Parking/Legal Issue...Need Advice

Christina,

IMO, this complaining board member is correct. If your CCRs say all members are entitled to 1.5 assigned parking spaces (which I would say should be 1 space) and it doesn't exempt any one who has a driveway then those members cannot be exempted. With 168 parking spaces and 102 homes, every prop. owner should be assigned 1 parking space leaving 66 spaces for visitors or members on a first come, first serve basis. Until such time as the CCRs are amended this is the way it must be done. All those 22 members with driveways must now be assigned a parking space. The BOD cannot just do whatever they feel is right (even if it does work!) if it violates the community documents. This is not a matter of interpretation, it's an outright violation. When a member violates the community documents he is sent a violation letter and perhaps given a fine. So, why does the board think it's OK for them to violate the community documents?

In our case, our driveways lead to garages. Nobody is allowed to park on our driveways, only in garages. But, in this case, I assume that the driveways are a carport or something similar.

I agree with what the other person wrote: If the documents say that everybody gets one parking space, then everybody gets one, even people with a driveway.

Houses with driveways probably sell for more than houses without them in your community. The HOA shouldn't be putting its finger on the scales, tilting HOA benefits towards people with cheaper units and usurping benefits from people with more expensive ones.

DanielH1 Found your post very interesting. You said "The HOA shouldn't be putting its finger on the scales, tilting HOA benefits towards people with cheaper units and usurping benefits from people with more expensive ones". The HOA is just following the lead of the federal government. The process is as you know called Socialism and we are almost there.

DISCLAIMER--I AM A HOA BOARD MEMBER (But don't hold that against me)

The devil is not only in the details of the CCRs (and likely supplemental Rules doc which expands on the vagueness of the CCRS)but also in the local and state laws. In California there are strict laws about what, how, who, and so forth regarding parking enforcement. Very specific laws.... You might want to investigate the laws in your area.

Also--I've not seen any mention here about the requirements for "guest parking" The CCRS and/or local zoning ordinances ought to have something about the number of spaces required for guests. In our association, we have 110 units and only 88 spaces total (everyone has a 2 car garage and 20 people have driveways). By the ordinaces ALL of our spaces are considered "guest" and therefore, technically, we cannot assign spaces to residents via permit.

As I mentioned, in many cases there's a Rules doc that expands on all of the missing pieces of the CCRs, which are always intentionally vague. The rules document typically doesn't necessitate member vote to amend, just a board vote. Of course, the caveat is that the rules document cannot contradict the CCRs, just expand upon vaguness or items not at all covered.

From my perspective as a board member, any member who has a driveway and is still expecting a permit is barking up the wrong tree. This has happened in our association. My response to them is that they have 2 spaces in their garage and 2 on their driveway. If they expect to park in the street, they can expect to find my car in their driveway.

You seem to be looking for support for your firmly entrenched opinion, rather than asking a question.

Maybe this will help.

You might look into seeing if units with garages are in a different voting class than those without. If they are, you'll have an easier time defending different rules. If they aren't, you'll have a harder time.

Even if you modify your CCRs, the Board Member can still sue. A CCR change won't prevent that. He'll claim that a HOA majority cannot legally strip a HOA minority of equality or basic rights. But he also might be bluffing about suing in either case.

Christina,

You stated you are in favor of amending the CCRs to exempt lots with driveways from the allotment of parking spaces. However I get the impression this is based upon the one section not having enough parking spaces to accommodate the number of homes. This could be remedied very easily by just assigning 2 members with driveways to a parking space in another location. Since they already have a driveway, having to walk a little ways to their assigned parking space shouldn't be a big problem. IMO, to change the CCRs just because of that is really ridiculous. Ten years ago the BOD made a big mistake which needs to be remedied by the current board. The CCRs do not need to be amended; there are sufficient number of parking spaces to assign one to each property owner, including those with driveways, in fact there will be 66 unassigned spaces left over for guests or members. If the number of parking spaces were less than the number of property owners then I could see amending the CCRs to exempt those with driveways. Regardless of how the board member who wants an assigned parking space is acting, he IS right in that he is entitled to an assigned parking space.

Oh I've thought about it!!! I really have!! ;-)

BUT...it would interfere with other people's spaces. And that's not fair to them. The closest neighboring court is already 7 spaces short of every unit having 2. Usually the last 7 people home at night end up parking on the street or even worse, 3-4 blocks away! It wouldn't be fair to them, no matter what this guy does. However, once they found out why they lost more parking, maybe they'll come to some meetings so this guy doesn't get elected again in September.

Mary,

Sorry for the long response...

I am not trying to change the CCRs just to get back at him. I am trying to change the CCRs to make it as fair for everyone in the HOA as possible. But I also don't think he should be able to use this to bully the remainder of the board into getting things he wants done his way. I was on the BOD before this Member even bought his home and was working on updating the CCRs to match the addition of the driveways as well as other items that have been updated by amendment but corresponding rules were missed and therefore contradict. Unfortnately due to more pressing issues the CCRs were constantly tabled.

We have 102 homes.
5 courts
Court 1 - 25 homes - 50 spaces OK
Court 2 - 28 homes - 26 spaces, 22 driveways (somewhat OK)
Court 3 - 12 homes - 24 spaces OK
Court 4 - 11 homes - 22 spaces OK
Court 5 - 26 homes - 45 spaces 7 spaces short of 2 per unit

Yes everyone is entitled to 1 space per the CCRs, but then who determines who the extra spaces go to? There is not enough outside area parking to make it for visitors only. There are maybe 30 spaces on the outlying street and then you are looking at walking 3-5 blocks to find a legal parking space. Once you get beyond those 5 blocks, you are in another area in which you need a parking permit or overnight parking is not permitted. Our development has 5 courts and then just after the last court is an apartment complex and an assisted living apartment building. All with limited parking that spills out into our 30 spaces, and then has to go 3-5 blocks and beyond as well.

The BOD has tried opening the other spaces to anyone - This had people owning 3 and 4 vehicles parking all of their vehicles in the court and other homeowners couldn't park a 2nd vehicle at all. One owner had 7 vehicles parked in the court...3 of which were there all the time because they were never driven, just space savers is what she called them. An even larger problem was that it also had people from the apartments parking in our courts as well. People that don't pay dues towards the re-paving and striping of these areas.

The BOD then implemented parking permits. 2 per unit. Assigned spaces were assigned, and the unassigned spaces were on a first come first serve basis. This has worked for almost 7 years now. Everyone gets their assigned space and everyone has the equal opportunity to a 2nd space on a first come first serve basis, except Court 2. They get 4 spaces, 2 unassigned in the court, 1 in their driveway and 1 in their garage. Most of them don't park in their garage or their driveway unless they had more than 2 vehicles.

Now the BOD wants to completely eliminate guest parking. Before you could give your hanging permit to a friend and allow them to park in your space, while you parked down the street. Now you will get 1 permanent sticker permit per vehicle with a maximum of 2 permits. So if you only own 1 vehicle, you only get 1 permit. They are hoping that the 4-5 people with only one vehicle will fix the lack of parking in court 5. The problem is that with the driveways not being in the CCRs, they cannot enforce parking in the driveway. So a guest without a permit can park in the driveway and there is nothing the BOD can do about it. So essentially they would be eliminating guest parking except for Court 2. Now is that ok? Since the driveways aren't in the CCRs...its legal. They also cannot make the owner park in their driveway, which would open more parking for the other people in their court with a 2nd vehicle. I don't think they should require you to park in your driveway, but I certainly don't think you should be able to have a guest in your driveway if I can't have a guest in my assigned space.

Let's be honest. Our CCRs were writtin in the early 90s and times change. Our CCRs also state that we can't have clotheslines or satelite dishes, yet cable wasn't even available in our area until 2001. So we were supposed to go without television or internet because we couldn't have a satelite dish? It also allowed the BOD to hold secret meetings without Members. The state of MD has addressed some of these issues. Why is it ok to fix these things, but not update the CCRs to allow for additional parking for people without the added amenity of a garage and a driveway? This subdivison would have never even been built if not for the fact that those driveways were counted as parking spaces. If the County, State, and Town count them as parking spaces, the HOA should be entitled to count them as spaces too. People don't own 1 vehicle, people have children that drive, married couples both work now. We do NOT live anywhere near a mass transit system that would allow people to eliminate a 2nd vehicle. I drive 47 miles each way to work in traffic that can extend my commute to 3 hours in one direction. I'm 29 miles from a mass transit system. I certainly cannot trade my vehicle in for a bicycle. If I had a driveway and a garage, I would not be arguing that I should get 3 spaces when my neighbors only get 1.

Nothing short of buying some extra land and building an additional parking lot is going to fix our problem 100%, but at least by adding the driveways to the CCRs, we are helping to make parking fair across the entire HOA. Is life fair? No, but if we have the opportunity to do something that can benefit the HOA as a whole then why would we choose not to?

I wouldn't want to know how much money the value of my home would drop when I have to continuosly lower my price since no one wants to buy my house when my assigned parking space is not even in the same court I live in. How do we decide which homes' spaces are in a different court? The homes closest to other courts are the ones without driveways...I'm sure that will go over well with those homeowners! And both spaces would come from court 5.

I guess I shouldn't bring up the fact that we also do not have any handicapped parking.

Well, I came to be on the board by standing up against bully board members. In that election (5 years ago) we took 3 of the 5 seats and the remaining 2 quit within 3 months once they understood that their regime was over.... So, if this guy is bullying people, they can always vote him out.

Another thing, if he's a board member and he sues the HOA, he's suing himself. If he resigns the board, which probably doesn't seem like a bad idea, he'll sue the HOA, but the HOA will defend itself with resident money--so, he'll end up paying for the defense. You may want to check the rules regarding litigation between members and the HOA.

One other point...what does your CCRs / Rules say about use of the garage? Our docs state that the garage is to be used for parking of the vehicles ONLY. No storage, no gym equipment, no playroom...just a car. In that case, parking out of the garage is only a consideration if the car won't fit in the garage (due to size)

I'd be surprised if the CCRs are silent on that topic.