18 Wheeler trailer in driveway.

Started by IanC • 7 replies • 1390 views

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IanC (Georgia)
Posts: 6

Posted:

Hi. Newbie here.

I am a board member of our community.
We are a community of 125 single family homes.

Recently, One of our homeowners rented out their property and moved out of the area.

The new residents (renters) parked an rotten rusty old 18 wheeler trailer of their "stuff" in the driveway.
The renter is unmoved by our requests to remove it and "our" urgency.

We are now on week 6 or 7 of the trailer in the driveway and neighborhood homeowners are going nuts.

Violations protocol has been started with the owners of this home, but it can sometimes take 2-3 notices for any real leverage.

Any other recourse that you might recommend.

Thanks

PaulM (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 1,347

Posted:

IanC: Unfortunately your only recourse is with the owner of the unit. However, if you have already sent a notice to the owner regarding his tenant's trailer resulting in no action, maybe another notice is in order.

It is up to the owner to ensure that his tenants obey the association restrictions, but perhaps this renter has not been informed by the owner.

A suggestion is to send another notice, marked notice #2, to the owner with a photo of the parked trailer and the verbiage from the documents showing the violation. Also send a copy of the notice to the renter. Normally, a hearing is to be held prior to a fine being levied, but your documents should stipulate the process.

You might also check with the local municipality office regarding their restrictions on parked trailers. Perhaps they would be an ally in this situation.

IanC (Georgia)
Posts: 6

Posted:

Thank you for your input.

We're anxiously awaiting the date of the second notice.
The photo idea is a great one.

We've been in contact with local municipality, no help yet. One horse town with 100 horses in it.

Ian

BrianB (California)
Posts: 2,820

Posted:

what is your violation/fee structure like? Does the owner get a fine for not following the rules?
If not, what is your leverage?
If so, what does the fine structure say? One thing I found from my friends in the federal government, if your structure allows a $10 fee per citation, then cite the trailer every day. that's 30 citations a month, and it adds up fast.

MicheleD (Kentucky)
Posts: 4,491

Posted:

Our governing documents do not allow for fines, so after several "reminder" and then "warning" letters to the owners, we have had to resort to turning the issue over to the association attorney, who then drafts a lawsuit and sends the owners the draft of the lawsuit indicating that the HOA will proceed with court ordered compliance. He also includes the information that the court costs would also be awarded if the lawsuit is successful.

We have had several commercial vehicle violators who have ultimately complied when they received the lawyer's draft lawsuit, and we've had 3 cases (over 10 years) actually go to court, and have one all 3 cases.

In each situation, the judge has upheld our deed restrictions and ordered compliance and awarded us attorneys fees and court costs.

We have had several years go by without any additional difficult violations such as this until last month. A renter has been parking a duece-and-a-half mulch truck in his yard. We are pursuing against the owner as we have in the past.

Unfortunately, it does take time.

Best of luck to you.

JC3
Posts: 290

Posted:

Why not "clean up" your post and let the owner know that a lawyer will soon be involved, and what the outcome is likely to be?

MicheleD (Kentucky)
Posts: 4,491

Posted:

doh.

"we have won all 3." (not "one" them!)

PattyB1 (Kentucky)
Posts: 40

Posted:

I hope this will help. I had the same problem in my subdivision with a renter. He wasn't about to move his semi truck out of the driveway. To make a long story short, we had our Hoa atty. deliver a violations letter, via Sheriff, to the owner of the property and let him know he would be fined $50.00 a day for everyday it remained in the driveway or in the subdivision. we also had shown him the CC&R's violation. It was gone by that afternoon and hasn't been back.The owner must be held responsible.Patty

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