Parking lot questions (lease, fees, insurance, attorney)

[xPlorer48]

We stumbled onto this business several years ago and it has grown steadily. We have received okays from county planning, have a registered trade name and UBI number from the state and donate to a local advocacy group. We have acreage near a popular local recreation area. It has miles of trails for mountain bikers, hikers and horses, non motorized access only. The main parking lot belonging to the city is free and usually full and people often park along the highway. Our parking lot, or trailhead parking according to county, requests a minimum fee of $1 per day. We could probably ask for more and some actually put in more. This is what we charged from the beginning and reflects our business name so we are keeping this fee. We do not monitor use as it would take up too much of our time so rely on the honor system.

In the past year, we have added 3 businesses who park here. They have presented a few problems and this is why I am asking for help. I absolutely despise confrontations, preferring a laissez faire approach. Yes, I know this is not the way to run a business but this was an opportunity to make some money in our retirement and it helps with escalating property taxes and home insurance. Initially, our income was negligible (a few hundred dollars) but now it is into the mid four figures.

Our first business was a dog walking business. At first we gave her a reserved parking spot but she has been hit or miss on paying so now she is first come, first serve like everyone else. I am considering writing to her as she is a business and giving her a flat fee of $25 per month so we can issue her receipts. She wants receipts but unless I see money directly from her, I cannot honestly give her a receipt. Her only choice to is park across the highway which would be dangerous for the dogs. Our other two business clients pay more and are prompt. They pay more as they occupy their spots and do business on our property rather than just parking and walking the trails. She and sometimes a helper park here and we are not always here to see if one or two cars for her business are here. She is confrontational and I dread approaching her but must be done as this is a business, not a charity.

The second business is a mobile bike repair unit. He pays and is always prompt. The issue is that clients meet him here and we don't know if they are paying to park here. He is agreeable and easy to work with and is grateful to pay $5 rent for an all day spot. He gets clients from those who park here and those who see his sign on their ride on our street to the trails. I just need to ask him to remind folks to drop a dollar in the self pay box if they are not parking here to ride.

The third one is a guide/instructor. He pays $8 a day as he has a permanent spot for his trailer. Plus, he's has about an acre of woods for instruction. He pays promptly and is easy to approach. But, he has parents dropping off and picking up their kids and these people were not paying. They exert the same wear and tear on our gravel driveway, in fact more more as they come onto our property twice. I have asked him to ask them to drop a dollar in. But, yesterday, we could see many cars in our lot but only found $3 in the dropbox. We know that money was from some regular clients as we talked with them in between the rain. I don't know if these people forgot, don't think they should have to pay because they are dropping off/ picking up or he hasn't told them. Their alternative is to park 1/4 mile away in the public parking area and walk their kid to our property which is the meeting place. Some were dropping their kids and bikes off in front of our driveway and we put a stop to that. Not only is it dangerous but our neighbors are not happy with all the traffic as it is.

So, I guess I just need some encouragement to approach these people. Sometimes I feel like we are greedy then I look at regraveling about 250' of our driveway plus adding fill and gravel to an ungraveled area then I get more gumption. How would you handle this? I have emails and phone numbers. And, I could approach them in person but usually they are conducting business and the dog walker is trying to calm down 6 dogs. Thanks in advance.

[Hemlock140]

It doesn't sound like you have any written lease or even license to use agreement with these regulars? I'm in commercial real estate and without a written agreement signed by both parties it would be hard for you to enforce any rules, or even the fees in court. This kind of informal process only works when all parties are very cooperative, and even then something usually happens to make it go sour. if this is a good source of income for you, I would talk to a qualified attorney and get an idea of the cost to prepare legal documents. Then if at all practical for your budget, let them know that they must comply with your initial terms immediately or you will be requiring them to sign a lease with specific terms and provisions that give you the legal right to evict them if they are not met. You can set a flat rent amount based on estimated use, rather than depend on honesty. Some landlords do all of this on their own but there is a great chance of missing something when just downloading standard forms from a website and trying to execute them yourself.

[xPlorer48]

Yeah, I figured we would need to use an attorney. Nope, no written agreement. We probably should have kept our lot free from commercial endeavors and kept parking fees at donation level. We are trying to get insurance and we were told that if we just keep it a donation level without specific fees then liability wouldn't be an issue. An attorney will hopefully answer our questions.

The dog walker is being difficult so I am going to ask, no, tell her that we no longer want to do business with someone who quibbles with our fees. She says that $25 a month is too much for parking as she is not here every weekday. She may not be but her helper is. Our lot, our rules.

The guide/instructor has his own acreage so will soon relocate his business to that. And, the repair guy is very compliant.

We just got too big and are experiencing growing pains. Mountain biking is a growth industry here and shows no signs of abating. We just started as a small lot for friends of friends. Now, it is almost out of control.

[Hemlock140]

You might consider a parking management company. They would install a pay station and signs, then monitor it, have violators towed and of course, charge you for it. In some cases it's a percentage of the payments. Your operation might be too small to interest them, though.

[xPlorer48]

Yep, we are small time. We are seriously considering removing temporary spots and limiting parking to 10 cars at a time. We may alienate some our best customers that way. So, maybe even a parking pass issued to the ones that we trust, our long time customers like physicians, firefighters, deputies, etc. That, in itself would limit liability and the nightmare of directing traffic when it is busy. And, I was informed by someone who knows that if we have our lot a pay by donation, not a specific fee then liability issues would not be a problem. We plan to see a land use attorney, though.

Big is not necessarily better. We are retired and travel some. It usually takes care of itself but a friend told us that some people parked along the road when our lot was full while we were away. I am surprised we didn't get a call from the neighbors as some are not very supportive (the gated community sector that has appeared in the last 5 years).

This issue has forced us into considering a smaller operation. In the long run, it will be best. Thanks for your thoughts.