Parking in Community

We are having difficulty in monitoring parking in our very small tight community of 41 homes. The county took away the parking we had at the entrance to our community on a public street because of a bus lane. We assign 2 parking spaces per townhome plus we have an additional 13 open spaces that are first come first serve.

We have a resident who has parked 4 vehicles in our community and does not use his two personal assigned spaces so that he always has opened spaces for visitors. He is only one driver with 4 vehicles. What are our options? We have tried to reason with him; but he says he's going to do what he wants. Nothing is in the bylaws limiting vehicles except they must have valid decals displayed. Neighbors are complaining, and we are afraid their is going to be "neighborhood wars". The resident is generally unapproachable.

Respectfully: Wrong. As long as the board has the power to make reasonable rules regarding parking, it can create a rule requiring owners to use their two assigned parking spaces first. Accompany this rule with a fine schedule. Start properly notifying this owner of the violations; fine him; and start collecting the money.

You are issuing too many decals for the availible parking . Do the math : 41 homes @ two reserved spaces = 82 plus 13 no reserved first come first serve . You say he’s parking 4 vehicles you are implying that you have given him 4 decals . You should only be giving out three per home . Two for the reserved spaces plus one extra for first come first serve at the other parking lot with 13 spaces . I would consider updating your rules to two free decals , and purcha$e the third one . Keep jacking up the purchase fee until no more than 13 are purchased for the time period . Are they issued fir life ? Or annually . Time to also contact your local Predator towing co to cruise your hood for tow worthy cars .

Do the THs have no driveway parking or garages? Are you on the Board, Lisa?

First, normally, Bylaws do not address "rules" about parking. I think the rule about decals that you do have is probably in some other document? Your covenants? Most HOAs have a doc called Rules & Regulations or similar.

Next, make sure your covenants say that the HOA may make rules about parking. Do the CC&Rs, by the way, say anything at all about the 13 spaces? What DO they say? Then start, as Elle suggests making a rule that residents must park in their assigned spaces.

Residents who park their cars in Visitor Parking are subject to having the cars towed at the car owner's expense. Make sure this rule complies with any local municipal laws about towing.

Next, have a Board discussion at an open meeting, about the fairest way to use the 13 spaces. In my HOA of 200+condos and 16 VP spaces, only visitors may park in V.P. Consider with others such a rule. "Visitors" might include installers, residents vendors, child- or adult-care persons, etc.

Here are couple more that our HOA just added to our Rules: A unit may have no more than 2 visitors in VP. In other words, if a resident throws a party, they cannot tell all of their guests to use VP. No reservations of a VP space is possible. Visitors in VP have no "in & out" privileges. Consider limits how long one car can be in VP. Our limit, basically is 3 days, but can be extended

This are just suggestions and I'm sure there will be others.

I am pretty sure our bylaws/covenants states that we cannot "sell" parking spaces. We are discussing issuing parking hang tags. Each homeowners would be issued two personal spot hang tags plus one opened spot tag which would be on a first come first serve basis. However, you must utilize your personal spots first.

So frustrating because community worked as neighbors getting along being courteous and thoughtful to each other until this bozo moved in.

We don't issue any decals. Each townhome is issued two reserved spots in front of their townhome. The 13 spots are opened and first come first serve. I don't think we are able to "sell" parking spaces. We did secure a towing company. We are in the process of installing signs. Next steps is to have a board meeting and vote to restrict visitor spots to 48 hours only. It's just going to be hard to monitor. Towing companies that we have used in the past have been ruthless. Moving cars to show them as illegally parked and then towing. We do not want to give towing company ability to just come in and tow. It must be only after they are called by a board member.

What DO your covenants say about the parking spaces, Lisa? What do any rules you might have state about the parking spaces.

HOA has the right to assign (1) one parking space per unit. We certainly don't want to apply that. We would be punishing the majority of the community for one person's behavior.