HB1203 Overwhelmingly passes - HOAs can't bar trucks

[Dave Gray]

Some good legislation just passed in Florida and was signed into law, almost unanimously passing House, Senate and Governor's desk, limiting HOA restrictions, including not letting them to disallow the parking of your truck or commercial vehicle.

Suck it, HOAs!

https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2024/1203

[CF DolFan]

Many HOAs are worthless and just an excuse for small minded people to have authority. I received quite a lot of notices of being out of compliance with the County's codes and they were threatening fines. They even sent registered mail at times.  Seeing as how I actually enforced the Land Development Code for the county I knew they were full of crap. Instead of giving them a "do you know who I am" speech,  I asked them for the code I was not following so that I could make sure to meet it. I never heard from them again. Commonly they are bullies who just go unchecked.

[Brian Fein]

Some good legislation just passed in Florida and was signed into law, almost unanimously passing House, Senate and Governor's desk, limiting HOA restrictions, including not letting them to disallow the parking of your truck or commercial vehicle.

FALSE

The bill also provides that homeowners’ associations may not prohibit a homeowner or others from parking:

A personal vehicle, including a pickup truck, in the property owner’s driveway or in any other area where they have a right to park.
A work vehicle, which is not a commercial motor vehicle, in the property owner’s driveway.
Their assigned first responder vehicle on public roads or rights-of-way within the homeowners’ association.

The article specifically says the HOA is prohibited from disallowing parking of vehicles which is not a commercial motor vehicle.  Triple negative there, but commercial vehicles are still able to be disallowed.  However, it does not seem to offer any definition of what is considered a "commercial motor vehicle."

The fact that many communities still disallowed pickup trucks is antiquated and stupid.  I'm glad this took care of that.

[CF DolFan]

Commercial vehicles are spelled out under Florida law as they require a CDL.

Florida Statute regarding driver's licenses defines a commercial vehicle as “any motor vehicle or motor vehicle combination used on the streets or highways, which: (a) Has a gross vehicle weight rating of 26,001 pounds or more; (b) Is designed to transport more than 15 persons, including the driver; (c)Is transporting hazardous materials and is required to be placarded in accordance with 49 CFR 172, (F)”

An F-350 with signage is not a commercial truck under Florida law as it is less than 10,000 pounds. If it fits in your driveway you are good to go.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I feel HOAs should be able to have most anything in the original formation agreement but have extreme limitations on what can be modified. 

If everyone buying into the original HOA agrees that you can't have a truck, that garbage pails must be pink with purple poka dots and Halloween decorations must be taken down by sundown on Nov 1.  Then fine.  If you don't like those regulations then don't buy a house there.  But if the original documents allowed for pickup trucks than it shouldn't be the case that pickups can be prohibited later on unless there is unanimous agreement. 

[Brian Fein]

But if the original documents allowed for pickup trucks than it shouldn't be the case that pickups can be prohibited later on unless there is unanimous agreement. 

I can only speak for Florida, but to change the governing docs of an HOA typically requires 3/4 approval (I think, maybe 2/3) of the membership.  Meaning the board cannot willy-nilly change the governing docs without a large scale effort to obtain approvals from 75% of the people in the community.  Getting that many people to do ANYTHING en masse is nearly impossible.  However, the board can impose guidelines and restrictions that are not specifically enumerated in the docs.

[Spider-Dan]

I don't subscribe to the libertarian-ish idea that any contract is fine as long as you "willingly" sign it.  These sorts of HOAs can be abused to socially engineer a certain kind of neighborhood.  Government regulation is useful for precisely these kinds of legal-but-obnoxious leverages of power.

HOAs for condo complexes, which have large amounts of shared space and maintenance, make sense.  But for developments of single-family homes, they seem more of an abuse of a legal vacuum than anything else.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I can only speak for Florida, but to change the governing docs of an HOA typically requires 3/4 approval (I think, maybe 2/3) of the membership.  Meaning the board cannot willy-nilly change the governing docs without a large scale effort to obtain approvals from 75% of the people in the community.  Getting that many people to do ANYTHING en masse is nearly impossible.  However, the board can impose guidelines and restrictions that are not specifically enumerated in the docs.

I don't have a problem with pickups being banned if it was original governing documents. But I don't feel the board should be allowed to impose restrictions that isn't in the governing documents.

[Dave Gray]

I don't have a problem with pickups being banned

I do.

Full stop.

[Dave Gray]

FALSE

I was using "work vehicle" and "commercial vehicle" interchangeably.  That was my bad.

You can park your work truck, but not a dump truck.

[CF DolFan]

I don't have a problem with pickups being banned if it was original governing documents. But I don't feel the board should be allowed to impose restrictions that isn't in the governing documents.

So your good with telling many of the blue collared workers they can never live in a gated community because I've never seen an HOA that didn't include that. Fortunately many don't enforce it on pick-ups and for them that do same color magnets to cover the logo has worked well. 

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

So your good with telling many of the blue collared workers they can never live in a gated community because I've never seen an HOA that didn't include that. Fortunately many don't enforce it on pick-ups and for them that do same color magnets to cover the logo has worked well. 

I am good with people making there own choices.  I see it a lot like hotels/apartments pet policies.  Some allow pets some don't.  I prefer a pet free hotel/apartments.  But I don't think all places should be that way, but I would have a problem with a place switching either forcing someone to give up a pet or someone who doesn't like dogs now needing to deal with them. If there is a market for pickup friendly HOAs, then there will be pickup friendly HOAs.

[Brian Fein]

I was using "work vehicle" and "commercial vehicle" interchangeably.  That was my bad.

You can park your work truck, but not a dump truck.

This is a hot-button issue where I live.  People have a car with a vehicle wrap and some people in the community want to call it a commercial vehicle and ban it.  Similarly, Joe the Plumber works for Joe's Plumbing and drives a van that says Joe's Plumbing on the side.  Commercial vehicle?  My community board says it is not.  But some people who live there think that van should not be allowed in the community.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

This is a hot-button issue where I live.  People have a car with a vehicle wrap and some people in the community want to call it a commercial vehicle and ban it.  Similarly, Joe the Plumber works for Joe's Plumbing and drives a van that says Joe's Plumbing on the side.  Commercial vehicle?  My community board says it is not.  But some people who live there think that van should not be allowed in the community.

This law is an overreach of that problem.  What is allowed and not allowed should be clearly and unambiguously before the first house is sold.

[Brian Fein]

This law is an overreach of that problem.  What is allowed and not allowed should be clearly and unambiguously before the first house is sold.

it is, it was, and it always will be.  The docs say "no commercial vehicles" - the docs make no mention of defining what is a commercial vehicle.  however as CF pointed above, the definition is provided in Florida statute.

The issue is people think anything that has writing on it is "commercial" and that's simply untrue.