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Condo association has parking space shortage

Posted on Sat, Jan 09, 2010 @ 06:16 AM
  
  
  
  
  
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I serve on the Board of my Condo Association which is comprised of 12 townhouse style units. It is a new development run very poorly by the builder from the inception of the development in Jan 08 (when I moved in) until May 09.

In March 09 when 100% of the units were occupied I headed a successful effort to get control of the Condo Association from the builder to the unit owners. With the help of an attorney and a property management company we held a successful election for the Board of Directors. Since May 09 the Condo Association Board has hired the property management company who helped with acquisition for landscaping, snow plowing and trash services.

I want to do the best job that I can as a Board member. The Board tries to try to keep communication open and educate everyone about what is going on. I figure I would rather hear complaints about too much communication than not enough. We have a big problem with parking. The builder cheaped out at the end of the development phase. Visitor parking spaces were cut from 12 to 4. We only just recently (Oct 09) got the road paved. The lines for parking were never done. "No parking" signs were never put up on the roadway as it is too narrow for on street parking. The property management company is useless with helping us with the builder (we will be changing them as soon as our contract is up in May 10) and the builder left us with no reserve money even though he collected $308 from each unit for that purpose. We are dealing with the condo association budget issues and other issues as there are a few! But the parking is where the most complaints come in as there are condo units abusing the use of the visitor parking spaces. They leave their garage empty, their driveway empty and put their two cars in the visitor parking.

Any suggestions on how to deal with this would be greatly appreciated.

Letters have been sent. Discussions have been held at meetings. Next step is instituting fines??? Maybe written notice first, fine next? Residents each have 2 parking spaces. Units with a garage have the garage space counted as one w/the driveway space as the #2 parking space.

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Comments

Find a Lawyer who will work FOR YOU to go after developer for capital improvement funds. Don't wait, and don't be put off. Also, go after developer on insufficient parking. Good Luck
Posted @ Saturday, January 09, 2010 9:37 AM by jeff Leavitt
We had a problem along those lines. You need to have the lines painted. You need to assign 2 spaces for the owners with numbers on them and put up reserved parking signs. You need to pass a policy that states owners cannot park in visitor parking. You need to have a parking committee. If someone is observed parking in a visitor spot you put a violation sticker on their windshield (Usually a bright orange sticker available from many places, your management co should be able to help you with that) Once you have notifed everyone that you get 1 warning if the same vehicle is observed parking in a visitor spot you call the tow company and have them towed. We did it to a number of people. It is amazing how many times the same people were towed! Eventually they got the message. You just need to record the type, color of car, tag and the date it was stickered. After that the owner can't say a word. You also can take a digital picture of repeat offenders and even have a fine attached to the unit that esclates on each offense, it's easy to download and date stamp digital photos. Hope this helps. 
Posted @ Monday, January 11, 2010 12:30 AM by Barbi Rose
Before you take any further action, be sure your actions are supported by the rules and bylaws of the assoc.
Posted @ Monday, January 11, 2010 7:24 PM by Robert Schierburg
While it is within a condo associations right to regulate the neighborhood in an effort to protect property values. It is an intrusion in civil liberties to restrict parking. Many families have both spouses working outside the home and ofton working different schedules, they also may have a high school or college aged child that drives as well. Limiting parking to 2 autos is no longer practical in a modern society. An association should be able to recognize this reality and seek a reasonable compromise rather than fine or tow a dues paying resident. Two options include increasing parking areas or instituting one way streets throughout the association roadways.  
 
 
 
Developers do not consider the parking from a practical vantage point but rather from a cost perspective. For example, my economy car barely fits in the driveway while my wife's small car leaves little room to even exit the car when parked in the garage but we park it in the garage anyway. If I were to drive a pick up truck and tried to park in the driveway it would stick out into the street which creates a hazard for oncoming traffic. My point is that I understand the association wanting to protect property values and keep inoperable autos out of the neighborhood but they must also consider more than two autos per household and the possibility of varying work schedules of those drivers.
Posted @ Tuesday, April 20, 2010 10:00 AM by Mike Dearing
I am a board member of a 14 owner association with a five member board in the association. The association has been in existence for about five years, in that time we are trying to get the budget and set the rules of condo docs in play. We have a parking situation where each unit is allowed 1 designated parking spot for one vehicle, with the exception of one unit that has two. All units are studios with the exception of this one that is a one bedroom unit so he has the 2nd space, well, the condo docs specify three visitor spots, they were never clearly identified and there was always a problem with owners finding which ones they could use for visitors. Another board member and myself, with the approval of all the board members, began to measure, mark and assign the three visitor spots, without moving any designated spots for each unit we able to accomodate the 18 spots that include the visitor spots. Because there were not markers on all units some were left from prior to becoming a condo and the ones that were marked were marked at 11 ft. Well to keep to the condo docs of 18 we needed to scale back the footage to 9ft between 7-10 inches. This is plenty for the one vehicle rule per unit. Well we have one unit that had purchased his unit last year and had decided that he does not want to give up the 11ft and does not want to have visitors spots. He is figuring first come first serve as it has been. Well come to find out he parks his vehicle plus a motorcycle in the one spot. We have gone around with this person numerous times and he has finally informed us that he will not conform to the rules and will remove any markings we put in place. Any suggestions as to what recourse we may have?
Posted @ Monday, July 19, 2010 4:29 PM by K. Beaudet
My condo association provides stickers - two per unit. Unfortunately, That have gotten very lax about enforcing this, and there is never any parking left when I get home from work. 9 cars out of 10 do not have stickers. I have complained to management on numerous occasions, and it gets better for a bit, then goes right back to the way it was. My husband and I have had to park in illegal spaces because of this. What can we do? Do we need an attourney?
Posted @ Saturday, July 31, 2010 10:45 PM by Laur
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