Real Estate & Property Law

Guest Parking - Can the HOA Give It To Owners?

This question about guest parking comes up all the time - may the HOA assign guest parking for owner use, or even allow owners to use it at all, on a first come, first served basis?

If the governing documents say that common area parking is for guest use, it is best to resolve that issue by amending the documents, before opening up the parking to residents. However, there may be other language in the documents that the average person would miss relating to Board authority to assign parking, exclusive vs. nonexclusive use, etc., so the documents should be thoroughly examined by someone who is sufficiently capable of finding all pertinent language and resolving the conflicts if there are any.

That said, it is also important to examine local planning records as well, especially in an area where the municipality is active in code enforcement or enforcing planning restrictions. In some cases HOAs have ignored the guest parking restrictions in their governing documents to find out that thie City required some allowance for guest parking and has an interest in enforcing it (which makes sense, if the City streets are cluttered with vehicles).

What often happens is that the HOA Board feels a need to allow owners to use the spaces or has let it happen, often because residents have cluttered their garages and/or brought more than the originally contemplated 1 or 2 cars into the development. Whatever the reason, if there is a shortage of parking spaces, Boards tend to open up the guest parking to residents without understanding where the authority comes from and what limitations there might be, and later, after it has been allowed, and residents have put more things in their garages, and brought more cars into the development, the Board will find out there are outside parties that had rights to enforce restrictions, such as the City or County that imposed them on the developer.

So all I am saying is that if an HOA is planning to change the parking scheme or intent that exists in the governing documents, do it right.

Full post as published by California Condo & HOA Law on November 09, 2008 (boomark / email).