Is parking a common complaint in your condo HOA? Imagine coming home from a long day of work to find your assigned spot taken by your neighbor’s guest or a car that takes up two spaces where you want to park. Pretty inconvenient, right? These are just a couple of the bothersome parking problems condo residents deal with on a regular basis.
Common HOA and Condo Parking Issue Solutions
The good news is that parking harmony is possible! How can you help make that happen? Here are innovative parking solutions to resolve the six most common parking issues in your community.
Parking Problem #1: Streets and lawns are used as parking spaces
When this happens, an easy solution is to make sure that your community parking rules are clear and homeowners are aware of them. How can you do that? Have all vehicles register — both residents and guests.
If rules have been made clear yet the problem persists, a parking patrol team can identify unregistered vehicles or unlawfully-parked residents and record a violation. Thankfully, a single warning is sometimes all a person needs to change their course of action. Blocked driveways and double-parked cars are two other scenarios where clearly communicated rules and timely warnings will help reduce the problems.
Don’t have official parking enforcement at your HOA? Find out if self, paid, or free enforcement is the best type of parking enforcement for your HOA.
Parking Problem #2: Residents park in guest spaces
Installing signage at guest parking spaces clearly sets those spots apart from resident spaces. It acts as a deterrent to residents who may be looking for an easy-to-find parking spot and makes it easy for guests to find parking too. This is also an instance where recording a violation and putting a warning sticker on a resident’s vehicle will give a gentle reminder of the rules without jumping straight to towing or booting.
Parking Problem #3: Residents park in other residents' assigned spaces
Whether homeowners know your rules or not, HOA parking patrol can give residents a warning when they are parking in other residents’ spaces. Unique decals make it possible to visually distinguish which kind of space each vehicle is registered to park in (e.g. covered parking, garage parking, regular parking stall). When it’s easy to identify a resident’s vehicle and what type of space it should be in, accountability is increased and enforcement becomes easier.
Putting Smart Warning Stickers on violating vehicles will notify them of their violation, store the information in the community’s parking enforcement software, and nudge them in the right direction — toward their own parking spot, that is.
Parking Problem #4: Cars are indefinitely left in guest spaces
It seems like every community has one of those cars — the one that parks in an obscure corner spot for months and months (or longer).
Clear signage for guest parking time limits and an active patrol person are simple ways to communicate that long-term guest parking isn’t tolerated. After a vehicle has received several warnings, it may be time to boot or tow.
Parking Problem #5: Not enough parking spaces
Sometimes the biggest problem in a condo or HOA community is a lack of parking altogether. With limited parking, assigning parking spaces to each home will quickly reduce frustrations.
A quick evaluation of the homes-to-parking-spaces ratio can help you determine if you have too little or too many guest parking spaces. Convert guest spaces into resident spaces if needed.
Help your residents find quick solutions when it comes to community parking. If homeowners have friends over, ask them to carpool to avoid taking up the limited guest parking space. Encourage families to utilize other forms of sustainable transportation, such as carpooling to work, biking to school, or taking public transport to the store.
Parking Problem #6: How to inform residents of new parking rules
Has the time come for the board to change your condo HOA parking rules? To make sure homeowners are aware of the new rules, carefully consider the demographic of your HOA. An email and text to notify of updates may be enough communication, depending on the homeowners. A printed letter may be better somewhere else. In either case, sending out both an email and a printed letter may be the best option to make homeowners aware of the changes.
Then, when the new condo parking rules and regulations are enforced, consider giving more warnings and an extended grace period as everyone becomes familiar with the updates.
Parking Problem #7: Condo Parking Enforcement
You need a clear system for condo parking enforcement. Many condo associations use software to log vehicles and violations, then give warnings for first offenses. They can tow cars if needed to enforce the parking rules, often at the owner’s expense. The community can enforce the rules itself or hire a contractor to do the work.
People will quickly catch on if you don’t enforce your rules, so we recommend setting up a system right away. At Community Boss, we can offer monitoring tools, enforcement software, and smart warning stickers to help you with enforcement.
Get support for condo parking problems
Condo parking issues can create frustrations for homeowners that take away from the enjoyment of coming home. No issue is impossible — parking harmony is possible!
Sometimes it takes extra help to get rid of parking headaches. Let our innovative parking solutions help your board get rid of condo parking issues. We’re not just a software company, we’re real people who are here to help support your condo’s parking harmony for the long run. We help defend your parking rules, enhance your community, and even help you generate revenue.
Schedule a demo today to discover the best HOA software for parking management!
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