Condo Media - May 2019 - 35

be responsible for any costs incurred if they fail to comply,
and note as well that vehicles blocking snow equipment
may be towed at the owner's expense.

● Will the association tow vehicles parked improperly or
illegally? This is a reasonable and probably necessary
enforcement mechanism that most communities will probably want to adopt. The parking rules should state the
policy clearly and the board should post signs in parking
areas stating that "violators will be towed," Brady advises.
There are strict rules governing the towing process-for
example, the local police department must be notified
before a car is towed. Boards should vet the towing companies they hire to make sure they will follow these rules,
and to verify they are insured, Brady cautions.
"There are all kinds of issues related to towing," Brawley
adds. "Questions about who towed whom, liability and notice
requirements" among them. For those reasons, she advises
boards "to try to stay away from organizing the towing of
vehicles." In communities she manages, "we engage a tow
truck for the property and let the owner complaining about
an illegally parked car request the tow."
There are some issues rules can't anticipate. "We get some
strange requests," Brawley says. One came from an owner
who wanted to allow a friend with whom he was traveling to

park in his space while they were away. "We try to address
special requests with temporary parking arrangements,"
Brawley says. But communities will deal with these requests
differently, she notes, depending on "how much time and
effort they want to invest in parking issues and how amenable
they are to meeting owners' needs."
Parking harmony in any community will require cooperation
among owners and some measure of consideration for others-two commodities that aren't always to be found in condominium communities. A classic example: Owners who can't or
won't park within the lines of their assigned spaces. This is not
only "very annoying," Brawley notes; it can prevent an owner
with an adjacent space from parking in it. Brawley says she
would deal with the situation by sending a picture of the errant
parking to the owner and ask that he or she park properly.
Sometimes owners respond appropriately, with an apology and a promise to be more careful. "But sometimes these
requests fall on deaf ears," Brawley says. If the problem is
ongoing, the board could fine the offending owner, but only
if the rules specify that owners must park in a way that does
not impede others.
"If you're dealing with an owner who is just rude," Brawley
says, "and if the board can't fall back on the rules, then this
becomes an example of one of the realities of living in a
condominium community: There are some issues you just
can't resolve."

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May 2019 CONDOMEDIA

Condo Media - May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Condo Media - May 2019