Establishing Parking Fines in HOA

As an involved HOA board member in my community, a topic of interest has come up on numerous occasions and I am interested in getting other opinions on how to handle this matter.

Per our current Declarations and Guidelines, each homeowner is alloted two (2) parking spaces per purchased unit. Although that does not guarantee the parking spaces are to be directly in front of our homes, we all know that we have 2 spaces for our units. We also have an area allotted for any visitor or overflow parking for the residents as well. Parking has not been a issue in our past until recently. The majority of the neighbors communicate well and we all have an understand regarding how we are to park. Unfortunately, we have a tenant that is not only taking up their 2 allotted spaces but allowing their visitors to park in other homeowners spaces. This particular tenant has taken up approx 5 spaces and refuses to have their guests park in the visitor spaces.
Our spaces are not technically 'reserved' for each unit but again, our guidelines state that we have 2 spaces per unit.

The board members have discussed this and we talked about establishing fines for homeowners that refuses to abide by those guidelines, particularily the parking violation. This also includes establishing a fine for homeowners who refuse to store their garbage in trash cans and leave tools and other large items on their front lawns. All of the previous mentioned is in violation of our guidelines.

What are some reasonable fines that we could establish to bill the homeowner, particularily for the parking? We have a process in place to notify the owner about issues with the trash and yard violations; they are notified and given time to correct the problem. We want to know a reasonable amount to charge if they refuse to correct he problem. Any ideas on where to start?

Lynorra, I agree with Harold here, and would also ask "if the parking spaces are not guaranteed" what is the violation that the HOA will use as the basis for fines, enforcement activities? Until you clear up your governing documents issues (deed restrictions on parking), you just (simply) have an etiquitte issue, of which the owner of the rental unit is probably aware, and just doesn't give a hoot.

The HOA cannot create or enforce rules that it does not first have the authority of doing so (Harold's points). If I were one of the contrite folks parking wherever I wanted, and the HOA attempted enforcement against me, I would simply ask, where in the doc's does it state that the two spaces are dedicated to each owner, and where are those designations in relation to the unit?

Let me clarify the occupancy of the home; the ex-husband and 2 daughters live there along with a HOST OF MEN that are in and out of that residence morning, noon and night. I am not exaggerating when I say there is a least 5 adult males residing in that house along with the ex and daughters. This does not take into account the many guests they have throughout the day. All of the board members have concerns about that place and we've even contacted our neighborhood police to complain about suspected drug activity. We are a small, quaint community with children who love to play. In my 5 years of residing here, this has NEVER been a problem up until recently and only with these tenants.

That's a great suggestion Anna. I actually like that idea better than placing the unit numbers on the spaces. I will definitely mention that in our meeting tomorrow.

Lynnora,
My condo unit also uses coded space numbers. My unit 212B has spaces 180 and 181. But if someone wants to know who's spot is who's, then it really doesn't matter if you write the numbers in Russian, because we are all visable to the other residents.

But I am a strong believer in assigned spaces. This gives everyone some certainty that they will always have thier own spots to park.

Harold & Debra,

You both bring up very interesting points. We live in a small town in Southern MD. I'm not sure about the town's occupancy requirements for our units. As long as I been a board member, I don't recall getting involved with the leasing agreements for the units in our community. I don't think our association deals with matters to that extent. That is something that I will need to contact my Town Hall and inquire about. Thanks for the heads up.