Private Parking Sign

Started by DennisG7 • 4 replies • 380 views

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DennisG7 (Georgia)
Posts: 155

Posted:

In the past couple of days the management company for our HOA has had a new sign stuck in the ground at the entrance to the pool/clubhouse parking lot.

It bascially says "Private Parking Illegally parked or Improperly Parked cars will be towed away."

I have voiced a couple of concerns about this sign. When I questioned the need for this sign I was told that it was there to deal with "overnight parking" not day time parking. On occasion I have seen one or two cars parked there overnight. Usually it's a guest or out of town family member.

When I asked why the HOA just didn't close and lock the gate, which is at the entrance to the parking lot. For many, many years the gate was closed at about 10 PM and reopened at about 8 AM. For some reason the new HOA Board has not closed or locked the gate since they took over in Jan. I am unsure why they stopped doing this. My question about this to the BOD and Mgmt. Company has not been answered. (I've asked twice)

I was told by the management company that the covenants say there is no overnight parking allowed in the pool parking lot. That language is no where in our covenants, by laws or written rules/regulations. I have searched for it and it's not there. The management company appears to be making it up or perhaps the HOA BOD thinks it's in there.

Secondly, it seems to me that having your car towed by a private towing company when there is no POSTED signs indicating "No Over Night Parking allowed" opens us up to all sorts of legal problems...a law suit.

There are no signs in the parking lot that address overnight parking or any type of restictions.
Am I overthinking this? Don't we need to post a sign about overnight parking?
Dennisg7

CathyA3 (Ohio)
Posts: 6,299

Posted:

You may be overthinking a bit, but without reading your governing docs and relevant law I don't know for sure where the line is.

General info:

* HOAs and COAs are allowed to make reasonable parking rules that are consistent with any parking restrictions in the CC&Rs. There is never enough open parking in these communities, so they have to do what they can to have workable compromises.

* Sometimes a community's parking restrictions and rules need to be overhauled. Three- and four-car families are now a thing, as are trucks as everyday vehicles, and older communities often can't accommodate these changes.

* I believe that there are legal requirements re: signage if you want to two vehicles - for example, the area has to be posted as a tow-away zone, and the signage itself needs specific wording. (Your state may be different from mine, though, so take this with a grain of salt.) You're right that towing things without warning can lead to problems - we notified the police before we had a vehicle towed in case it was reported stolen.

* It's always a good idea to announce changes like this to the entire community so that people know what's going on.

* The board and PM may not have an answer for you because it needs to be discussed in a future board meeting. This sort of thing happens when laws change unexpectedly and boards get wrong-footed and need to adapt. Or some new issue has arisen (is the gate not working for some reason?). However, in this case it seems like a change has already happened, and they should have at least acknowledged the question and stated that info will be coming if that's the case.

* Having served on condo boards for many years and currently not on the board, I'm always surprised about how little I know about what's happening - and the board here is making at least a reasonable attempt to communicate. It's just the nature of these communities, and you have a choice of either serving on the board yourself or flying blind most of the time (and if you've been on the board, you'll know exactly how blind you are). It would be nice if there were a middle ground somewhere, but I haven't found one yet.

MichaelS56 (Minnesota)
Posts: 859

Posted:

Ask your Board President what they know about this sign. Then include some follow-up questions if need be.

JaniceM7 (Maryland)
Posts: 16

Posted:

We use our pool parking as an overflow lot for homes or townhomes without enough visitor parking. Is this an issue in your HOA, or why are there cars there overnight?

LetA (Nevada)
Posts: 2,679

Posted:

This is a very acceptable practice. The other part the sign the OP mentions is Improperly parked cars. This is a big problem in my area where people consistently double park and sideways park their cars. Specific sing and verbiage will be on the HOA's part when they start having cars towed when people park like jerks.

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