HOAs struggle with making parking regulations fair

Q: I am a board member of a 124-condo complex in Las Vegas. We have carports, of which each condo gets one assigned space to park. We have many guest parking spaces. Over time, some residents have as many as three to four cars, meaning these are parked in guest parking. We have no storage policy for vehicles. And there is no rule that says we can tow after three days if a car is not moved. Can an HOA regulate how many cars there are per condo? The board believes two cars per condo is enough. To make a rule of only two cars per condo will get rid of subleasing and many tenants in one condo. That will only make for more problems for our HOA.

A: Before you make any change to a parking policy, you will need to review your covenants, conditions and restrictions as any policy must be consistent with the CC&Rs. Parking is one of the more difficult challenges that I am seeing now with homeowners associations. You should discuss the parking problem with your community manager, who could share with you the parking policies from other associations. Other than the assigned parking space, vehicles should not be using the guest parking spaces as storage, and the association should be able to regulate storage. Some associations require the registration of vehicles, which may be an option. Registered vehicles would have resident stickers that would help identify if a resident was storing their vehicle in a guest parking space.

You will have some unhappy homeowners with the two-car-per condominium regulation. Perhaps some survey could be sent to all of the residents to find out how many residents have more than two cars. This would at least provide information as to what your board and management company may face with the two-car rule.

Tenants should not be subleasing their units. Subleasing is usually a lease violation in most standard lease agreements. If your association does not have a lease agreement requirement, then that would be another possible action item for your board. Tenants also would be required to register their vehicles if the association had this policy, which again could help in enforcing parking regulations.

Q: I have a question for you regarding a fence that separates a backyard from a common area within my association. Residents in the neighborhood have lowered the fence by 18 inches to allow for the unobstructed view we were promised. The HOA approved the fence being lowered as long as the homeowners get approval from Summerlin South. They submitted to Summerlin South and have been denied, noting that all corridor fences need to be the same height. However, through various developments nearby, fences are many different heights. Regardless, they are told to restore the fence to its original size in 90 days. If we don’t do this, what fines would we face?

A: You will need to discuss this issue with the management of Summerlin South as I do not know what their fine schedule is. As to Nevada Revised Statute 116 laws, it could fine a homeowner $100 to $1,000 per week. If the violation is not cured, it is considered a continuing violation, which would then allow the association to assess a $100 fine each week beyond the $1,000 maximum until compliance.

Barbara Holland is a certified property manager (CPM) and holds the supervisory community manager certificate with the state of Nevada. She is an author and educator on real estate management. Questions may be sent to holland744o@gmail.com.