rules and regulations and Conflict with Convenants

Hi: I am a board member of a HOA in Colorado Springs, CO. Our covenants state that you can park in the street. The board a few years ago decided that they did not want parking in the street and put it in the rules and regulations that you cannot park in the street. This is a public street also. I believe this conflicts with the covenants and they can not enforce it.

Good point here is the wording in the Covenants.

" Restriction on Parking and Storage: No abandoned vehicles shall be stored or parked upon any part of the property or any street adjoining the property. For the purpose of this Section, an "abandoned vehicle" is any automobile, truck, motorcycle, motor bike, boat, trailer, camper, motor home, house trailer or other similar vehicle which has not be driven under its own propulsion, or has not been moved for a period of five (5) days or longer. Garage doors, if any, shall be kept closed at all times except when in immediate use for ingress or egress of motor vehicle. Boats, recreational vehicles, campers, motor homes, trailer and other such vehicles shall either be kept in the garage on the lot or screened from view in a manner approved by the Architectural Approval Authority and shall in no event be parked on the street of the project.

I read it that parking is allowed except for abandoned vehicle.

Thanks for your time.

> the board has the ability to pass rules and regs regarding it

That would be my thinking. The text of the CC&Rs clearly indicates that the HOA can regulate parking on the street. They are allowed to pass rules that do not conflict with the CC&Rs.

Terry,

Typically, if the streets are public then only public laws apply unless the CC&Rs, the contract you entered into when you purchased the home, specifies that street parking can be controlled. The covenant you provided could be interpreted either way (HOA having the authority or not). Therefore, it might require a legal challenge in order to have the issue resolved. Until then, it's possible that each new Board of directors may interpret it differently.

Our streets turned from private to public roads when we adapted to separate water meters from the water department. In order for them to install the meters, our roads had to be accessible publicly. However, they don't meet the city's width requirements due to us formerly being created under COUNTY rules. This means that it is nearly impossible for people to park their cars on BOTH sides of the street and a car be able to travel betwen them. We had a resident die because the ambulance couldn't get out of the neighborhood because of the parking situation.

What we had to do is change our CC&R's to reflect this change from private to public roadways. Plus we had other relatated/non-related changes that needed to be adapted. It's always good for a HOA to review their CC&R's every 5 years to see about making changes due to changing conditions or technologies. The process for making these changes are in the documentation itself. Each HOA varies on the number of votes and if a special meeting is required or not. You will need to hire a lawyer but use one familiar with CONTRACTUAL laws. We also had to remove ALL references to the builder/developer as they no longer were part of our HOA. An issue many HOA's overlook at transition time when it's turned over to the owners.

Tim is correct, and the city's laws apply to your roads NOT the HOA's. That doesn't mean the HOA doesn't have a say. It means they have to work within the city's guidelines/codes. Example: Our HOA doesn't allow for signs other than For Sale/Rent. The city/fire chief/local representative and I worked on a plan due to the safety issues of our road ways. We made it so a car could NOT park on the side of the street where the fire hydrants were. (We formed a giant circle basically). However, the city codes required "No parking" signs to be put up every 50 feet or so. Something we didn't want or allow. So we worked with the city's code department and created a new option. We were allowed to have our curbs painted RED for No parking and Blue for Handicap. This meant NO signs and the city could enforce the no parking rules. An option your HOA may want to look into if this is an issue.

Plus wanted to add that your CC&R's override any by-laws. It's in the documentation on what takes precedents over what documents. By-laws can often be changed simply by a board vote/meeting notes. CC&R's take a complete re-draft, membership vote, and officially filing with the county. By-laws don't have to be filed typically. They just stay within the membership but it's a good idea to file them too if possible.

Fred:
Good point. Thanks.
Jeanne

thanks everyone. The covenants were filed in 2001. (this is also a single family development)

a four panel board wrote up some Policies, procedures, rules & regulations (never filed or voted on by the homeowners)

They wrote in there PP&RR's about parking

Parking
1. All vehicles shall be parked in the garage or driveway except for guests. There is no parking in the street except for guest.

2. All vehicles must meet local noise and safety requirements, and automobiles or motorcycles without mufflers in good working order are prohibited.

3. Except for the sole purpose of loading and unloading, no recreational vehicles, boats, campers, trailer, junk or inoperative vehicles, as determined in the sole discretion of the board, shall be parked in any driveway, on any lot on any private street or elsewhere within the subdivision.

Number 3 along conflicts with the covenants in my opinion.

My thought on this is in the covenants when it says no abandoned vehicles shall be stored or parked upon any part of the property or street adjoining the property and then goes on to define what abandon means they are saying parking in the street is allowed.

The board also has someone with a camper that want to be able to load and park in front of her house over night. The board also want their guest to be able to park in the street, but the board does not believe a teen should be able to park in the street in front of there own home but to have to park outside the subdivision and walk to there house or play musical chair with there vehicles either early mornings or late at night.

Thanks for everyone input

Terry

It doesn't matter what the board thinks regarding the street, I don't believe they have the authority to enforce it. The driveway yes, street no....