Resident accuses board of unequal parking enforcement

Q. I live in a condominium building consisting of 154 residential units and one commercial unit, which is a restaurant. The parking is uncovered and unassigned.

The association's governing documents allow one parking spot for each residential unit and 20 spaces for the restaurant. The parking arrangement was tested by legal action several years ago and approved as written.

The parking is normally adequate for all owners except during the high occupancy of two or three months. It has been the policy that additional vehicles are to be parked off the common area.

Our new board of directors recently allowed the restaurant to place a valet at the complex's covered main entrance and to park as many vehicles as they want in the parking areas, no-parking areas and fire lanes.

After receiving letters about the restaurant parking, the board has stopped some of the parking in the no parking and fire lane areas, but is allowing the restaurant to valet park and to close off 30 to 40 spaces in the common-area parking lot.

Had any attempted it, homeowners would have been warned in writing that their vehicles would be towed if they had more than one vehicle in the lot, or a vehicle in a fire lane, no-parking area or double- or triple-parked as the board allows the restaurant.

What can owners do to correct these unsafe conditions and get equally enforced bylaws and covenants? Could the board or association be held legally responsible by allowing these conditions to continue?

A. If the governing documents state that the restaurant is allowed only 20 parking spaces, then the board would not have the authority to change the covenants or bylaws without the approval of the owners. If there is just a regulation that states the restaurant can park 20 vehicles, the board could change a rule without owner approval as long as the rule is consistent with the covenants or bylaws.

If the previous legal action upheld the 20 spaces for the restaurant and one space per resident, your board could be in violation of the ruling. Additionally, if your board is not equally enforcing the parking rules and regulations, then the board could be violating NRS 116 which requires the equal enforcement of rules in order for the rules to be valid.

If the owners cannot obtain the cooperation of the board in writing or at a board or special homeowners meeting, you can file a formal complaint, including documentation of the covenants, with the Nevada Real Estate Division.

Another way to obtain the board's attention is to take pictures of these violations, especially those that violate city and county parking codes. If you send these photographs to the fire department, you may see some immediate action.

As to the liability issue, the board and association may be sued if it was proved that the board was allowing unsafe parking conditions and illegal parking procedures as outlined by city or county ordinances.

Questions for Barbara Holland may be sent to Association Q. & A., P.O. Box 7440, Las Vegas, NV 89125. Her fax number is 385-3759.

Barbara Holland, Certified Property Manager, is president and co-owner of H&L Realty and Management Co. She is a member of the Institute of Real Estate Management and is the author of two books on the subject. Holland is a past president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

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