R.D. from outside of Connecticut writes:
Dear Mister Condo,
Does the Board of Directors have the authority to override terms and conditions established in our governing documents with a plan conceived and designed at a board meeting that does not have majority approval from the community residents? They want to impose a parking plan and tow cars w/o stickers, yet the community document section has a section that addresses unit owner rights to an assigned spot and a section that defines the responsibility of that section. Defined responsibility does not include the mandatory uses of a sticker.
Mister Condo replies:
R.D., I understand your concern about the Board making plans to manage the parking areas. And you are right to be concerned about the lack of majority approval from unit owners before making such plans. However, the Board members were democratically elected by the unit owners to act on behalf of the association. Does your association have a problem with parking? Most associations manage their parking carefully as it is typically a precious resource. That doesn’t mean that the Board can simply pass rules without following the rules for making rules. As long as they have adopted the rules in accordance with their powers as outlined in the association’s governance documents, they are well within their rights to do so. Keep in mind that the community association parking areas is one of the biggest challenges faced by Boards. Unit owners, renters, and guests can make a real mess of limited parking. These new rules may be the association’s best chance at managing the chaos and keeping the parking lots under control. Like all new rules, there will be an adjustment period. Hopefully, no vehicles will actually have to be towed for order to be restored and all residents to have use of the association parking. Good luck!
To the questioner — if the stickers are your biggest complaint, it may be that you’re most interested in simply challenging the board.
Mr Condo’s advice is sound, solid and worth your taking to heart.
Do re-read your governing documents, both about parking, and about the board’s authority to modify the association’s Rules, based on the governing documents. If the parking documentation states that the board may, from time to time, modify/ alter/ adjust/ establish/ regulate how the parking provisions are enforced, then, the board is simply doing its job.
Good luck!
Not knowing the whole situation… have there been problems with owners finding cars parked in their assigned spots? If that’s the case, it could be that the board is trying to find a way to deal with that problem, without requiring owners to call a tow company on their own, or it may be that your jurisdiction would not allow a company to tow without a sign up on the property.
However, if you have an assigned spot and that’s going away, you have a very legitimate concern – particularly if it’s a deeded spot.