Motorcycle Parking at Condo

[RM01834]

I own a condo and my boyfriend rides to see me once in awhile meaning he parks his bike in my spot because there is no overnight street parking allowed in my city. I am assigned one spot which is at the end of the lot so I park his bike in between my car and the curb which does not affect anyone getting in or out.

However this neighbor (old lady who does not drive nor work) has complained that my car is uneven when I park. I have tried to tell her that my spot is uneven (more trapezoid than rectangle) and that if she were to look at the side of my car which borders her spot she'd see that I'm perfectly parallel to the line and several inches from it. Ironically, her guests park closer to the white line than I do.

Long story short, she complained and I received a letter from the management company stating that I can't double park, otherwise the "guest parking" courtesy would have to be extended to other residents as well.

I have checked the by-laws and do not see anything where it states that only one vehicle can be parked in one spot - the only parking reference is that only two-axle vehicles are allowed. I am drafting a letter to Management with several points (that the truck behind me is larger than the car and motorcycle, other residents can choose what to drive that fits in their spot, that residents who do not have a car technically have guest parking, etc), but was wondering what is the best way to handle the situation?

[DuncanMoto]

It all depends on weather or not you have a "Deeded" parking spot or an "Assigned" parking spot.
I am a Realtor in Boston. If you are for real, pm. me your address and I can check your deed for you.

[R7]

Pretty simple, bring the bike inside the condo

[Jaynnus]

Get rid of the boyfriend

[SVRACER01]

what if you had a bike AND a car? i used to park my bike in front of my car when i lived in an apt.
i think you ask management to come see for themselves when the bike is there that you are in fact parking properly and not only are you not using up 2 spaces but the parking of the motorcycle doesnt affect anyone but you.

[rice_rocket]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.3; en-us; DROIDX Build/4.5.1_57_DX5-26) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

Someone brought that up to me, but the management is nice..the fact that I Owned the condo seemed to get me more rights because I owned technically two spots even though it is not assigned. Renters get the shaft.. I also get to own a dog of a larger size if I choose to, where renters must obey a maximum size limit...

[nhbubba]

Off the old lady?!

I agree: Put the bike lengthwise across the front of the spot, then pull the car in the spot beside/behind it.

[Pigman]

Maybe take a pic of the alleged infraction and send it to them to show how you are parked.....and that may show enuff to tell her to go shit in a Hat..

[Falko]

The old banana in the tailpipe trick...

Be as nice and cordial as possible to the committee. I doubt the whole their vehicle is bigger than my two combined argument will get you too far.

[kellis159]

Bet if you just tried to chat with the 'old woman' you(and she) may result in working this out without putting the management company in the middle. Sometimes folks get hung up on needing to 'follow the rules'. She may not understand that you have a security concern for the bike and that this isn't just being - sorry, what could be perceived as ignorant, but just explain to her the reasoning/need. That, in conjunction with showing that you are not encroaching on anyone else's spot - should convince her and avoid all the 'legal' aspects of things. If you're able to make this progress, you can advise the managment company that you've come to an agreement about the parking with the tennant who was complaining... they'll probably drop their complaint too. Good luck... might be too polyanna a thought here... but think it's worth a try

[RM01834]

To clarify a bit more...I'm not sure speaking with her will get very far. Her spot is empty except for her guests which mostly visit on the weekend, when my bf also visits. My bf has asked her guest politely if the car + mototcycle was an issue for her and the guest said no it wasn't. The old lady is just being a pain because she can be. Another resident has called her crazy. We are both owners so I don't have a leg up here. In addition, the letter from the management company stated that "several" residents have complained. I'm not sure if that is true, or they are just trying not to single her out, however there are a lot of retired folks living here with nothing better to do.

If I park with the bike in front, the resident behind me will complain as I've parked with the bike behind me before, but he has a bigger truck which sticks out just as far so I can argue that point. However, the bike fits perfectly parallel to my car.

I'm pretty sure my spot is assigned, not deeded.

I will send a pic of the combined parking - as there are other vehicles which take up more room than I do - and the bike seriously isn't bothering anyone as it's out of the way, however I think their argument is/will be that regardless it isn't "fair" that I can park two vehicles in my spot when others can't. I'm just trying to argue that point successfully...will a letter suffice or should I kindly threaten with legal action? I want to be polite but not a pushover.

[RM01834]

And thanks for all the replies

[rbrais]

You only have one assigned parking spot? What happens if your bf moves in with you?

[fjrrider RI]

condo laws rot never buy a condo - live in the woods and argue with deer and squerrls

[rbrais]

condo laws rot never buy a condo - live in the woods and argue with deer and squerrls

And occasionally a cyote, bobcat and fishercat, but I'm not complaining.

[01xj]

Off the old lady?!

I agree: Put the bike lengthwise across the front of the spot, then pull the car in the spot beside/behind it.

That's what I do when I see my g/f. Jimmy my bike as close to the curb as possible and put a cover on it. My g/f pulls into the same space, I help her pull in, being that she is a woman I wouldn't want her operating a vehicle that close to my bike, and she parks super close. Only takes up one space, straight as an arrow.

[RM01834]

being that she is a woman I wouldn't want her operating a vehicle that close to my bike, and she parks super close.

01xj...right...because that's why guys have higher car insurance premiums than women :-)

That's exactly how we park and it affects no one but it's an issue because I happen to live near people who have too much idle time on their hands.

[BSR6]

Call the association, find out what that policy is, and abide by it. Make sure you do so appropriately by running whatever solution you come up with by the property manager and get his/her approval. That way if someone complains your ass is covered and they won't have anything to hang over your head. I have dealt with same bullshit you are so I know first hand.

At my condo we have a right to X amount of spots per unit in a residents only lot. This leads to everyone pretty much just parking in front of their unit since why would one park anywhere else? We all live there, and all want to be close to our front doors.

I store my bike at a garage about two miles down the road from my complex. When I ride, I leave my car at the garage and take the bike. In summary, if I have my bike, the spot in front of my door is taken up by my bike. If I don't have my bike, it's taken up by my car. Either way its only one spot being used by me, one vehicle at a time, and its right in front of my door where no one else wants to park anyway so WTF right?

Well, you need to have special permission from the association to park a motorcycle in the lot. The reason behind this policy is to prevent people from being asshats in the way they park their bikes etc. It's not a big deal, you just call them and tell them, then they give you a sticker, and you gotta pay a $25 fee. They then warn you that if you start parking your bike in a way that pisses others off (taking up an entire space when it could fit in one with your car, parking it on the sidewalk etc) then they might deny you the right to park it there. For me this isn't a problem since no matter what I am always taking up one spot and never have both bike and car there at the same time right?

Not according to my neighbor (little old 90+ year old retired woman)...

She bitched to the association about me having my bike there, which forced me to pay the fee to get a sticker for my bike. The sad part is I called the association long before I started doing this and the property manager said the policy doesn't apply in my case so I was good without a sticker unless someone complained. Well this lady complained so the property manager called me requesting that I abide by the policy due to the fact that the lady was threatening to have my bike towed if it didn't have a sticker.