G.A. from New Jersey writes:
Dear Mister Condo,
My New Jersey condo association prohibits parking by commercial vehicles. I have a limousine with Omnibus plates. The association considers my luxury SUV vehicle commercial. Other vehicles, obviously for commercial purposes have regular plates, but are allowed. Do I have any recourse?
Mister Condo replies:
G.A., as long as your commercial vehicle is in violation of the association’s rules on parking, you don’t likely have any recourse but to park the vehicle off property. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to prove a vehicle with a passenger plate was in violation of the association’s parking rules. Your Omnibus plates are a different story. You could petition the Board to see if they will allow you an exception (unlikely) or you could offer to pay an extra fee for the right to park your Omnibus plated vehicle. Other than that, I don’t see what other recourse you would have other than to get passenger vehicle plates for your limo, which would put you in violation of state law for operating your limo. That doesn’t sound like a reasonable plan either. Good luck!
I normally live by “them’s the rules!” However, in a case like this if they are doing what could be considered “selective enforcement,” they may have an issue on their hands. If they do not enforce the rules the same way across the board then they may lose their ability to enforce them altogether. If you want to fight it, the term “selective enforcement” might be your only hope.