A frustrated driver has been fighting with his homeowner’s association over what he calls an “insane” rule after his family’s car was towed for parking in a legal spot.
The Florida man has spoken to an attorney and a police officer who he says both told him he was “100% correct” in the situation.
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Rudy Amaral lives in the Silver Lakes community of Pembroke Pines – a city about a half-hour drive from Fort Lauderdale.
Back in February, Amaral posted on a local Facebook group about his war with the Silver Lakes HOA, one of the largest HOAs in South Flordia.
Amaral said that the HOA’s parking rules have become “insufferable” in a Facebook post from February.
He shared his own grueling personal experience.
Amaral said that “a while back,” his driveway was occupied and his handicap father-in-law needed a place to park, so he pulled into a handicap spot by the community’s pool.
Even though the car had a handicap placard and it was only in the spot for an hour, a tow truck came to move it.
Amaral did explain that the HOA had designated the spot “pool parking” a few months before the incident.
But he argued to community security that “handicap laws are federal laws and the car can’t be towed.”
However, the resident said: “They won’t budge.”
He said that his family was forced to pay the tow truck driver to put the car down.
Amaral decided to speak to a lawyer and a local police officer who “both told me I should’ve called the cops because we are 100% correct.”
He explained that the car shouldn’t have been towed because it’s a “designated handicap space and that supersedes HOA designation.”
Amaral said that the HOA president was contacted but he hasn’t gotten back to them.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to the HOA president and Amaral for comment.
Amaral said in February that the pool was out of order and residents couldn’t use the parking spots by it since it’s only for pool parking.
Can an HOA ban street parking?
According to a North Carolina lawyer, an HOA holds the legal right to band parking anywhere – even in a homeowner’s driveway.
The trick, says HOA lawyer Mike Hunter, is the deed homeowners sign when they buy a home within a subdivision.
“If you buy a home in a deed-restricted community, you’re obligated to abide by those restrictions,” he told the Charlotte Observer.
“If the restrictive covenants say you can’t park on the street, the board has the legal duty to enforce that.”
Many states are passing laws to limit the power of HOAs, though a majority of states still grant HOAs to enforce their regulations, restrictive or otherwise, however they see fit.
Read more here.
He also complained that his neighbor parked his car in a guest-only parking space and got a fine.
“We have 4 cars in our household and have to cram them into the driveway because we can’t use parking spaces in our own community because are [sic] HOA, which we pay plenty of money towards, feels like making these insane rules,” Amaral said.
One fellow resident commented on Amaral’s post with her own parking concerns.
“It sucks to see that the parking spaces are being used by the same people,cars don’t even move, some have flat tires, expired tags and they don’t move.
“Driveways are empty and all the parking is taken by the same people. I can’t believe that they towed you for less than an hour,” she said.
Amaral told his neighbor that he thinks the issue she brought up is why the HOA enforced the parking rules in the first place.
“Those people ruined it for the rest of us who actually need the space,” he said.
Another person told Amaral to move and find a home that’s not a part of an HOA.
A third Facebook user called HOAs “horrible,” adding, “We have avoided them at all cost. Terrible you have such rules in your own neighborhood.”
“One of the reasons we moved out of our home in an HOA community,” another commenter said.
She continued: “Parking, entering and exiting the community was a nightmare! We’re so happy in our new home with no HOA rules to abide by. Sorry that you have to deal with this situation.”
Meanwhile, last July, a law that reduced the control HOAs had over Florida residents took effect.
One of the major changes from this law prohibited HOAs from fining or banning homeowners from parking work trucks or pickup trucks in their driveways.