispositive as to whether it is a commercial vehicle. The prohibitions on parking contained in this Section shall not apply to pick-up trucks no longer than ten (10) feet, or trucks or vans having a gross vehicle weight of less than ten thousand (10,000) pounds with no more than two (2) axles, police vehicles the temporary parking of trucks and commercial vehicles, such as for pick-up and delivery and other commercial services, nor to passenger-type vans for personal use which are in acceptable conditioning the sole opinion of the Board (which favorable opinion may be changed at any time). No on-street parking or parking on lawns shall be permitted.

Subject to applicable laws and ordinances, any vehicle parked in violation of these or other restrictions contained in the Rules and Regulations now or hereinafter adopted may be towed by the Association at the sole expense of the owner of such vehicle. If such vehicle remain in violation for a period of 24 hours from the time a notice of violation is placed on the vehicle. The Association shall not be liable to the owner of such vehicle for trespass, conversion or otherwise, nor guilty of any criminal act by reason of such towing and once the notice is posted, neither its removal, nor failure of the owner to receive it for any other reason, shall be grounds for relief of any kind.”

No vehicle, which cannot operate on its own power, shall remain on the properties for more than twenty-four (24) hours, and
no repair of vehicles shall be made thereon.
This was recorded in Miami Dade county Clerk's of Court.
Florida statues 720:306 (b) Unless otherwise provided in the governing documents or required by law, and other than those matters set forth in paragraph (c), any governing document of an association may be amended by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the voting interests of the association.

15 years later after the homeowners are parking their commerical vehicles they want to start towing. There are no big trucks in our community it's vans and pickups. Also the property manager has golf carts stored and visable in our community as well. I understand that a community full of commercial vehicles does not look nice but the board waited too long. What can we do?
Thanks.

Thank you for responding, what I mentioned to the home owners is that we need to work together on this. We need to have some kind of compromise, we do not want our community to look like a truck stop with trucks all over the place. I don't want to start a problem, want to work peacefully with them. We will have to request copies of the minutes of when this amendment took place and votes. I have been advising the home owners not to get the board angry, if we can not get any documentation from the board let's brainstorm a good solution that will work for both sides.

Sorry Johnc46, what do mean exactly that the board has not enforced the convenant ?

I believe you are mis-reading 720.306. Rules and Regulations typically are amendable by the Board of Directors. Florida Statute section 720.306 provides a second way to amend the Rules and Regs.

-- What do the Rules and Regs say about amendments?

-- What do the Bylaws and CC&Rs say about who writes and distributes the Rules and Regs?

-- Back in 2007, what entity amended (or attempted to amend) the Rules and Regulations?

-- Exactly what do the HOA's CC&Rs say on this issue?

How come your group has not submitted a demand to the HOA for presuit mediation, pursuant to FS 720.311 (2)?

I remember prior posts of yours. I recommend that your group chip in and hire an attorney.

I agree that what the Board is doing is quite serious. The topic of restricting trucks and vans has come up at this forum a lot. The courts view restrictions quite dimly at this point, on account of people needing to make a living.

Despite 2-4 car garages and ample driveways, two of our five board members store their vehicles in guest parking areas, in violation of community rules. So our questions about parking enforcement are ignored.

HectorR, each of your governing documents (CC&Rs; Bylaws; Rules and Regs) will have its own section on amending. I request:

-- The section of the Rules and Regs that talks about amendments.

-- All the section(s) of the HOA's CC&Rs that talk about (1) parking; (b) trucks and vans; and (c) commercial vehicles.

Page 1

HectorR, go to your full set of Rules and Regulations. Look for a section titled "Amendments" or similar, that talks about the /// process /// for amending the rules and regs. Please quote verbatim this process.

For the third time, please post the Covenants that address parking. (Do you know what "covenants" are, and that they are different from Rules and Regulations?)

Page 3&4

Hector, thanks for your patience. Here are my observations so far:

-- The "Corrective Certificate of Amendment" filed in Oct 2007 on the first page states that the new Rules 29, 30, and 31 were proposed at a Board Meeting in 2005 and approved by no less than a majority of the Board.

-- Your last five attachments are five pages that appear to be both (1) an Exhibit attached to the Declaration; and (2) the Rules and Regulations originally adapted by the HOA around 2005.

-- At this point, I think the Rules and Regulations are created and approved by solely the Board.

-- When a board creates rules and regulations, two requirements are particularly important. First, the rules and regulations cannot exceed what is in the main body of the Declaration. (This is what I have repeatedly asked you to check. For some reason you and I are not communicating on this point.) Second, per FS 720.304 (1): "The entity or entities responsible for the operation of the common areas and recreational facilities may adopt reasonable rules and regulations pertaining to the use of such common areas and recreational facilities." This means the Board may adopt /// reasonable /// rules and regulations without a vote of the membership.

-- If by some miracle you can dig into the main body of the Declaration and please quote exactly what, if anything, it says about parking, please do. If you do not understand my request, please indicate what you do not understand. Seriously, I think this is the fourth time I have asked you this, and it's dam-ed annoying. This information is critical to being able to do my volunteer duty here and give you advice that might actually help. Without your checking on this, anything I say will be worthless.

Hector, there might other names for your "declaration," such as "Covenants," Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions" (AKA CC&Rs), "Deed Restrictions," and maybe more. It's usually a pretty big document and is recorded as a public record in your county.

IMO, Don't give out your personal information online. Read some of the responses I receive to my threads. I would not want any of those people knowing where I live or my name.

Hector,

It is a very dangerous practice to post your username and password, even if it is temporary.

Dropbox has the ability to allow you to share specific files either to individual people or make them public. Then you can get a link which you can post. Please use that feature rather than exposing your entire account.

HectorR, see attachment.

You will have to find some mediators and add them to the letter.

If helping your group complete and sign this letter is beyond your abilities, then hire an attorney.

I estimate the cost of this letter prepared by an attorney would be in excess of $3000.

This is true and in my last HOA the Merry Maids vevicle had to go but not the unsigned F450. Makes sense to me.

-- HectorR's HOA's Declaration has a glossary of terms, but the glossary does not define "commercial vehicle." The Rule in HectorR's HOA's Board-created Rules and Regulations provides the definition. See the first post in this thread.

-- The Declaration gives the Board the right to adopt reasonable rules "governing the use of the common areas... " However, from my reading of the Declaration so far, I do not think the driveways in front of the townhomes (where owner's vehicles are typically parked) are common area. I also do not think the driveways are limited common area. Yet here is the Board telling the HOA members what they may and may not park on the Owners' individual driveways.

For the record: This is not a condo. It is a townhome HOA community subject to FS 720.