Raleigh street parking ordinance... (HOA, lawyer, house)

[raleigh86]

We had a police officer speak at our homeowners assoc. meeting. They said that permanent parking could not take place on city streets. Since then, I can find no one at police dept. to confirm this. We do not have street parking rules through HOA. However, we do have people that park on streets whose cars and trucks have not been moved in months. We have one that keeps his SUV covered in the street like it was in his garage. This is a nice neighborhood, but our HOA does not the nerve to address this. I have no problem with people that park in street because they have children with cars that come and go. It's the vehicles that are permanently parked there. One vehicle is on a curve and a hill. It's hard to see if someone is walking on the street with this truck in the way. The HO doesn't feel obligated to move this vehicle, even though he has a huge driveway. On our street alone, there are 4 permanently parked vehicles. I feel it is unsightly, just as the leaves people rake to the curb that are 1/2 out in the street. Between the leaves and the cars parked, there's hardly room or no room for 2 cars to travel the streets.

[KCfromNC]

Unless the HOA owns and maintains the streets, there's nothing that they can say about people parking in the street. If cars are really abandoned you can have them towed - not sure how this is done but I've seen several cars in my old neighborhood that had bright orange or green stickers slapped on them telling the owners to move them.

[DanielChang]

http://www.raleighnc.gov/portal/serv...ironmenta.html

It is probably a violation of Abandoned/Nuisance Vehicle Code. You may report them to 311.

Although, the neighborly thing to do would probably be to speak to the owner of the vehicles first and try to negotiate it.

On the street where I grew up, there was a fire hydrant in front of my next door neighbors house and the across the street neighbor was one of those families that used that garage to store all that cr*p and not their cars (and they had 4 kids, each with their own vehicle, plus a boat) so street parking was a premium. My parents would park in the garage and we had one car in the street (my car). I was in high school at the time and didn't drive every day. My neighbors would often call and have my car towed (I believe the laws state it needs to move every 72 hrs). And sometimes even when I'd drive it, they'd claim that it wasn't moved and so the cops would have it towed--just so that that the neighbors could park in front of my house. Really wish the neighbors would have talked to us first, as we were parking on a public street.

[jjg39069]

Originally Posted by KCfromNC

Unless the HOA owns and maintains the streets, there's nothing that they can say about people parking in the street. If cars are really abandoned you can have them towed - not sure how this is done but I've seen several cars in my old neighborhood that had bright orange or green stickers slapped on them telling the owners to move them.

I'm not trying to disagree with KC's comment above...I actually find it quite interesting as my HOA specifically states that the streets are owned by the City of Raleigh and that residents are not allowed to park on the streets. I wonder how they're getting away with that?

Check out section 3: http://www.duranttrace.org/index.php...&JAS_File_id=3

[KCfromNC]

Originally Posted by jjg39069

I'm not trying to disagree with KC's comment above...I actually find it quite interesting as my HOA specifically states that the streets are owned by the City of Raleigh and that residents are not allowed to park on the streets. I wonder how they're getting away with that?

Check out section 3: http://www.duranttrace.org/index.php...&JAS_File_id=3

I'm guessing this is just a case of the people writing the bylaws not knowing what they're doing, or at best hoping that no one will question them trying to enforce these rules. There may be some cases where an HOA can restrict parking, but based on what I've read and my experience with HOAs in NC, it'll be an uphill fight for the HOA.

And doing a quick look through, this isn't the only questionable rule. If you look at the section 1, part L you'll see your neighborhood also prohibits satellite dishes greater than 24". This prohibition is in clear violation of federal regs handed down from the FCC, which has said that HOAs can't prohibit owners from placing dishes of 1m (39" or so) or less (http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html). Hopefully someone will get a lawyer to look over these rules before trying to enforce them, since losing court cases against residents is a costly procedure for the HOA.