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Neighbors Want Junker Towed But Unsure How

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By RICHARD WHITE, Tribune correspondent

Published: January 26, 2008

Our association needs to know if we have the legal right to have a vehicle removed from an assigned parking place without the owner's consent. The vehicle is not in proper condition, leaks oil, lacks tags and has flat tires.

M.A.
Lake Worth
There are several answers that I will suggest to solve the problem.

First, check with your county or city to see if there are any codes for unserviceable and nontagged vehicles. If the county or city does, have it ticket the car.

Next, check with your insurance agent to see if there is a problem with an uninsured vehicle parked on the property. He may have a way to force the owner to produce proper insurance and make the car operational.

I must assume that you have written the owner letters about the nonserviceable vehicle since that would be the first step.

Talk to your attorney about the problems, and find out if your documents give the association the power to move the vehicle. If your documents do not have the information for the board to remove the car, ask him about help to create rules about the problem. More than likely, the two most important facts to help you are the lack of registration tags and more than likely it is uninsured.

One final thing: Ask the owner in writing to donate the vehicle to some charity.

Our documents do not allow motorcycles, trucks, golf carts, etc. Does this mean we cannot allow even visitors for a day or overnight or owners to park such vehicles overnight or for a short stay?

S.H.

Clearwater

More than likely, very short-term day parking would be allowed. But some communities do not allow such vehicles on the property at any time. It depends on your documents and how the board enforces the rules.

As to overnight parking, it would depend on the strength of the documents and again how the board enforces parking. You cannot use the excuse that it will only be for a few hours and then that means overnight.

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