Restrict Street Parking

Our Covenants (created prior to any homes being build/closed and created by the developer) restrict street parking with the exception of the occasional social occasion.

A homeowner contacted the City Alderman, who told him that the HOA does not have any ability to impose this type of restriction. I see street parking restrictions in tons of HOA covenants.

How can I find out the legal right here? I'm sure the alderman has no idea, and sure that the city doesn't have much of a clue either.

Any help is appreciated.

I'm no psychic, but my guess is your alderman has no idea, either.

But to be fair to him/her, this really is an "it depends" kind of answer.

In our location, even though we don't "own" the roads, and they are maintained by the county, the plat for our subdivision has all sorts of binding elements associated with it, and the developer is allowed to create restrictions like those you mentioned.

Now, neither the city nor county nor state police can (or will) enforce deed restrictions that may differ from local ordinances or statutes, but that does not mean you cannot enforce them yourselves.

It might be in your best interest to locate a local legal aid resource center and they might be able to point in the right direction or even assist you in a research project to determine if your covenants regarding street parking can be enforced by you.

My guess is if they are common in most HOAs in that area, then very likely you can.

Ah, not so,Donna! There is case law in MO where the Appeals Court upheld an HOAs right to restrict parking on public streets simply because that restriction is stated in the covenants. Here in AZ, HOAs do restrict parking on public streets. The legislature has tried to pass a bill for the last 3 years that would prohibit this restriction (I doubt this year's bill will pass!). I am against this legislation for the simple reason that most HOAs streets were built narrower than city code mainly because the developer informed the planning comm. that parking would be restricted. These narrow streets pose a maneuverability and, more importantly, a safety issue. There was a case several years ago in an HOA community where a person died because the ambulance could not get thru because cars were parked on the street -- those streets are only 28' wide.

But, getting back to Billy's case. I would say the HOA CAN restrict parking on public streets if that is a restriction in the covenants, at least until such time as a court rules otherwise. But take into consideration the fact that courts do look at case law in other jurisdictions when rendering their decision (i.e. the MO case). The Alderman was only looking at city code when he told you otherwise.

All this is very good info, thank you - this will help in our hoa as well.

Our attorney is looking into as well..