Enforcement of speed limits on HOA private roads

JackJ (Florida)
Posts: 40

Posted:

Our FL association owns and maintains the roads in our complex and are therefore not subject to local traffic laws and speed limits.
This obviously causes us problems in that even though we post the speed limit at 15MPH, many people, including residents, ignore the sings because they know that we have no legal way (at least that we know of, thus this topic)of penalizing speeders. We have discussed speed bumps but we would rather use the "pocketbook" approach. Any ideas out there? Thanks

SwanB (Washington)
Posts: 199

Posted:

Our maximum speed limit is 15mph and we have speed bumps. We have a fine of $100 for 'negligent driving'-which includes driving in excess of the posted community streets speed limit.
We cleared this with our legal counsel. When we contacted the State Patrol and County Sheriff's office about speed limit violations we were told our community speed limit had to be 20mph or higher for them to get involved.

JulieS (Georgia)
Posts: 412

Posted:

One of our employees went to do an esitmate in a subdivision and received a ticket from the 'neighborhood police'for speeding. He was pulled over by a 'kid' in a vehicle with flashing lights. He requested the drivers license and wrote up a ticket with a fine. We are able to contest the fine or just pay it to the HOA.

I would assume that if a ticket is not paid, a fine would be issued to the homeowner and if not paid, then a lien put on the house for the fine. Being that our driver does not live in the neighborhood and this person does not know whose house we came from there is no way for the HOA to enforce the ticket (but I'm not sure).

I just thought this was an interesting way to gain control of the speeding issue faced in most neighborhoods. It may work for you. We advise our neighbors to call the police with a license plate number and report the repeat offender.

EdR (Texas)
Posts: 170

Posted:

I would think this would work only if the roads were not owned by a county or city. Our roads are county. A sheriff's deputy for the county, only, can patrol or write tickets. It does no good for us even to report to them, violations in traffic. In our neighborhood, if another homeowner or even director, gave a traffic speeding ticket, that issuer would be hunted down and lynched. I was hunted down, assaulted and defamed for expecting deed restrictions to be enforced and for enforcing them, while as a director on the board. It is my understanding that in a nearby assn., two directors used to pretend to check people's speed by using a black blow dryer and holding it up as the homeowners sped by. I don't think this worked--they eventually paid for two patrol cars and hired full time, two city policemen to drive them. This has helped with security and safety. It seems to me that if there are laws, somebody feels the need to break them--this is a shame because someone could get hurt or killed due to this.
EdR

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

In our county , a Florida one, IF the speed limit is 25 mph or higher, the Sheriff can patrol and write tickets. Lower speeds, they will not patrol. There is no such thing as a private road as for jurisdiction of the police and sheriff departments. We looked into speed bumps and the association attorney said that they were not legal on the access roads so ingress and egress is impeeded to residents beyond the bumps.
What we decided to do is to just get on the cases of these same people who always speed. Usually they are on their phones too so they are not paying attention to anything else. Anyone outside who sees a speeder, we just yell, wave our arms and make them realize that they are going to fast. That helped but we finally raised our speed limit to 25. A few days of tickets from the Sheriff has done the trick.
Donna

TomJ (Arizona)
Posts: 42

Posted:

Our streets are private also inside a gated community. The city will not patrol it and issue tickets.

We discussed speed humps but since the speeding is on the main street in we decided to add two new stop signs. So far it seems to have helped.

In conjunction with the stop signs we also installed more speed limit signs. The developer did not install any speed limit signs but under state law it would be 25. Originally we had a couple of Slow Childeren at Play Speed Limit 20 but took them out. We found out that causes more questions than just straight speed limit signs and one city nearby forced a HOA to remove theirs on non private streets.

By the way, we set our speed limit at 20.

TomJ (Arizona)
Posts: 42

Posted:

Our streets are private also inside a gated community. The city will not patrol it and issue tickets.

We discussed speed humps but since the speeding is on the main street in we decided to add two new stop signs. So far it seems to have helped.

In conjunction with the stop signs we also installed more speed limit signs. The developer did not install any speed limit signs but under state law it would be 25. Originally we had a couple of Slow Childeren at Play Speed Limit 20 but took them out. We found out that causes more questions than just straight speed limit signs and one city nearby forced a HOA to remove theirs on non private streets.

By the way, we set our speed limit at 20.

TomJ (Arizona)
Posts: 42

Posted:

Sorry for the double post, having internet problems.

JackJ (Florida)
Posts: 40

Posted:

B.Swan - Is your HOA in Florida? If so I would be interested in how your attorney came to his conclusion regarding speeders on your property and how he defended that position. We sure could use some good news like that. Thanks. JackJ

SwanB (Washington)
Posts: 199

Posted:

JackJ-Our HOA is in Washington state, not in Florida. Our legal counsel's advice was based on not calling the violation a 'speeding violation' or a 'reckless driving violation' but a 'negligent driving' violation. Originally the association had bought a radar gun before researching all the requirements of operation and realized we would not be able to meet the standards.

DonD (North Carolina)
Posts: 4

Posted:

We have 7+ miles of private roads. The county police cannot enforce our
25mph speed limit. They have no jurisdiction. unless they can
determine it is reckless endangerment. We installed stop signs, which
seen to slow down some speeders.
We have installed 13 speed humps on the three main roads and found
they were not deterring speeders, so we raised the height. This
has definitely slowed down traffic. We do not like speed humps
but the safety of our residence comes first. FYI our traffic surveys
indicate that 700+ cars per day travel the main ariteries in our
community.

JackJ (Florida)
Posts: 40

Posted:

I appreciate all of your input on the "speeding" issue. So far we have done nothing but I do think some of your ideas will be discussed among residents and eventually put into practice.It's always good to get the results of someone elses experience on things like this so we can avoid mistakes. JackJ (Florida)

VinceM (Florida)
Posts: 15

Posted:

we had a meeting with all the pres. in our hoa then voted to sign a aggrement with law enforcement to patrol as well as issue tickets go thru the country to have it voted on by the comminsers then there should be no confusion as to who can come in and enforce the speed i would post to all residents that the policy is in effect if you can have it passed that way they know what the results will be if they speed and that the speeders can't stste that the roads are private, for the reason of traffic control goo luck

VinceM (Florida)
Posts: 15

Posted:

we had a meeting with all the pres. in our hoa then voted to sign a aggrement with law enforcement to patrol as well as issue tickets go thru the country to have it voted on by the comminsers then there should be no confusion as to who can come in and enforce the speed i would post to all residents that the policy is in effect if you can have it passed that way they know what the results will be if they speed and that the speeders can't stste that the roads are private, for the reason of traffic control goo luck

VinceM (Florida)
Posts: 15

Posted:

we had a meeting with all the pres. in our hoa then voted to sign a aggrement with law enforcement to patrol as well as issue tickets go thru the country to have it voted on by the comminsers then there should be no confusion as to who can come in and enforce the speed i would post to all residents that the policy is in effect if you can have it passed that way they know what the results will be if they speed and that the speeders can't stste that the roads are private, for the reason of traffic control goo luck

VinceM (Florida)
Posts: 15

Posted:

we had a meeting with all the pres. in our hoa then voted to sign a aggrement with law enforcement to patrol as well as issue tickets go thru the country to have it voted on by the comminsers then there should be no confusion as to who can come in and enforce the speed i would post to all residents that the policy is in effect if you can have it passed that way they know what the results will be if they speed and that the speeders can't stste that the roads are private, for the reason of traffic control goo luck

BradP (Kansas)
Posts: 2,640

Posted:

I am not familiar with what can be done, but I would think you would only want to use speed bumps as a very last resort. Remember they are designed to slow down vehicles and that includes ambulance, fire and police in the case of a real emergency. I would also question having a kid on a bicycle with lights trying to pull someone over. Seems to me that is just putting himself in danger, but maybe it has worked.