Condo Media - December 2011 - 18

ASKED & ANSWERED

Parking Problems
Too Many Cars, Not Enough Spaces

Q A

QUESTION: Our community association has a parking problem— specifically, not enough spaces to accommodate all the cars. Although each unit is allotted two spaces, many owners have more than two cars and guests often fill any “surplus” spots around the community. Can you suggest any solutions?

ANSWER: Banning cars and requiring owners to take mass transit would quickly solve the parking problem—and address global warming concerns as well, wryly suggests Ellen Shapiro, a partner in the Massachusetts law firm Goodman, Shapiro & Lombardi. Presumably, this is not a solution most owners would applaud, so she has some alternatives for you to consider. Your approach will depend on how parking is structured in your community, Shapiro says. If the deed to an owner’s unit includes the exclusive use of two spaces, and those spaces are specifically identified by letter, number or otherwise, then the solution is fairly straightforward—not necessarily easy, but straightforward. Make it clear that the board will strictly enforce the community’s parking restrictions by towing cars parked without permission in spaces belonging to other owners. The board can adopt procedures for handling violations— warnings and polite requests to move followed by automatic towing after a specified and preferably limited number of repeat violations. It is unlikely that an owner who has to retrieve and pay for a towed car will want to repeat that experience. Owners who see their neighbors’ cars towed, presumably, will get the message.

Less straightforward, but more common, are arrangements in which the deeds grant owners the exclusive use of one or more parking spaces, but don’t specify which ones. In these communities, and it sounds as if yours is one of them, it is up to the board to decide how (if at all) to structure the exclusiveuse rights the deeds convey and how to manage any excess spaces that aren’t included in the deeds. Shapiro outlines several options:

approved “temporary” stay for visitors: 24 hours? A week? Longer? How will you handle college-aged children who come home with their cars for the summer or adult children who lose their jobs and move in with their parents indefinitely? How long will they be able to occupy designated (and presumably limited) visitors’ spots? • If the owners’ deeds don’t assign specific parking spots, the board can do so. The best way to do this, Shapiro suggests, is through a lottery, which will avoid complaints that the board unfairly gave some owners “better” spots than others. But the board will have to make it clear to owners that it retains the right to re-assign spaces, and may have to do so, Shapiro says—for example, if it becomes necessary to assign close-in spaces to handicapped residents. Boards also will have to decide how strictly to regulate the transfer of assigned spaces. Will you allow owners to exchange spaces or to lease spaces they aren’t using to other owners? In general, Shapiro sees no reason to prohibit these arrangements, as long as the board has a mechanism for keeping track of the exchanges “so they know which cars are supposed to be where.” There are no laws or regulations governing how boards address parking issues, Shapiro says, and there is no “right or wrong” answer for all. The “right” response for your board will depend on “how the problem manifests itself,” she adds, “and there are as many possible parking problems as there are cars in the lot. The facts in your community should shape the solution.” CM

• Do nothing. Allow owners to park wherever they like on a first-come-firstserved basis. That appears to be the current arrangement in your community and it doesn’t seem to be working out very well. • Distribute parking stickers (or placards that can be placed on car dashboards) to owners, and issue temporary passes allowing guests to park legally in spots designated for visitors. Cars without the required stickers or placards can be spotted quickly and violators handled according to whatever procedures the board adopts. But the parking sticker option is not without its complexities, Shapiro notes. The board will have to consider, among other questions, what constitutes an

CONDO MEDIA • DECEMBER 2011

Condo Media - December 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Condo Media - December 2011