Threatened With Towing Due to Lack of Handicapped Spaces

[CMHusband]

My question involves a traffic citation from the state of:California

both my wife and I have legally issued handicap parking placards. There are no handicapped spots anywhere in our neighborhood. The HOA won't issue us additional parking permits to park inside the complex so we park in a regular open spot and use the handicap placard. But we get citations (patrol company only) every night with the threat of being towed.

We live in a small housing community with 60 houses and an HOA. Each house is issued ONE parking permit. We have no driveway. There are at least 10 open parking spaces 30 feet from my house open everyday. (parking is not impacted or even an issue in this neighborhood)

We are told by the patrol company that they "wont tow" a vehicle with a handicap placard. but its up to the Management company for the neighborhood. I don't trust what any of them say, as in any community, there are petty folks who are a little over zealous about enforcing just about any rule and I can tell that someone is upset that I'm parking "2" cars in the neighborhood!Oh my!

As far as the rules go with handicapped placards, we should be able to park here without any repercussion correct? If they start to tow my cars, do I have any repercussions under ADA rules etc.

[That Guy]

My question involves a traffic citation from the state of:California

both my wife and I have legally issued handicap parking placards. There are no handicapped spots anywhere in our neighborhood. The HOA won't issue us additional parking permits to park inside the complex so we park in a regular open spot and use the handicap placard. But we get citations (patrol company only) every night with the threat of being towed.

We live in a small housing community with 60 houses and an HOA. Each house is issued ONE parking permit. We have no driveway. There are at least 10 open parking spaces 30 feet from my house open everyday. (parking is not impacted or even an issue in this neighborhood)

We are told by the patrol company that they "wont tow" a vehicle with a handicap placard. but its up to the Management company for the neighborhood. I don't trust what any of them say, as in any community, there are petty folks who are a little over zealous about enforcing just about any rule and I can tell that someone is upset that I'm parking "2" cars in the neighborhood!Oh my!

As far as the rules go with handicapped placards, we should be able to park here without any repercussion correct? If they start to tow my cars, do I have any repercussions under ADA rules etc.

Regardless of how many spaces remain open every day, is parking only allowed for residents or are there guest parking spaces/visitor or particular spaces assigned to the general public (example: someone looking to rent there would park in a "prospective tenant"parking)?

My understanding is that if this parking facility is only open to residents (thereby making it private and not public), it need not comply with ADA by providing a certain number of handicapped parking spaces. however, if it offers as few as one visitor parking space, or one public parking space, then the requirement is that they must have 1 handicapped space for every 25 spaces.

The other question would go as follows: if there were any handicapped spaces, and assuming they were to comply with the 1:25 ratio, they would have 2, possibly 3 handicapped spaces out of the 60. That obviously does not necessarily mean that any of the 3 spaces will be even remotely near your apartment, and while they maybe required by law to make "reasonable accommodations" for you, I don't know if it would be "reasonable" to expect them to not only establish two handicapped spaces near your apartment, but to also expect them to allow you two spaces instead of one.

I mean if they were willing to be lenient, you would not be here asking what to do, right!

Also keep in mind that to offer "reasonable accommodations" they don't really necessarily need to establish handicapped spaces per se... they could for example assign one space to you or to your wife that is within close proximity to the apartment... And that would be "reasonable accommodations"...

No only that, but if you only get 1 parking space per apartment, you'd still be facing the same problem of only being allowed to park one vehicle... but hey, you should probably call the ADA Information Line

The U.S. Department of Justice provides information about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) through a toll-free ADA Information Line. This service permits businesses, State and local governments, or others to call and ask questions about general or specific ADA requirements including questions about the ADA Standards for Accessible Design.

ADA specialists are available Monday through Friday from 9:30 AM until 5:30 PM (eastern time) except on Thursday when the hours are 12:30 PM until 5:30 PM.

Spanish language service is also available.

For general ADA information, answers to specific technical questions, free ADA materials, or information about filing a complaint, call:

800 - 514 - 0301 (voice)

800 - 514 - 0383 (TTY)

They could obviously correctly answer your questions.

[cdwjava]

The Vehicle Code grants you a lot of exceptions as a result of the placard, but it won't protect you from a private property tow if you park in a prohibited space.

When you moved into the HOA you knew of the one car rule, correct? If this was not going to work for you, you should have moved somewhere else. Or, you park the other car without the placard outside or wherever they permit parking. Certainly you are not the only residents with more than one car.

[flyingron]

The ADA and the California law doesn't say that if you feel aren't sufficient accommodations that you can just do what you whatever you want with impunity. You don't any pass in California to park in a space you are not otherwise entitled to park in or relief from the towing rules, just because you have a handicapped placard. It also doesn't entitle you to "extra" permits that you are not entitled to (if your unit comes with one space, one space may you use).

[CMHusband]

The Vehicle Code grants you a lot of exceptions as a result of the placard, but it won't protect you from a private property tow if you park in a prohibited space.

That's what I thought. Thank you.

When you moved into the HOA you knew of the one car rule, correct? If this was not going to work for you, you should have moved somewhere else. Or, you park the other car without the placard outside or wherever they permit parking. Certainly you are not the only residents with more than one car.

You would think so... unfortunately right now I'm a renter. The nice lady who rented the house to me never mentioned the parking thing and it never occurred to me that we could not park in the open spaces all around us. I learned the hard way and when I inquired about it I was told, "park in your garage or park on the street" the garage is kinda full of other stuff, so that's out. A few of the homes only have little mini driveways - mine being one of them. So I'm stuck. Grrr.

Then after speaking with a "friendly" on the board, I found out they would not tow cars with handicap placards which both of us have (legit) But...as in many little neighborhoods, there is always someone who must take it upon themselves to prove a point or something. "Power tripping" so now they are reporting me constantly and even reporting my one car that DOES have a parking permit as "stored and unmoved" so that car is now under threat of tow. Sheeesh. - can't we all just get along? what happened to someone saying, "hey that guy has a limp...maybe he could use a hand" - Today life in the city seems more like a wacky war than ever before. Okay, the "A-holes" win again. I'll limp the 300 yards to my car.

Peace. Thanks.