LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla. — According to the non-profit Foundation for Community Association Research, more than nine million people—about 44 percent of Floridians—live in communities governed by homeowner’s associations, which can regulate what kinds of vehicles can park in their communities and where.
A new state law going into effect July 1 says an HOA can no longer pass regulations preventing pickup trucks and work trucks from parking in driveways.
But the I-Team has learned it’s unclear how the law will be applied.
With more than 42,000 residents, Lakewood Ranch is one of the fastest-growing planned communities in the United States.
Golf courses, a polo field, and palm tree-lined streets cover 31,000 acres in Manatee and Sarasota counties.
Some say HOA regulations help preserve neighborhoods’ looks, property values
“You can see that in this kind of a neighborhood, homes are on very small lots,” resident Mike Miller said.
Miller, a former Lakewood Ranch Board member, bought there when the first phase opened in 1995.
He believes HOA rules help preserve his neighborhood’s look and property values.
“I think people kind of select a community in part because of how it hits them as a first impression,” Miller said.
Thousand of Tampa Bay residents rely on take-home vehicles
Plenty of people drive work trucks in Lakewood Ranch during the day, including Prisco Solis, who we saw supervising a roof installation.
“I don’t usually go to the office, so I'm always out and about,” he said.
Solis relies on a take-home truck, which he parks in his driveway in a different neighborhood.
So do tens of thousands of other Tampa Bay area residents, including painters, plumbers, cops, carpenters, and others whose HOAs don’t prohibit commercial vehicles in driveways.
“You have to pay for the HOA somehow. How are you going to get to your job if you don’t have a vehicle?” Solis said.
But commercial trucks aren’t allowed to park overnight in Lakewood Ranch.
“It would change the look of the neighborhood to have those kinds of vehicles in multiple places,” Miller said.
Currently, even pickup trucks are prohibited under the association’s rules.
“It’s not uncommon that people come in with a pickup truck and say, ‘Wait a minute. I didn’t understand. Is there a way I can work around this?’" Miller said. “So far, there hasn’t been. People find their accommodations as far as how they deal with it.”
New law says HOAs can’t prohibit driveway parking
That all could change July 1st when a new state law goes into effect.
The law says, in part, “Homeowners' association documents, including declarations of covenants, articles of incorporation, or bylaws, may not preclude... a property owner or a tenant, a guest, or an invitee ...from parking his or her personal vehicle, including a pickup truck, in the property owner's driveway.”
Miller worries that could mean anything goes.
“It says vehicle. So could be an RV. Could be a bus. It could be anything anyone drives and considers to be their personal vehicle,” he said. “It could be a monster truck.”
Under the law, it’s not considered a prohibited commercial vehicle unless it has more than two axles and weighs more than 26,000 pounds.
“The community really loses all control and ability to manage themselves,” Miller said.
“It’s very questionable whether you could apply this retroactive”
“We’ve had a number of calls with this,” said attorney Jonathan Ellis, who specializes in HOA law.
Ellis says the wording of the new law is vague, and it’s not clear whether it applies to existing HOA rules.
“The general consensus from the lawyers that I've spoken to is it’s very questionable whether you could actually apply this retroactive,” Ellis said. “And even if they did want to make it apply retroactive, it’s a question of whether the Florida constitution would allow it to apply retroactive.”
“Over the next few years, this is gonna make its way through the trial courts. It's not clear if every judge is going to rule the same way on this,” Ellis said.
In civil court, the losing party often has to pay both parties’ legal fees.
“This now raises the stakes, both for the association and for the unit owner, on whether they want to challenge it and on what level they want to challenge it,” Ellis said.
Ellis expects how the law will be applied will be decided by an appeals court or the state supreme court.
He says lawmakers may have to revise the statute altogether to make it clearer.
Miller doesn’t yet know how it will all play out in Lakewood Ranch.
“It just opens Pandora’s box. That's the biggest problem is you don’t know what’s gonna happen next,” Miller said.
If you have existing parking regulations in your community, Ellis recommends checking with your HOA about how they plan to interpret the new law before risking a possible violation.
If you have a story you’d like the I-Team to investigate, email us at adam@abcactionnews.com.
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