If your community has assigned common element parking spaces, you have likely encountered situations involving requests for reassignment of parking spaces, questions as to whether parking spaces are being used by the correct units, and situations involving attempts by owners to transfer these parking spaces separate and apart from their units.
Oftentimes, parking assignments are established by deeds when developers transfer units to the first non-developer owners. In an ideal world, every time the pertinent unit is sold, the exclusive right to use such assigned parking space transfers with the unit.
However, in reality, it is not unusual to see mistakes in the chain of title as well as in the original transfer documents. Therefore, if your association receives requests for reassignment of parking spaces or complaints concerning who is using which parking space, it is in the community’s best interests to confirm the requesting owner, or the unit that is being complained about, has the legal right to exclusive use of the parking space in question.
We often find that, for any number of reasons, the initial assignments contain errors and those errors result in confusion regarding who has the legal right to use the pertinent spaces. Additionally, it is not unusual to find that at some point during the unit’s existence and transfers, the wrong space number was used on a deed, throwing off the correct assignment.
Additionally, we oftentimes run into situations where unit owners try to transfer their exclusive rights to use parking spaces to other individuals and record documents with the counties to that affect. It is important to note, that in most cases, it is not lawful to divide ownership of a unit and the exclusive right to use a parking space assigned to such unit. Therefore, when that happens, it throws a monkey wrench into the chain of title and complicates assignments moving forward.
In the event you discover or suspect a problem exists with the parking space assignments in your association, chances are the association will need to perform a fair amount of real estate research to get to the bottom of the issue, which is why it is highly recommended involving legal counsel at that stage. This begs the question – how do you know when to start the research process?
Below are situations that should raise red flags when it comes to parking space assignments:
- Two or more owners have the same parking space assigned to their units in their deeds;
- An owner provides a copy his/her deed to the unit, which contains assignment of a different parking space than what the association’s records indicate;
- An owner selling a unit receives word from the potential buyer that the parking space assignment is incorrect according to title.
If your community has any of the above situations, legal counsel should be engaged to review, conduct research, and verify the correct assignments. If it is determined that an initial assignment by a developer was incorrect, the association may be required to amend its governing documents, prepare and record deeds to reassign parking spaces, and/or to reallocate parking spaces.
For more information on complications related to assigned parking spaces, or if you have specific questions related to this issue, please contact an Altitude attorney at 303.432.9999 or at [email protected]