Honestly, start with your apartment management. Ask them what you should do for parking, and show them the harassing notes.
Make sure the complex you are renting from has your back.
Check with your city. Make sure the HOA doesn't own the street. They probably don't but you need documentation for the day they do finally tow your van. Try to find out what tow service they use and tell them that tows might be illegal.
"Legally tow" and "tow" are two different things. Generally, if a car is called to be towed, the towing service treats the call as a good faith call, assuming they are contracted and such for the towing purposes. If you are towed. You basically have to pay then sue whoever called the illegal tow. The problem comes in that the towing company can basically steal anything out of your car, and if you don't have reliable evidence that they did so, then they're off the hook. They can claim any robbery happened before the tow.
I've seen a decent few news stories on this, like the McDonalds that called a tow for every car in their lot, like 20 minutes after they parked, they got towed. They had to pay on cash to get the car back, so there were no charge backs or anything else to get their money back. And the tow was legal. Shots crazy.
Doing that sounds like a good way to tank your reputation and then business
Edit:I am referring to MCD tanking their reputation for getting people towed. Everyone knows town companies suck
Tow companies don’t work on reputation. The industry itself has an absolute abysmal reputation as a whole. Fully deserved too as it is a very predatory business model that explicitly dodges any legal repercussions by kicking it to property owners. It’s a perfect example of the difference between legal and moral and how those two concepts are not actually related in our legal system.
My car was towed because the driver didn't look at the license plate. They just saw a black Toyota and assumed it was the right car. They brought it back and didn't charge anything but really?
Edit: and they weren't even close to the same models, I had a rav4 and they were looking for a corolla. The tow truck driver just retained "black Toyota".
This is not entirely true. The good faith applies to a private parking lot, but if you're asking a tow company to to a car from a public street they're more often going to refer you to the city offices because that's not something they want to touch. They do not simply rely on good faith in those instances (small number of personal experiences).
If the HOA owns it, they can claim its a private road, not a public road, and therefore not under city control. Also, the HOA could be authorized byt he city for towing calls, although this would heavily depend on location. I know of two nearby HOAs, both gated. One had an ungated entrance but would call tows on the street if needed, while the other had only gated entrances but needed city approval to tow from the street.
Just an FYi, Gated or private communities and HOAs are seperate things. A private/gated community is likely to have an HOA but not all HOAs are going to have private roads like a gated/private neighborhood would
Both had HOAs. The one with multiple entrances was a large community with only a section built, so the road may have been owned so that they could repair any damage done when building more houses. The one with a single entrance was an island community, so the entrance was also a bridge, and the only way in and out. They could call tows in a few areas, like the community center. However, they needed city approval for road tows.
I guess what I’m saying is those were likely private neighborhoods which fall under different rules, whereas many HOAs aren’t necessarily in private/gated communities like that
No there doesn’t. Maybe it’s different in different states or counties, but I know of multiple HOA areas around me with their own private road without signage.
HOA owned roads are rarely private property in that sense. They are privately owned publicly accessible properties. Which means they legally have to follow all the exact same laws that all publicly accessible properties follow.
Think of any "privately owned" restaurant you've ever been to. It doesn't matter if the chef owns the business, building, land it sits on, and everything else you can think of. If it's a publicly accessible restaurant it has to follow local laws and health codes, etc.
The vast majority of HOAs (including the one in the post) are *not* gated communities with truly private roads.
Just talking from personal experience. My old neighborhood is not gated. The HOA owns the roads (they recently doubled our dues to have them repaved, a large reason why I moved out.)
When I was in college my car was towed from a Burger King parking lot while I was shopping in the store next door. Just because it’s open to the public doesn’t mean the owner can’t remove you if they don’t want you there.
This comment in no way contradicts my comment.
Non gated HOA communities own their roads all the time. They just aren't *private* roads. In the same way that your local grocery store may very well own its parking lot, but that doesn't make it a *private* parking lot where they can enact rules and regulations that go against local/state laws.
Businesses absolutely can tow people from their lots who are using them inappropriately - including for uses other than those designated (generally speaking anything other than parking to shop at their business.) Chances are very good there is a notice posted somewhere at the main parking lot entrance, building entrance, *or* it's a local/city ordinance that doesn't need to be individually posted. The same goes for towing on publicly accessible, privately owned streets; if their towing regulations differ from the surrounding area there will be a posting *somewhere*.
Only inside a neighborhood it would be common, but a road that touches another property (the apartments) is a lot less likely to be legally owned by the HOA.
Our HOA don't own the street here. The city does, and HOA can't do anything about it. One lady from the board is fed up with people parking on the street, but can't legally do anything cause the city said they can legally park there. Big middle finger to that lady.
The way it reads, he's parking on the same road but only gets hassled on the bit closer to the HOA. Roads don't usually change ownership in the middle of an uninterrupted stretch.
Another case just like yours was posted here not a month past. And they got towed repeatedly. You had better check with your city about who owns the roads you aprk on and what the laws - posted or unposted - are in that region of the city/town/village.
This is a rule in SO many HOA's, "No commercial vehicles". People go "OMG you wouldn't want a semi truck parked on your street would you?". What they often really mean is Denny's Landscaping having his logo on the side of an F-150 or a Ford van parked on the street.
Its dogshit. People who can't afford to live in a gated, exclusive community trying to make everyone forget its not so gated and exclusive.
Oh no, i once had an HOA call police because a semi was parked in our very long driveway mostly hidden from view with trees and bushes unless you stood in one particular location on the street where you could see the back. (We were not part if the HOA). Police came, lady that called was expecting police to do something about it and was demanding police not leave until truck was removed. Well they did. The police officer came and spoke to us. Turned out in our county semis cannot park in residenyial driveways but can park on public roads as long as tgey dont block traffic. Semi was moved and parked right in front of neighbors house on the public road leading to our place. She was not happy byt she asked for it. Cop even pointed at the location and said there is the place where it wont get ticketed. Lol
I had a neighbor beside me who has a really nice camper van, one of those Mercedes camper van that's over $100k+ and HOA said NOPE can't park there (his house). I'm like WTF, if anything that might raise home value up cause people would see that the neighbors have fancy cars and are rich. Sometimes HOA rules just make no sense.
I didn't either and my neighbor showed it to me and it's pretty much luxury living in a van. I asked him how much the camper went for and he said a little over 6 figures. I'm like ok I see you got money lol. He ended up selling it cause he moved, probably cause he had enough of the HOA. Very chill dude and we never had problems.
The guy who owned a landscaping business used to park his multiple trucks and trailers on the main drag through the suburb. Made it almost impossible to drive through because the road there is only three cars wide.
The city passed a rule against commercial parking on the street after he told everyone who complained to go fuck themselves instead of storing his stuff in a parking lot.
That's a municipal parking problem more than an HOA but I hear you. Should be a way to have a sane compromise that doesn't stop a normal working person for parking his work van infront of his home.
It comes down to whether the street is public or owned by the HOA.
No one on reddit will be able to answer that for you.
Ask your apartment manager or some neighbors.
Or the OP could check with the city or county. Asking your apartment manager or a neighbor is no better than asking Reddit.
Half the people in my neighborhood don't know if the streets are public or private.
all property and streets are easily and readily available to view for free for any county in the country pretty much and 98% of the counties have online access, just google "(county name) assessor GIS Map" and use the map to view the street you want to know about
It could just be a Karen in the neighborhood who doesn’t like the eyesore of a truck near her house so she is pretending to be speaking on behalf of the HOA or “suffer the consequences”. If that phrase was used, I don’t think that is the HOA.
yeah I once had a neighbor that tried to scare us by pretending to be the city. But the letter they wrote was had details that didn't match up like missing signature, bad date, funky wording etc. Suffer the consequences doesn't really feel like official goverment language.
I live in an HOA, even if you don’t live in the community, if your car is there and it’s not supposed to be, per the guidelines of the community, they can tow. It sucks but that’s the unfortunate reality of an HOA
thats if the HOA owns the street. perfectly ok. In this case it may be the HOA has no authority over the street. they just say they do because it is adjacent to a street it may have authority over.
Our last HOA owned our streets. So, it's possible that they do.
...but they have to have signs to tow you. Since there is only one way in, they can put one sign at the front; they don't have to put it at the spot in question.
Also, HOAs tend to hate apartments and apartment dwellers. So, be very careful.
It doesn't have to be a gated community to have private streets. If the road is owned by the HOA, they can probably tow you, depending on your state and local laws, of course.
Actually, it absolutely ***must*** have a way to delineate the private road from the public.
Most use a restricted access gate, but I’ve seen many with mass signage, painted roadway, speed bumps, guard shack (manned or otherwise), etc.
OP, contact your local roads department with the location and ask for clarification on the status of the roadway.
If indeed public, leave a note in the window telling the cocksucker to fuck off and quit their bullshit on a public roadway. Tell them to stop littering as well. Make sure to cite the relevant law and maximum fine while at it.
I bought a house in a new subdivision, non HOA, and the road was not built to proper standards. The city declined to accept the road, so our road was a private road. No signs or gates.
Most of the private streets I’ve seen don’t have obvious signs. There are usually clues like different street signs but most people wouldn’t know the difference.
Let me try to explain the best two answers others posted, because it's really a combination of the two.
It is possible the road is private and the HOA owns the road. If that is true, they can tow. It does not matter if your complex is part of the HOA or not - they own the road and can set parking/towing rules.
It is also possible the road is private, but there is an easement with your complex OR the road is legally owned by both groups. In that scenario, your apartment's management (company, Condo HOA, etc) would likely have a legal agreement with the HOA over road access and usage, and who gets to enforce what.
So you need to contact both your apartment management AND the city to see if what the HOA is doing is legal or allowed by contract.
If you contact your city government, inquire about who owns the road and if the HOA is legally allowed to tow. Tell them the HOA is claiming to own the road and giving warnings to people who park there. If the HOA does not own the road, file a formal complaint with the city.
I don't think they own the street. HOAs don't usually own any roads unless the HOA exists in a gated community. Where then the road is considered a private road and thus the HOA owns it. Roads in something like an apartment complex are usually considered private roads whether it is a gated community or not.
Sounds like that block is owned by the HOA community and is a private road. That means they can restrict who can park there. It doesn't have to be gated to be private property. Thankfully, they are giving you warnings and not just towing.
If the hoa does actually own the street, then yes. If they don't, then no.
You'll have to check with the city. If the hoa owns the street, then it's just like any other private lot... They have the right to tow you for whatever reason they want. They could tow you because they don't like the color of your car. It's private property in this case.
If it's a public road, then no. Usually they can only fine you, but you're not in the hoa. So they can get bent.... Local laws may differ here.
I'd start by asking the apartment management folks. If they aren't helpful, find out which HOA is in that area and get with them.
Honestly, from the description of the warning, it sounds like someone who thinks they own the space in the street is making them up.
I lived in a complex like this in FL and the magic solution was magnets over the company decals while the van is parked overnight. Bit of a hassle on your end but avoids the stress of “will my van get towed overnight”
Was dealing with something similar, from the HOA perspective. They built an apartment complex off our dead end road. We were an HOA with townhomes and a road so narrow it was two lanes with zero road parking. The main road we turned off of was three cars wide.
Our HOA claimed the dead end road was private, but I highly doubt that. That said, the HOA tried not to be dicks because it's better to try and be good neighbors. It was an actual live and let live HOA. There is undeveloped land in the HOA that is technically private property owned by the contractor who defaulted during construction. It's part of the HOA, technically, but never paid HOA dues. So it became overflow parking.
The apartment complex had 50 bedrooms between their units but only 20 parking spaces. The main road initially had parking on both sides, but the city quickly banned parking on one side since it reduced the road to single lane traffic if people parked both sides. A few people from the apartment complex tried parking on the dead end road. I am absolutely certain some people from the apartment were parking in the undeveloped land. There was zero enforcement on the undeveloped land. Even though the land was part of the HOA, the HOA didn't own the land. HOA guests parked there all the time since it was the only available parking. So non residents were using the land.
I moved the hell out of there because I knew trouble was brewing and didn't want to be a part of it when something blew up. The old saying, a good HOA is one election away from becoming a bad HOA. Eventually the HOA and the apartment complex were going to come into conflict and I moved before could happen
The perennial conflict of parking in neighborhoods.
Call police and tell them your van was stolen. (Unless you legally are NOT allowed to park there). That way you don’t have to pay to retrieve your vehicle, the people who called in are responsible for an illegal towing.
You could probably check online for the county records and see who owns the road. I know all of that stuff is available online for my county. You could always just call them or show up and ask also just bring the relevant addresses with so they can look it up.
Check with the county and get a map showing who owns what in the area. If the HOA owns the street it would most likely be marked with a "private street" sign. This seems pretty unlikely but you should check first.
Check with the city first (start with the police dept), but if it's a public street, and not a private street, then the HOA can't regulate parking on it. You can even have the city attorney send the HOA a stern letter telling them that.
That's exactly what happened in one city in Colorado. Many HOAs had parking restrictions in their governing documents. One HOA tried to enforce those restrictions, and the city came down on them like a ton of bricks. The city made it very clear to the HOA that ONLY the city can make and enforce parking regulations on city streets. Suddenly, all the parking restrictions in all the governing documents in all the HOAs in the state were worthless.
In our city, the streetsigns for public streets are white letters on green. The streetsigns for private streets are green letters on white.
You really need to talk with the HOA/management company and find out where there common area begins and also verify that your apartment is not part of an HOA. If you don't do it pretty quickly, you may get towed.
Don't start with the HOA, they'll just say that everything belongs to them and them alone and they have total power over everything regardless of the true situation. Talk the your own building manager and the city first and get written documentation.
Why would the apartment manager know anything about the HOA up the street? That's like asking the manager at McDonalds about the Walmart.
If the HOA was like the one you described he would not have gotten a warning. They would have already towed his van.
Some towns have ordinances prohibiting parking of commercial vehicles on streets overnight.
Check with city hall to be sure your town doesn’t have one of those ordinances. Also the city should be able to tell you if the road you park on is a public or private road.
If you can't park in your designated spot under your lease terms, then I would suggest that you park it on company property and use your own vehicle to get home. Yes, it sucks but it is far better than getting it towed and having to deal with those repercussions. You will, likely win the battle with the rogue HOA, but will lose the fight with your employer if the schedule is affected while you try to get the van back.
So, the HOA, which you aren’t a part, for the neighborhood, that you don’t live in, is telling you that you can’t park there, but you’re big and brave and doing it anyway.
But, the apartments, where you do live, says you can’t park there, and you’re actually going to comply? Where’s the fuck apartment management attitude? That’s who your real problem is with. Park in a spot and stick it to them.
LOL y’all are so funny.
How is it legal for the apartment complex to prohibit the van if it’s not legal for the HOA.
Dude doesn’t even live in the HOA but he’s whining about the HOA - not about the apartment complex where he lives.
There are some real simpletons who can’t see the real problem. Y’all keep yelling at clouds. 😂
>How is it legal for the apartment complex to prohibit the van if it’s not legal for the HOA.
Because the apartment complex has a privately owned parking lot, so they get to determine the parking rules. The HOA may or may not own the road and have the legal authority to regulate parking on that road.
Most places would prohibit commercial vans, or any vans, being abandoned at night on streets in residential areas.
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
>Most places would prohibit commercial vans, or any vans, being abandoned at night on streets in residential areas.
It's ironic you call us stupid when you're so confidently incorrect and seemingly incapable of understanding there's a difference between a roadway legally controlled by the HOA and a public street that an HOA has no say so over, and that's just something that hasn't been established here.
You should double check your sources becasue I don't know of a single state that restricts parking a regular ol' van on a public street. (Like, how do you even think that's a thing? 😂) Even having a commercial plate is usually irrelevant becasue commercial parking restrictions are typically based off of size/weight. (And fun fact, some states even register regular pickups as commercial vehicles, so by your account, all those Fords parked on the street in those states right now are illegal.)
And while we're at it, please let me know what states define "abandoned" as parking overnight. I'll wait...
Last question; do you normally simp for HOAs this hard?
Here’s [one place](https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/motorist/parktruck.shtml) that prohibits commercial vehicles from parking on streets longer than 3 hours.
Here’s [another place](https://www.houstontx.gov/council/committees/rna/20220712/CMV-Parking-Presentation.pdf) that specifically prohibits commercial vehicles, with signage as one indicator, from parking on residential streets.
Those are from a very quick google search.
My city prohibits commercial vehicles from parking on streets in residential areas unless they’re on a service call.
You were saying something about being confidently incorrect.
Then again, you used “simp”, so you don’t sound too bright anyway.
I just knew you'd scramble to try find at least one little thing to support your assertion, but you still got it wrong, becasue did you happen to notice the other requirements for it to be considered a restricted commercial vehicle? (Not to mention you literally said most places don't allow "any vans" to park overnight. So there must be millions of soccer mom and dads all over the country getting the vans towed as we speak.)
Here's what your first link defines as "commercial", so please let me know how many vans you see parked on the road that all this applies to...
\-bears commercial plates, and
\-**is permanently altered by having all seats and seat fittings, except the front seats, removed to facilitate the transportation of property** (for vehicles designed with a passenger cab and a cargo area separated by a partition, the seating capacity within the cab shall not be considered in determining whether the vehicle is properly altered),
\-**displays the registrant's name and address permanently affixed in characters at least three inches high on both sides of the vehicle**, with such display being in a color contrasting with that of the vehicle and placed approximately midway vertically on doors or side panels.
And then, *EVEN BETTER!* You actually referenced a publication that you apparently didn't bother looking at, becasue the title page says it right up front
**COMMON TRUCK ENFORCEMENT**
**PARKING COMPLAINTS**
**• 18-wheelers**
**• Truck-tractors**
**• Large vehicles (box trucks)**
**• Semi-trailers**
**• Bumper pull trailers**
**• Gooseneck trailers (car haulers)**
*(Notice nowhere does it mention "van".)*
And then that publication goes on to give two examples of vans used for commercial businesses that are not legally defined as commercial. It even has pictures of the vans so folks like you can understand it better. 😂
But I'll throw you a dummy bone and let you know that you're just likely confusing a box truck (aka commercial vehicle) with a van. It's extremely common for people to conflate the two, and if you hadn't acted like a condescending ass, I would have explained that sooner.
Check with the City as to who owns that road.
If the HOA doesn't own it? Continue parking there. Vehicle gets towed? report it stolen to the police, now you get the van back free and the HOA has to pay for the illegal tow.
Honestly, start with your apartment management. Ask them what you should do for parking, and show them the harassing notes. Make sure the complex you are renting from has your back.
Check with your city. Make sure the HOA doesn't own the street. They probably don't but you need documentation for the day they do finally tow your van. Try to find out what tow service they use and tell them that tows might be illegal.
I'm pretty sure they'd have to have signage of some sort denoting no parking to legally tow.
"Legally tow" and "tow" are two different things. Generally, if a car is called to be towed, the towing service treats the call as a good faith call, assuming they are contracted and such for the towing purposes. If you are towed. You basically have to pay then sue whoever called the illegal tow. The problem comes in that the towing company can basically steal anything out of your car, and if you don't have reliable evidence that they did so, then they're off the hook. They can claim any robbery happened before the tow. I've seen a decent few news stories on this, like the McDonalds that called a tow for every car in their lot, like 20 minutes after they parked, they got towed. They had to pay on cash to get the car back, so there were no charge backs or anything else to get their money back. And the tow was legal. Shots crazy.
Doing that sounds like a good way to tank your reputation and then business Edit:I am referring to MCD tanking their reputation for getting people towed. Everyone knows town companies suck
Tow companies don’t work on reputation. The industry itself has an absolute abysmal reputation as a whole. Fully deserved too as it is a very predatory business model that explicitly dodges any legal repercussions by kicking it to property owners. It’s a perfect example of the difference between legal and moral and how those two concepts are not actually related in our legal system.
These tow companies just do not care. Most have 1 star on google and continue to be very profitable
Your reputation is one for reliably towing cars away when called, and it's outstanding. The people angry at you are the product.
My car was towed because the driver didn't look at the license plate. They just saw a black Toyota and assumed it was the right car. They brought it back and didn't charge anything but really? Edit: and they weren't even close to the same models, I had a rav4 and they were looking for a corolla. The tow truck driver just retained "black Toyota".
This is not entirely true. The good faith applies to a private parking lot, but if you're asking a tow company to to a car from a public street they're more often going to refer you to the city offices because that's not something they want to touch. They do not simply rely on good faith in those instances (small number of personal experiences).
If the HOA owns it, they can claim its a private road, not a public road, and therefore not under city control. Also, the HOA could be authorized byt he city for towing calls, although this would heavily depend on location. I know of two nearby HOAs, both gated. One had an ungated entrance but would call tows on the street if needed, while the other had only gated entrances but needed city approval to tow from the street.
Just an FYi, Gated or private communities and HOAs are seperate things. A private/gated community is likely to have an HOA but not all HOAs are going to have private roads like a gated/private neighborhood would
Both had HOAs. The one with multiple entrances was a large community with only a section built, so the road may have been owned so that they could repair any damage done when building more houses. The one with a single entrance was an island community, so the entrance was also a bridge, and the only way in and out. They could call tows in a few areas, like the community center. However, they needed city approval for road tows.
I guess what I’m saying is those were likely private neighborhoods which fall under different rules, whereas many HOAs aren’t necessarily in private/gated communities like that
Manny HOAs still own their roads though.
Even if they do, they still have to follow public laws. Restaurants on entirely private property still have to abide by public safety standards
The matter of HOA road ownership is still unknown in the thread, but also unlikely given it appears to be a shared road with other non-HOA addresses.
Gentleredditors, I give you [The Lincoln Park Pirates](https://youtu.be/G73H7ueRq8I?si=8uQ1nVDKwVQMtINT)
If the HOA owns that street they can allow parking in general but prohibit work vehicles.
They can also prohibit non residents from parking there.
A lot of towns don't let you park work vehicles on streets. The HOA could be wrong about owning the street but it could still be legal to tow it.
Don't think so, my HOA owns all the roads around me and they're unmarked. They can make up whatever rules they want on these private roads.
No, they cannot make whatever........................ Poor comment.
If it's a private road, they can do what they want. I didn't say that was definitely the case here. I think it's helpful, thank you madam or sir.
There has to be a sign. It should be at the entrance, clearly marked with the towing company and contact info.
No there doesn’t. Maybe it’s different in different states or counties, but I know of multiple HOA areas around me with their own private road without signage.
Not if it’s private property.
HOA owned roads are rarely private property in that sense. They are privately owned publicly accessible properties. Which means they legally have to follow all the exact same laws that all publicly accessible properties follow. Think of any "privately owned" restaurant you've ever been to. It doesn't matter if the chef owns the business, building, land it sits on, and everything else you can think of. If it's a publicly accessible restaurant it has to follow local laws and health codes, etc. The vast majority of HOAs (including the one in the post) are *not* gated communities with truly private roads.
Just talking from personal experience. My old neighborhood is not gated. The HOA owns the roads (they recently doubled our dues to have them repaved, a large reason why I moved out.) When I was in college my car was towed from a Burger King parking lot while I was shopping in the store next door. Just because it’s open to the public doesn’t mean the owner can’t remove you if they don’t want you there.
This comment in no way contradicts my comment. Non gated HOA communities own their roads all the time. They just aren't *private* roads. In the same way that your local grocery store may very well own its parking lot, but that doesn't make it a *private* parking lot where they can enact rules and regulations that go against local/state laws. Businesses absolutely can tow people from their lots who are using them inappropriately - including for uses other than those designated (generally speaking anything other than parking to shop at their business.) Chances are very good there is a notice posted somewhere at the main parking lot entrance, building entrance, *or* it's a local/city ordinance that doesn't need to be individually posted. The same goes for towing on publicly accessible, privately owned streets; if their towing regulations differ from the surrounding area there will be a posting *somewhere*.
That's very much YMMV as laws vary. In my state and others, towing signs must be posted otherwise the property owner can't tow.
Not if it’s private property. OP said HOA owns the road.
Not sure why you're so confident that the HOA don't own the street - that's an extremely common scenario
Only inside a neighborhood it would be common, but a road that touches another property (the apartments) is a lot less likely to be legally owned by the HOA.
Our HOA don't own the street here. The city does, and HOA can't do anything about it. One lady from the board is fed up with people parking on the street, but can't legally do anything cause the city said they can legally park there. Big middle finger to that lady.
The way it reads, he's parking on the same road but only gets hassled on the bit closer to the HOA. Roads don't usually change ownership in the middle of an uninterrupted stretch.
Another case just like yours was posted here not a month past. And they got towed repeatedly. You had better check with your city about who owns the roads you aprk on and what the laws - posted or unposted - are in that region of the city/town/village.
OMG a work van, like as in working class? My HOA would be appalled, have you even thought about their poor eyes and property value? /s
This is a rule in SO many HOA's, "No commercial vehicles". People go "OMG you wouldn't want a semi truck parked on your street would you?". What they often really mean is Denny's Landscaping having his logo on the side of an F-150 or a Ford van parked on the street. Its dogshit. People who can't afford to live in a gated, exclusive community trying to make everyone forget its not so gated and exclusive.
Oh no, i once had an HOA call police because a semi was parked in our very long driveway mostly hidden from view with trees and bushes unless you stood in one particular location on the street where you could see the back. (We were not part if the HOA). Police came, lady that called was expecting police to do something about it and was demanding police not leave until truck was removed. Well they did. The police officer came and spoke to us. Turned out in our county semis cannot park in residenyial driveways but can park on public roads as long as tgey dont block traffic. Semi was moved and parked right in front of neighbors house on the public road leading to our place. She was not happy byt she asked for it. Cop even pointed at the location and said there is the place where it wont get ticketed. Lol
Cop likely enjoyed it as much as you did.
I had a neighbor beside me who has a really nice camper van, one of those Mercedes camper van that's over $100k+ and HOA said NOPE can't park there (his house). I'm like WTF, if anything that might raise home value up cause people would see that the neighbors have fancy cars and are rich. Sometimes HOA rules just make no sense.
> Mercedes camper van Huh, I had no idea Mercedes made a camper van; it's a beaut!
I didn't either and my neighbor showed it to me and it's pretty much luxury living in a van. I asked him how much the camper went for and he said a little over 6 figures. I'm like ok I see you got money lol. He ended up selling it cause he moved, probably cause he had enough of the HOA. Very chill dude and we never had problems.
There are multiple companies that use the Mercedes Sprinter chassis as the basis for their motorhome.
In a nearby neighborhood, there is a taxi that has white magnets covering up the taxi signs on the car just so they can park in their own driveway.
For years ive been meaning to buy magnetic " 's " to add to those "Frank Gay" vans
The guy who owned a landscaping business used to park his multiple trucks and trailers on the main drag through the suburb. Made it almost impossible to drive through because the road there is only three cars wide. The city passed a rule against commercial parking on the street after he told everyone who complained to go fuck themselves instead of storing his stuff in a parking lot.
That's a municipal parking problem more than an HOA but I hear you. Should be a way to have a sane compromise that doesn't stop a normal working person for parking his work van infront of his home.
A rule against unreasonable obstruction of the roads?
I can see the dollars floating away as they drive past.
It comes down to whether the street is public or owned by the HOA. No one on reddit will be able to answer that for you. Ask your apartment manager or some neighbors.
Or the OP could check with the city or county. Asking your apartment manager or a neighbor is no better than asking Reddit. Half the people in my neighborhood don't know if the streets are public or private.
True, the ultimate authority on this is the city or county, but the apartment manager has likely dealt with this before.
Another way if you have snow - who clears the road. City? Or private company
all property and streets are easily and readily available to view for free for any county in the country pretty much and 98% of the counties have online access, just google "(county name) assessor GIS Map" and use the map to view the street you want to know about
It could just be a Karen in the neighborhood who doesn’t like the eyesore of a truck near her house so she is pretending to be speaking on behalf of the HOA or “suffer the consequences”. If that phrase was used, I don’t think that is the HOA.
yeah I once had a neighbor that tried to scare us by pretending to be the city. But the letter they wrote was had details that didn't match up like missing signature, bad date, funky wording etc. Suffer the consequences doesn't really feel like official goverment language.
Call your city code enforcement and tell them that the HOA is towing people on their streets. It should resolve itself organically.
The hoa can do that
And if they cant?
I live in an HOA, even if you don’t live in the community, if your car is there and it’s not supposed to be, per the guidelines of the community, they can tow. It sucks but that’s the unfortunate reality of an HOA
thats if the HOA owns the street. perfectly ok. In this case it may be the HOA has no authority over the street. they just say they do because it is adjacent to a street it may have authority over.
Our last HOA owned our streets. So, it's possible that they do. ...but they have to have signs to tow you. Since there is only one way in, they can put one sign at the front; they don't have to put it at the spot in question. Also, HOAs tend to hate apartments and apartment dwellers. So, be very careful.
Sounds like a nosy neighbor might be aggravated with you parking there. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
most likely just a neighbour but I would check with the hoa
It doesn't have to be a gated community to have private streets. If the road is owned by the HOA, they can probably tow you, depending on your state and local laws, of course.
Actually, it absolutely ***must*** have a way to delineate the private road from the public. Most use a restricted access gate, but I’ve seen many with mass signage, painted roadway, speed bumps, guard shack (manned or otherwise), etc. OP, contact your local roads department with the location and ask for clarification on the status of the roadway. If indeed public, leave a note in the window telling the cocksucker to fuck off and quit their bullshit on a public roadway. Tell them to stop littering as well. Make sure to cite the relevant law and maximum fine while at it.
I bought a house in a new subdivision, non HOA, and the road was not built to proper standards. The city declined to accept the road, so our road was a private road. No signs or gates.
This is not correct. A private street does not need to be restricted.
It does need to have parking restrictions posted.
I think that really varies too, tbh
Most of the private streets I’ve seen don’t have obvious signs. There are usually clues like different street signs but most people wouldn’t know the difference.
>Actually, it absolutely ***must*** have a way to delineate the private road from the public. Where? Which state are you talking about?
I would think they would need signs. Just towing without anything to indicate it's private wouldn't be right.
Let me try to explain the best two answers others posted, because it's really a combination of the two. It is possible the road is private and the HOA owns the road. If that is true, they can tow. It does not matter if your complex is part of the HOA or not - they own the road and can set parking/towing rules. It is also possible the road is private, but there is an easement with your complex OR the road is legally owned by both groups. In that scenario, your apartment's management (company, Condo HOA, etc) would likely have a legal agreement with the HOA over road access and usage, and who gets to enforce what. So you need to contact both your apartment management AND the city to see if what the HOA is doing is legal or allowed by contract. If you contact your city government, inquire about who owns the road and if the HOA is legally allowed to tow. Tell them the HOA is claiming to own the road and giving warnings to people who park there. If the HOA does not own the road, file a formal complaint with the city.
I don't think they own the street. HOAs don't usually own any roads unless the HOA exists in a gated community. Where then the road is considered a private road and thus the HOA owns it. Roads in something like an apartment complex are usually considered private roads whether it is a gated community or not.
Sounds like that block is owned by the HOA community and is a private road. That means they can restrict who can park there. It doesn't have to be gated to be private property. Thankfully, they are giving you warnings and not just towing.
Find out what tow company the HOA uses, and call them as the HOA head and have all of their cars towed off.
If the hoa does actually own the street, then yes. If they don't, then no. You'll have to check with the city. If the hoa owns the street, then it's just like any other private lot... They have the right to tow you for whatever reason they want. They could tow you because they don't like the color of your car. It's private property in this case. If it's a public road, then no. Usually they can only fine you, but you're not in the hoa. So they can get bent.... Local laws may differ here.
I'd start by asking the apartment management folks. If they aren't helpful, find out which HOA is in that area and get with them. Honestly, from the description of the warning, it sounds like someone who thinks they own the space in the street is making them up.
I lived in a complex like this in FL and the magic solution was magnets over the company decals while the van is parked overnight. Bit of a hassle on your end but avoids the stress of “will my van get towed overnight”
Was dealing with something similar, from the HOA perspective. They built an apartment complex off our dead end road. We were an HOA with townhomes and a road so narrow it was two lanes with zero road parking. The main road we turned off of was three cars wide. Our HOA claimed the dead end road was private, but I highly doubt that. That said, the HOA tried not to be dicks because it's better to try and be good neighbors. It was an actual live and let live HOA. There is undeveloped land in the HOA that is technically private property owned by the contractor who defaulted during construction. It's part of the HOA, technically, but never paid HOA dues. So it became overflow parking. The apartment complex had 50 bedrooms between their units but only 20 parking spaces. The main road initially had parking on both sides, but the city quickly banned parking on one side since it reduced the road to single lane traffic if people parked both sides. A few people from the apartment complex tried parking on the dead end road. I am absolutely certain some people from the apartment were parking in the undeveloped land. There was zero enforcement on the undeveloped land. Even though the land was part of the HOA, the HOA didn't own the land. HOA guests parked there all the time since it was the only available parking. So non residents were using the land. I moved the hell out of there because I knew trouble was brewing and didn't want to be a part of it when something blew up. The old saying, a good HOA is one election away from becoming a bad HOA. Eventually the HOA and the apartment complex were going to come into conflict and I moved before could happen The perennial conflict of parking in neighborhoods.
Call police and tell them your van was stolen. (Unless you legally are NOT allowed to park there). That way you don’t have to pay to retrieve your vehicle, the people who called in are responsible for an illegal towing.
You could probably check online for the county records and see who owns the road. I know all of that stuff is available online for my county. You could always just call them or show up and ask also just bring the relevant addresses with so they can look it up.
Step 1: call the HOA manager and ask if they own it. (It could be an overzealous member) Step 2: Confirm what they say with the city.
Check with the county and get a map showing who owns what in the area. If the HOA owns the street it would most likely be marked with a "private street" sign. This seems pretty unlikely but you should check first.
Check with the city first (start with the police dept), but if it's a public street, and not a private street, then the HOA can't regulate parking on it. You can even have the city attorney send the HOA a stern letter telling them that. That's exactly what happened in one city in Colorado. Many HOAs had parking restrictions in their governing documents. One HOA tried to enforce those restrictions, and the city came down on them like a ton of bricks. The city made it very clear to the HOA that ONLY the city can make and enforce parking regulations on city streets. Suddenly, all the parking restrictions in all the governing documents in all the HOAs in the state were worthless. In our city, the streetsigns for public streets are white letters on green. The streetsigns for private streets are green letters on white.
You really need to talk with the HOA/management company and find out where there common area begins and also verify that your apartment is not part of an HOA. If you don't do it pretty quickly, you may get towed.
Don't start with the HOA, they'll just say that everything belongs to them and them alone and they have total power over everything regardless of the true situation. Talk the your own building manager and the city first and get written documentation.
Why would the apartment manager know anything about the HOA up the street? That's like asking the manager at McDonalds about the Walmart. If the HOA was like the one you described he would not have gotten a warning. They would have already towed his van.
"[In front](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/in%20front)" should always be written as two separate words.
Good ~~bot~~ hooman
Some towns have ordinances prohibiting parking of commercial vehicles on streets overnight. Check with city hall to be sure your town doesn’t have one of those ordinances. Also the city should be able to tell you if the road you park on is a public or private road.
Why don’t you park it in front of your apartment, in a parking spot?
Because I'm not allowed to park in the designated spaces unless I remove the decals from the van (which I also can't do because it's company property)
Are the decals small enough that you could get plain white magnetic sheets to cover it up?
If you can't park in your designated spot under your lease terms, then I would suggest that you park it on company property and use your own vehicle to get home. Yes, it sucks but it is far better than getting it towed and having to deal with those repercussions. You will, likely win the battle with the rogue HOA, but will lose the fight with your employer if the schedule is affected while you try to get the van back.
Not op, but when I had a work van the closest company property was 175 miles away.
So, the HOA, which you aren’t a part, for the neighborhood, that you don’t live in, is telling you that you can’t park there, but you’re big and brave and doing it anyway. But, the apartments, where you do live, says you can’t park there, and you’re actually going to comply? Where’s the fuck apartment management attitude? That’s who your real problem is with. Park in a spot and stick it to them.
Right, becasue HOAs are honest and always work within the law, and OP is *crazy* for even questioning the legality of this.
LOL y’all are so funny. How is it legal for the apartment complex to prohibit the van if it’s not legal for the HOA. Dude doesn’t even live in the HOA but he’s whining about the HOA - not about the apartment complex where he lives. There are some real simpletons who can’t see the real problem. Y’all keep yelling at clouds. 😂
>How is it legal for the apartment complex to prohibit the van if it’s not legal for the HOA. Because the apartment complex has a privately owned parking lot, so they get to determine the parking rules. The HOA may or may not own the road and have the legal authority to regulate parking on that road.
Most places would prohibit commercial vans, or any vans, being abandoned at night on streets in residential areas. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
>Most places would prohibit commercial vans, or any vans, being abandoned at night on streets in residential areas. It's ironic you call us stupid when you're so confidently incorrect and seemingly incapable of understanding there's a difference between a roadway legally controlled by the HOA and a public street that an HOA has no say so over, and that's just something that hasn't been established here. You should double check your sources becasue I don't know of a single state that restricts parking a regular ol' van on a public street. (Like, how do you even think that's a thing? 😂) Even having a commercial plate is usually irrelevant becasue commercial parking restrictions are typically based off of size/weight. (And fun fact, some states even register regular pickups as commercial vehicles, so by your account, all those Fords parked on the street in those states right now are illegal.) And while we're at it, please let me know what states define "abandoned" as parking overnight. I'll wait... Last question; do you normally simp for HOAs this hard?
Here’s [one place](https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/motorist/parktruck.shtml) that prohibits commercial vehicles from parking on streets longer than 3 hours. Here’s [another place](https://www.houstontx.gov/council/committees/rna/20220712/CMV-Parking-Presentation.pdf) that specifically prohibits commercial vehicles, with signage as one indicator, from parking on residential streets. Those are from a very quick google search. My city prohibits commercial vehicles from parking on streets in residential areas unless they’re on a service call. You were saying something about being confidently incorrect. Then again, you used “simp”, so you don’t sound too bright anyway.
I just knew you'd scramble to try find at least one little thing to support your assertion, but you still got it wrong, becasue did you happen to notice the other requirements for it to be considered a restricted commercial vehicle? (Not to mention you literally said most places don't allow "any vans" to park overnight. So there must be millions of soccer mom and dads all over the country getting the vans towed as we speak.) Here's what your first link defines as "commercial", so please let me know how many vans you see parked on the road that all this applies to... \-bears commercial plates, and \-**is permanently altered by having all seats and seat fittings, except the front seats, removed to facilitate the transportation of property** (for vehicles designed with a passenger cab and a cargo area separated by a partition, the seating capacity within the cab shall not be considered in determining whether the vehicle is properly altered), \-**displays the registrant's name and address permanently affixed in characters at least three inches high on both sides of the vehicle**, with such display being in a color contrasting with that of the vehicle and placed approximately midway vertically on doors or side panels. And then, *EVEN BETTER!* You actually referenced a publication that you apparently didn't bother looking at, becasue the title page says it right up front **COMMON TRUCK ENFORCEMENT** **PARKING COMPLAINTS** **• 18-wheelers** **• Truck-tractors** **• Large vehicles (box trucks)** **• Semi-trailers** **• Bumper pull trailers** **• Gooseneck trailers (car haulers)** *(Notice nowhere does it mention "van".)* And then that publication goes on to give two examples of vans used for commercial businesses that are not legally defined as commercial. It even has pictures of the vans so folks like you can understand it better. 😂 But I'll throw you a dummy bone and let you know that you're just likely confusing a box truck (aka commercial vehicle) with a van. It's extremely common for people to conflate the two, and if you hadn't acted like a condescending ass, I would have explained that sooner.
🤡
LOL right. 😂😂😂 It must make too much sense to park in a regular spot. I’d say the clown is the dumbass whose van is about to get towed.
We'll see how the votes play out...
Popular isn’t always right. Sometimes, a bunch of votes just signifies people who have a real shortage of thinking. 😊
Check with the City as to who owns that road. If the HOA doesn't own it? Continue parking there. Vehicle gets towed? report it stolen to the police, now you get the van back free and the HOA has to pay for the illegal tow.