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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
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    Default Building Parking Issues

    My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Oregon

    I lease an industrial space in a large industrial building. The written lease does not have any wording what-so-ever about parking. The landlord is trying to tell me I am only allowed to use one parking space, and she keeps trying to make it smaller and smaller. The problem is her parking lot is too small for the number of tennants in the building in relation to the number of required off street parking places by the city.

    The space I lease is approximately 1200sq ft. The "off street parking" section of the city code says that at least 1 parking space is required for every 500sq ft of gross floor area. Legally speaking, that means I should have at least two or three parking places, am I wrong?

    Since I don't own the building, and the parking lot has at least 20 total spaces, can the landlord tell me that I'm only allowed to use one space? Even though the parking lot is technically large enough, I have been told I am not allowed to use as much space as the city requires.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    Default Re: Building Parking Issues

    If the nature of your business requires you to provide more parking than you have obtained from your landlord, that's your responsibility. There is no reason your landlord has to lease you any parking in association with your lease, even if it controls parking areas that it could rent to you. It's also not unusual for landlords to charge rent per space.

    You presumably could see when you moved in that the building had a small lot and lots of tenants. Obviously not every tenant can fill up the parking lot, or other tenants won't have any spaces. I'll grant that this should have been clarified before you signed your lease, but as it stands it sounds like you have a written lease for the business premises and either an oral amendment or permission to use one space in the parking lot.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
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    29

    Default Re: Building Parking Issues

    Quote Quoting Mr. Knowitall
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    You presumably could see when you moved in that the building had a small lot and lots of tenants.
    That wasn't the case when I moved in and signed the lease. There were several empty units at the time.

    Quote Quoting Mr. Knowitall
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    but as it stands it sounds like you have a written lease for the business premises and either an oral amendment or permission to use one space in the parking lot.
    My oral and written agreements when I moved into the building never specified just one parking spot. This has happened later on after the landlord has overbooked her parking lot. Can she just change her mind whenever she wants? How can I conduct business in a building I leased for such purpose, without the required number of parking spaces?

    Additionally, if you add up the total square footage of the building, there are not enough parking spaces as required by the city on a square foot basis for all the tennants.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    Default Re: Building Parking Issues

    Quote Quoting BigBlock
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    That wasn't the case when I moved in and signed the lease. There were several empty units at the time.


    My oral and written agreements when I moved into the building never specified just one parking spot. This has happened later on after the landlord has overbooked her parking lot. Can she just change her mind whenever she wants? How can I conduct business in a building I leased for such purpose, without the required number of parking spaces?

    Additionally, if you add up the total square footage of the building, there are not enough parking spaces as required by the city on a square foot basis for all the tennants.
    Let me go into the issue of not enough spaces per "code requirements".

    I've looked into commercial properties, and more often than not, the amount of parking is a FRACTION of what the code requires. You have to keep in mind in many cases, the municipal authorities has to approve the final design.

    In one case, I met the head of of the "planning board", and was advised municipal officials made the decision to go ahead anyway in the interest of "creating jobs", because the complex would NOT be built if municpal officials insisted on the exact amount of parking spaces required, per code, and he cited the number of jobs that would be lost, and revenues lost due to the added parking space requirement.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
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    29

    Default Re: Building Parking Issues

    Quote Quoting SChinFChin
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    Let me go into the issue of not enough spaces per "code requirements".

    I've looked into commercial properties, and more often than not, the amount of parking is a FRACTION of what the code requires. You have to keep in mind in many cases, the municipal authorities has to approve the final design.

    In one case, I met the head of of the "planning board", and was advised municipal officials made the decision to go ahead anyway in the interest of "creating jobs", because the complex would NOT be built if municpal officials insisted on the exact amount of parking spaces required, per code, and he cited the number of jobs that would be lost, and revenues lost due to the added parking space requirement.
    The lot the building sits on has plenty of extra room for more pavement, but it's grass and weeds instead. I am 99.9% sure they don't have any special use approval. The problem is that the parking lot was originally big enough at one time, but then they built an extra building, on top of some former parking spaces, but didn't add any extra parking. They didn't get permits or bother with following code for most of the building.

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Building Parking Issues

    You may try to talk to your landlord about getting or renting additional parking spaces, of some sort of plan to convert the unpaved area into a new parking lot from which you can rent spaces, or anything else you want to propose. If you cannot reach an agreement, you can have a local real estate lawyer review your lease and advise you as to how much it will cost to attempt to litigate the issue and whether you're likely to succeed.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
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    California
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    90

    Default Re: Building Parking Issues

    As to the size of the lot, it will depend on what the requirements at the time it was constructed were to know if it is/was in compliance with code mandates or not. As for use of the lot, unless it is assigned parking then generally the lot will be for the common use of all the tenants and their guests/customers, and therefore the landlord would not be able to restrict you to one space. If it is assigned parking then the restriction is dependent on the terms of the rental agreement, which it seems yours did not address. I wouldn't take the landlord to court over this, but if you end up getting served with an eviction notice for failure to comply with the terms of the rental agreement and you have neither a restriction about parking in your original agreement nor received notice of a change to the agreement to include such a restriction, then you may have a valid defense against the unlawful detainer at that point.

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