parking violations

[Gloria]

I have an older community, 55+. My roads are not very wide but do accommodate
one car parked in front of each home. All other cars are to park in off
street parking lots. I have a couple that refuse to comply with my parking
requirements and double park in front of their home. I have sent letters,
threatened to tow and have tried to explain over the phone. Denial and
excuses are all I get.

I sent them a 30 day notice of violation of community rules on Feb. 1.2001 by
certified and regular mail. I know they got the one by regular mail because
they called and of course said they were not double parking. I have made
random checks on the parking six times between 1-10-01 and 3-4-01 and they
are always double parked. I also have taken pictures.

On March 5, 2001, they paid the rent and I accepted it. Again they lied about
the parking, so this morning 3-06-01 at 9am I took another picture of the
cars double parked. I don’t think I can’t give them an eviction notice now
since I accepted their March rent. Their lease is up on May 1st. Can I give
them a 30 day notice that I will not be renewing their lease in May? If so do
they have to move the home out or do I have to give them time to sell it. By
the way, the post office lost the green card for return receipt of the
certified letter. They are trying to locate it.

[Chrissy]

First, the type of notice of non-renewal you may legally give depends on the state in which you operate. Secondly, eviction may not be necessary if you condition yourself to follow through on your threats. If your Guidelines allow you to tow a vehicle, stop threatening to tow and just do it. That may get their attention. If your Guidelines do not allow towing, don’t threaten to do it. Those types of idle threats do no good. Continue to build your file of pictures and data. Talk to your attorney about the type of eviction notice you can give, if that is your decision. If your Guidelines allow you to tow, be sure you know who pays for it and how the procedure will be handled. In most cases, you also need to talk to the company or driver and give them your preferred method of handling. That is, if the resident comes out while the driver is hooking onto the car, do you want them to unhook it on the promise of the resident that they will move it? Or do you want the driver to continue with the tow? (in this situation, this is my advice) And, if the tow is stopped, is there a charge for the trip out to your community? If you proceed with the tow, my advice to you would be to let the professionals handle it - do not go to the homesite. As to the missing green card, havbe the post office write you a letter stating that it is missing, and use your receipt and the green and white notice as proof of mailing and the date. Good luck.