Guest Parking Violators - California

Started by JohnR25 • 8 replies • 3192 views

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JohnR25 (California)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Our HOA has a problem with guest vehicles abusing the guest parking area policy.

Our rule, which was voted on and approved by a majority of the owners 5yrs ago, puts a limit of no more than 3-nights per month with no resident parking allowed in the guest parking area at any time.

This rule was devised because we have only 4 slots available for 31 units in a gated community. So to afford every unit the opportunity, on a first-come, first-served basis, we came up with this rule.

Because of the economy we lost a lot of good homeowners and are in our second wave of owners. That said, this rule has always remained in force.

Some of the residents are owners and some are tenants.

The hard part is identifying who the vehicles belong to, and which unit they are visiting. Everyone denies knowledge of these things.

We have placed notices on violating vehicles telling them they are violating the rule, but I guess since they are guests, they assume the rules do not apply to them or simply don't care.

The property management company basically washes their hands of this responsibility because basically, they don't want to do what they are being paid for.

Does anyone else in California have this problem, and if so, what have you done to correct this?

Thanks in advance

BonnieG1 (Nebraska)
Posts: 1,186

Posted:

I am not in CA, but I can see where this would be a very hard rule to enforce. Are you certain these veshicles belong to someone visiting or could they possibly be other neighbors using the spots. I know that we ave had problems with people in the neighborhood parking in our lot.
We are adjacent to a nursing home and share the outside lot with the nursing home staff and visitors. WHen people in the neighborhood use the lot, it is very diffcult if not impossible to find a parking spot outside.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,047

Posted:

John,

If your not towing or allowed to tow (meeting county regs with signage etc.) and if your not using parking passes, there really is no way to identify the vehicles unless you stay outside and watch each vehicle as it parks and where the passengers walk to.

LarryB13 (Arizona)
Posts: 4,099

Posted:

Suppose you find a fool-proof method for identifying resident cars and suppose that you had 100% compliance with the visitor parking rule. Here's what would happen: those 4 visitor parking spaces would be filled in about a nanosecond. Your problem is a ridiculously low number of visitor spaces. The rule your HOA adopted 5 years ago did not address the real problem: your visitor parking is inadequate. If you cannot add about 25 more spaces then you are wasting your resources trying to enforce the parking rule.

FionaC (California)
Posts: 212

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By BonnieG1 on 11/19/2011 8:12 PM
I am not in CA, but I can see where this would be a very hard rule to enforce. Are you certain these veshicles belong to someone visiting or could they possibly be other neighbors using the spots. I know that we ave had problems with people in the neighborhood parking in our lot.
We are adjacent to a nursing home and share the outside lot with the nursing home staff and visitors. WHen people in the neighborhood use the lot, it is very diffcult if not impossible to find a parking spot outside.

I live in California, we had a similiar issue sort of. We had not rules for the parking though. It's been cleared up since then.

Your issues... without parking permits, you have NO idea who is what and where. Can't enforce anything at that rate

JohnR25 (California)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Thanks for the feedback.

We do know who some of the violators are, but despite the obvious signs and taping warning notices to vehicles, the violations continue. The problem is most of these violations happen at night and the management company balks and refuses to come out at night to sign off for a tow. Mind you they charge the HOA per visit.

There are times where I think some of these vehicles belong to the building next door, but it is a gated community and you need a remote to open the gate. Not that it would discourage some to do it anyway, but it makes it hard to get out of the community.

JeffR7 (California)
Posts: 251

Posted:

Why does a management company need to come out to sign on a tow? You can allow any or all board members to deal with it.

LarryD10 (Texas)
Posts: 26

Posted:

Some Hoa in Texas has sticker on there car window showing they are owner and no
sticker shows quest, only 2.00 for homeowner per car. Something to think about
larry

CarolR11 (Colorado)
Posts: 2,563

Posted:

Yes, as suggested, assign/document stickers for residents. No car with a sticker is permitted in Guest Parking. Here, the unit/home owner would be called to hearing after a 2nd violation and fined $50; the fine could double with each subsequent violation.

We have 16 guest parking spaces for 200+ residences. Most urban high rises like ours in this area have fewer or none.

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