Getting people to abide by the rules

I'm the president of a small condo association (10 units) in Washington. We've been having a problem with an owner that has an excuse for everything. When he first moved in last year, he broke the rule of having a renter live with him. He said he knew the rules said no, but didn't think it mattered that much. We have a very small parking lot (2 spots available for each unit) and this is just one reason we don't allow renters. There are several other reasons, but I won't go into that right now. We also pay for the water out of our dues money, so when someone adds a member to their "family", we all pay for it. No, we can't change that. We have one water line for all the units and that's the only way our utility will bill us. I insisted he get rid of his renter and he said he'd talked it over with his lawyer dad and he told him that as long as he wasn't paying him rent, he was just a visitor. However, the guy already told us that he liked the extra money coming in, so... Anyway, I told him he had 3 months to get him out. He did it, but now he's got a new renter! He told the vice president that he was just housesitting while he was on his honeymoon, but let it slip tonight that he was living with him permanently. I'm constantly having to tell him to stop doing this and that and I'm so sick of it. I honestly think he thinks he can gt away with it because I'm a women and he doesn't think I'll do anything. However, I really don't know what to do. If he says the guy isn't paying him any money, how am I going to enforce this rule? We do have in our rules that only two cars can be on the property so I know I can make him have his friend move his car, but this is getting so out of hand. He never answers his emails and well, is pretty much ignoring the Board. How should I handle this? I would like the renter to move, but we don't really have anything in the rules that say friends can't stay with you for awhile. We have no time limit written down. He moved here because his best friend bought a unit and another one came available a month later. He was also best friends with a brother of someone else that lives here. Great, huh. I'm sure the 3 of them will vote us out come January but for now I don't know how to take charge of this problem. Sorry for ranting on and on. This just kind of got to me today.
Thanks,
Judie

Judi - you don't have a leg to stand on about this. I can't find one rule that he has broken OR that you could prove or enforce. I could see if he had two or three guys living with him, but one. Doesn't that make it 2 people in one unit? Is that OK?

Why does this bug you so??

Your real issue is how to measure water consumption for each unit. Explore individual water meters.

Well, it bugs me so much because they have 3 people living there, not 2 since he's married. We only have 19 parking spots (20 if someone parks behind their partner's car-there's only 1 spot that this can happen, tho) and 10 units. If everyone has 2 people living in there unit, that takes up all the spots. So, when his renter parks on our lot, that leaves an owner without a spot. Also, I'm not sure why this isn't legal. I should have been more clear about the rental situation. I apologize. Our CCRs and rules state that no one can rent out a room. They can rent their entire unit out, but not a room and still live there. This was made before my time of living here, but I was told why they had the CCRs changed by a lawyer and filed with the county. Apparently, an owner was renting out all of his rooms (3) and each of his renters would have company over pretty much every night leaving no space to park for several owners. Also, our CCRs say that it's a $1,000 fine for breaking this rule.

It's unfortunate that we have so few parking spots, but that's the way it is.

We have assigned parking in the carport area which takes care of one person per unit. The outside parking is first come, first serve for owners. There are 3 extra parking spots available because 3people are single. They are usually taken by guests. Each owner here owns 2 parking spots so technically the single people don't even have to give up there spot to someone else. So are you telling me that if I come home and 1 or 3 renters have used up all the spots, I (as an owner) have to park off the premises?

Just because you had the CCRs changed by a lawyer and filed with the county does not make them enforceable. I could pay a lawyer to add "no Chinese people" $1000 fine and file it with the county, its not enforceable. HOA will loose.

What you can do is assign the outside parking spots. Sounds like you have no parking assignments for the spots outside and people just grab them as they want. Assign the spots, mark them in paint. After you do this, start towing.

Judie,

A renter would use the space of the property owner's unit that he is renting. No one should be parked in your space if it is marked with your unit number. If all the parking spots are owned by the the unit owners then they should all be assigned -- 2 for each owner. Each space should be marked with the unit number. Of course that means you have no guest spots or any spots available for this person who is living with an owner. If he or anyone else parks in a marked space his vehicle can be towed. But you must mark the spaces accordingly. Also, if the spaces are actually owned by the unit owners, as you have stated, IMO, it's up to each individual unit owner to tow an illegally parked vehicle. And, the HOA may not have any legal authority to issue a fine for illegal parking -- it's not the HOA's property!

Julie:

Have you sent them formal written requests for compliance, with a concrete deadline?

You may well have to put some teeth into the compliance demands by turning it over to an attorney to begin a lawsuit to compel compliance.

Steve - Why are you saying that restrictions on rentals that are in the form of deed restrictions will be struck down in a court of law? I'd be interested in knowing either what federal statute or what specific federal case law has determined that such restrictions are unlawful. To my knowledge many, many HOAs, Condos, have rental restrictions in the CCRs.

John O,

I think Steve was only referring to restrictions that would be discriminatory, thus his reference to "no Chinese people". There are some old HOA assn's with CCRs that have discriminatory (regarding race)restrictions that cannot be upheld.

Judie, I understand your frustration as we had the exact same problem where I live....don't give up, and don't start breaking rules yourself; two wrongs don't make a right.

If two parking spaces DO belong to each unit, then immediately assign them as those here suggested. Paint the space or bumper/car stop with: RESEVERED--along with whatever type of "coding" you'll assign them. I don't recommend painting unit numbers on the spaces but rather a code system such as A1; B2: etc.

We had the same problem when owners with two cars would come home and find all the "second" spaces used up by visitors and NO it is not fair when an owner must park off-site when someone else has a bunch of friends over.

If there are no guest/visitor spaces, too bad. "First come, first served" is never right when people who don't live there get the spaces first. We limited our restrictions to 'no more than two cars per unit'.

Your parking lot is what it is. People should see there is limited parking and if their needs are for more, perhaps living there may not be the best place for them. People "outgrow" their current homes all the time.

When we changed our parking spaces a lot of people were p-----. But we had to explain that as the Board we had an obligation to the people who LIVE here, and PAY to live here. We are under no obligation to provide parking for people who do not live here.