HOA Rules That RVers Should Know About
Home Owners Associations (HOAs) maintain standards set out by the communities they represent. They kind of act as property managers for planned communities including single-unit housing, townhouses, and apartment buildings.
While most HOAs recognize that RVs are a part of the lives of many homeowners, they also realize that RVs take up a lot of parking space. Not only that, but some RVs can become a significant hazard during severe weather events like hurricanes.
HOAs have to balance the needs of RV-owning homeowners with the needs of the greater community. For this reason, there are some common HOA rules that RVers should know about.
Common HOA rules regarding RVs
While every HOA is different, there are three things they all seem to have in common. Namely, they don’t want eyesores on the HOA property. They don’t want RVs blocking off parking spaces. In addition, HOAs generally don’t want people living or staying in their RVs in their developments.
That being said, there are some HOA communities that recognize that RVing is a popular pastime. Therefore, they provide some form of RV storage.
The Private Communities Registry (PCR Communities) has a long list of HOA communities in the US that provide on-site RV storage. However, every HOA is different.
Here are the HOA rules that RVers should know about, especially if you are planning to buy in an HOA.
1. RVs are not allowed to be stored in public view, including driveways, sideyards, and backyards.
Three Oaks HOA in Sarasota, Florida has a typical rule about storing RVs:
“The HOA rules do not allow residents to permanently park or store their campers, boats, trailers or similar vehicles in the driveway of their lot. Residents are also prohibited from storing these types of vehicles in their front or side yards, or any place that is within the public view. Residents are permitted to park and store these types of vehicles inside their garage.”
Three Oaks HOA
While the rule makes it clear that you have to keep your RV out of public view, you are allowed to park one out of sight in your garage. This should be obvious because your HOA has no jurisdiction inside your home or garage.
2. The time an RV can be stored on your property is limited to under three days.
It’s really common for HOAs to limit the time your RV can be parked in view of public areas to three days. This is so RVs can be loaded and unloaded within a reasonable timeframe. That being said, some HOAs are more strict about this rule than others are, with some allowing up to five days before they issue a warning letter or fine.
It’s best to find out about temporary RV parking limits before you buy into an HOA community. If possible, ask the HOA when you are researching the property in question.
3. RVs aren’t allowed to be used as temporary housing on your property.
Many planned communities don’t allow you to live in your RV on your own lot while you build your home. However, some communities will allow you to occupy an RV on your lot for a stipulated period of time. This may be six weeks or six months, depending on the HOA.
But what about using an RV for emergency short-term accommodation? RVers should know that while some HOAs may allow them to temporarily occupy an RV on their property in an emergency situation such as a fire, they shouldn’t count on being able to stay on their RV without the HOA’s express permission.
4. RVs can’t be used as short-term guest accommodations.
With few exceptions, HOA communities that provide RV storage won’t allow you to use your RV as a guest house. Furthermore, this rule applies whether your guest is staying for a night or for a week.
You may be asking, why can’t I use my RV to accommodate my guests for a night? It’s because insurance for RV storage is only valid for unoccupied RVs stored on the property. Besides, some people would undoubtedly take advantage of allowing occasional short-term RV use by using the RV on a regular basis.
If you are considering purchasing or even renting a property in any sort of planned community, it makes good sense to understand the HOA rules regarding RVs before you sign anything. Otherwise, you may find yourself in a situation where you have to find expensive (and unplanned) off-site RV storage.
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Lynne lives, travels, and works full-time in a Forest-River R-Pod 180 with her 2-pointers, Jolene and Annabelle. Lynne has been an enthusiastic RVer for over 35 years. And then one day in 2019, she began full-time RVing as a lifestyle experiment. She quickly fell in love with the convenience, freedom and minimalist lifestyle offered by full-time RV living. Lynne is a professional writer and has been a professional dog trainer since 1995. You can read about her travel adventures on her R-Pod Adventure blog, R-podyssey at: http://www.rpodaventure.com
We live in a senior community that has very narrow streets. We aren’t even allowed to park our cars on the streets. Thankfully, the developers provided a gated storage area for our RVs for only $40 per month.
We live in an HOA community of 33 homes. Initially RVs were strictly prohibited. Three owners purchased RVs and at a meeting we voted to changed the covenants bto allow them for a limited, but undefined amount of time. We do not take advantage of that. At one time a snow storm was coming and we needed to bring it home for loaded prior to the snow. We simply emailed our neighbor s and explained the situation. We have not had any issues. There are ways to work within the system as long as it isn’t taken advantage of.
Yet another reason why I’m glad I don’t live in an HOA community. Absolute nonsense!
The rules of our HOA say that RV’s and trailers can only be parked in our driveway for a maximum of 24 hours, and at no time can they be parked in a yard off of the driveway.
My neighbor brings his travel trailer home very regularly to load it, unload it, clean it, maintain it, etc. He is a very frequent camper.
So one weekend, he brought it home on Friday after work. The following Saturday afternoon, he and I were out in the driveway talking and up to the driveway pulls a police car. The officer very politely and friendly, asked how long the trailer had been parked in the driveway and how much longer he would be leaving it in the driveway. My neighbor replied that he brought it home after work last night and would be hitting the road with it on Sunday afternoon.
The officer, again very politely, explained that the HOA has a 24 hour rule and one of our neighbors called and complained that he has had his camper in the driveway for more than two days. (I picked up on that and laughed. From Friday night to Saturday afternoon? Two days? Really?) And the officer continues explaining, before I laughed and interrupted him, that as long as the trailer doesn’t stay “in” the driveway for more than 24 hours on consecutive days, he can bring it home any time he wants to.
And then came the really good part of the officer’s visit…
The officer then asked if we would mind pulling the camper out on to the side of the street in front of the house until he is ready to leave tomorrow?
The officer went on to explain that the HOA has no jurisdiction over the street in front of the house. So since there isn’t any “no-parking” signs in our neighborhood, and there isn’t any safety risk of it impeding traffic on the street, there is no reason he can’t park the camper in front of the house, as long as he moves it every 24 hours. If it sits more than 24 hours in one spot and someone complains, apparently the city can tow it as an abandoned vehicle. So if he parks it on the street, he needs to make sure and move it about 5 feet one day, and then turn around and move it the other way about 5 feet the next day, so that it is obvious that it has moved. Then the city will ignore it and the HOA can’t say anything about it. So he can bring it home to load and unload it as long as he needs to.
The officer went on to say to temper that with good judgement, he said you can’t sleep in it and you can’t do it so often that it becomes a nuisance in the neighborhood. But you can use it when you reasonably need more than a day to do something with the camper.
Sometimes the HOA board members get under my skin with their restrictions. And in this instance, on that Saturday afternoon, it made my day to be standing in the driveway and overhear the conversation when the police car pulled up.
So ask your local police department in your community. It may help when you need to bring home your travel trailer for more than a pit stop…