Homeowners' Associations - HOA's and Class B RV's

[markopolo]

I'm hoping to consolidate information re: Homeowners' Associations (HOA's) and Class B RV's.

If you have any info please share it here.

Does your HOA allow you to keep your Class B RV on your premises?

Do some Class B RV's fair better with HOA's?

[markopolo]

I found two older links on rv.net that have some info on this topic.

Link 1

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fu...tid/238618.cfm

Link 2

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fu...tid/559389.cfm

[bobojay]

Ours allows any RV as long as it's off the street.........

[carolwhite]

No! We finally sold our beloved Pleasure-Way because it became such a hassle within our HOA. It was too tall to fit in the garage, or we would still have it!

Carol White
www.roadtripdream.com – 888 522 TRIP
2007 National Spokesperson - Recreation Vehicle Industry Assn. (RVIA)
A Member of PMA, SPAN, NWABP, NSA & Travel Publishers Assn. (TPA)
Author, Publisher, Speaker, & Marketing Coach
Awards include: 2006 Benjamin Franklin-Marketing; 2004 ForeWord-Travel

[KurtFranz]

In our park, any "RV" has to be able to be parked under the carport. As you can see I have been perusing the older posts

[Davydd]

Interesting topic since I moved into an HOA voluntarily with a Class B and knew the rules thoroughly. We couldn't park our B at our new house. Period. Any vehicle had to be parked in a garage. The garage door was a 7 ft. high door. As it turned out you could not park a long bed Silverado pickup truck either as it was too short in length. One buyer sold his.

We came from 34 years living in a non-HOA area and a 1-1/2 acre wooded lot where I didn't even mow grass but had bonfires every year for down trees and branches. You could have parked anything outside.

So, I rented to store outside at an RV storage facility 25 miles away and the only one where I could find an electrical hookup--the last one. It was not ideal. Lots of storage inside for boats in my area without electrical. Since boat storage is seasonal in Minnesota they crammed them in so you simply can't get to your B. I was resigned to outside 25 miles away.

Five miles away was a ritzy fancy condo garage complex where many people had bought to store classic car collections. It was very expensive and there were no garages for sale. So I cast about on that idea and went searching. I found there was another condo garage complex, the only other one on the west side of the Twin Cities where I lived 9 miles away--271 units. I inquired. There was only one garage unit for sale, an 18 ft. wide x 45 ft. long with electrical & heat. I practically committed to it site unseen and when I saw I found it had an epoxy floor of a checker board pattern like a black and white winner's flag. Being a Speedway, IN native I thought it was ordained I buy it--I won. It was not cheap but it became mine--my Class B storage, a wood shop and man cave.

[folivier]

According to the HOA restrictions in our 55+ community I'm not allowed to park our Roadtrek at our house. But, I've had it parked in our driveway, kinda sideways since it would take up the entire length of the driveway, for a couple weeks so far with no complaints. I even installed a 30 amp receptacle in the garage to keep it plugged in. A few neighbors have asked about it and said how nice it is. I've told them it's a travel van. But we spend over half of the year away so it won't be here too often. If no one says anything I may extend the driveway like others have done so it won't block the garage. Fingers crossed. I do have family property to park it with 30 amp if this doesn't work out.
HOA restrictions:

[jrobe]

Our HOA allows RV's although we live a couple miles out of town in a development with 3-5 acre lots. I still didn't want my expensive Class B sitting outside all winter so I rent a storage space year round with a 10 foot door and an electric outlet for $100 per month. I can pay rent for 20 years or more for the cost of building a new garage with 10 foot doors.

[booster]

Originally Posted by jrobe

Our HOA allows RV's although we live a couple miles out of town in a development with 3-5 acre lots. I still didn't want my expensive Class B sitting outside all winter so I rent a storage space year round with a 10 foot door and an electric outlet for $100 per month. I can pay rent for 20 years or more for the cost of building a new garage with 10 foot doors.

We rarely hear about any HOA on big lot areas, at least here in Minnesota. Do they maintain and/or determine the landscape design on such big lots or leave that up to you? Would you be allowed to build a big outbuilding as it pretty typical in big lot areas by us (we are on a 2.5 acre in a similar spit up development with a 5 acre lot development just south of us.


To me having the garage/shop on site is worth any extra cost as I do lots in the shop so more than just storing vehicles.

[folivier]

Haha, nope, our lots are maybe 1/8 acre! and houses and everything else has to be approved. I'm just pushing the envelope here. Dislike our HOA board.
Our cabin in Colorado is on 1 acre and also has an HOA but it's much better run than the kindergartner's in our Louisiana subdivision. At our cabin we can pretty much park whatever we want.

[Rocinante]

So, this is interesting. How did you go about finding something like this? I played about with the idea of searching for one in my area and came up empty-handed. It's possible there aren't any around here, but I'd love to look around more effectively, so ideas and search terms would be very helpful.

Originally Posted by Davydd

Interesting topic since I moved into an HOA voluntarily with a Class B and knew the rules thoroughly. We couldn't park our B at our new house. Period. Any vehicle had to be parked in a garage. The garage door was a 7 ft. high door. As it turned out you could not park a long bed Silverado pickup truck either as it was too short in length. One buyer sold his.

We came from 34 years living in a non-HOA area and a 1-1/2 acre wooded lot where I didn't even mow grass but had bonfires every year for down trees and branches. You could have parked anything outside.

So, I rented to store outside at an RV storage facility 25 miles away and the only one where I could find an electrical hookup--the last one. It was not ideal. Lots of storage inside for boats in my area without electrical. Since boat storage is seasonal in Minnesota they crammed them in so you simply can't get to your B. I was resigned to outside 25 miles away.

Five miles away was a ritzy fancy condo garage complex where many people had bought to store classic car collections. It was very expensive and there were no garages for sale. So I cast about on that idea and went searching. I found there was another condo garage complex, the only other one on the west side of the Twin Cities where I lived 9 miles away--271 units. I inquired. There was only one garage unit for sale, an 18 ft. wide x 45 ft. long with electrical & heat. I practically committed to it site unseen and when I saw I found it had an epoxy floor of a checker board pattern like a black and white winner's flag. Being a Speedway, IN native I thought it was ordained I buy it--I won. It was not cheap but it became mine--my Class B storage, a wood shop and man cave.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by Rocinante

So, this is interesting. How did you go about finding something like this? I played about with the idea of searching for one in my area and came up empty-handed. It's possible there aren't any around here, but I'd love to look around more effectively, so ideas and search terms would be very helpful.

Search for auto storage condos or garage condos in your area. They are getting more popular especially for classic car collectors. I knew about this one nearer to my home. This developer has two now in the Twin Cities and one in Indianapolis and coming soon to Atlanta. This was the fancy one I mentioned.

https://automotorplex.com/locations/...-garage-condos

This is the one I bought into. They have 8 locations scattered around the Twin Cities in Minnesota and Lebanon, OH.

https://www.parkplacestorage.net/minnetrista

I imagine this idea has to be in other areas with other developers. To me it is also an investment in 5 years the county has valued my garage 30% more than what I paid for it. I could not build anything like it on a private home property unless maybe a farmstead.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by folivier

According to the HOA restrictions in our 55+ community I'm not allowed to park our Roadtrek at our house. But, I've had it parked in our driveway, kinda sideways since it would take up the entire length of the driveway, for a couple weeks so far with no complaints. I even installed a 30 amp receptacle in the garage to keep it plugged in. A few neighbors have asked about it and said how nice it is. I've told them it's a travel van. But we spend over half of the year away so it won't be here too often. If no one says anything I may extend the driveway like others have done so it won't block the garage. Fingers crossed. I do have family property to park it with 30 amp if this doesn't work out.
HOA restrictions:

It seems pretty clear they don't want campervans, motorhomes, and such stored outside. Kind of vague whether you can park to the side no closer than the building set back line to the street. Your neighbors might not mind now but someone might in the future.

We have no problem parking in our driveway when packing up or coming home and leaving our B overnight or two and our neighbors have also asked about it and said how nice. I can't extend our driveway so not to block the garage. If I could, your idea could be ideal in not blocking cars inside the garage.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Davydd

I could not build anything like it on a private home property unless maybe a farmstead.

Actually building a garage of that size and shape is pretty easy in many communities, including where we are in Andover. Probably not on a city lot of 1/2a or less but for sure on 1a and up. There are several similar shape buildings around us as the 18X45+ is what they put up for their class A motorhomes. They are under 900sqft so most rules allow that in many neighborhoods. We have a 1820sqft garage on our 2.5a lot plus a 440sqft attached one and are legal.



What you do miss out on here is having the onsite security and maintenance of the condo garage, though, plus more traffic to discourage criminal behavior. Thieves like detached garages.

[folivier]

I agree Davydd, HOA boards change with time. At least they're supposed to, our board has the same people that just keep rotating positions. And no, I'm definitely not interested.
Our lots are zero on one side and 6' on the other so that won't work to park it on the side of the house. Quite a few neighbors have added an extension at an angle taking up their front yards. I wouldn't mind more parking for when family comes. I realize I'm only able to park at the discretion of my neighbors. My plan is to keep it here for a week or so then park it at our family property about 20 miles away, rinse and repeat. It's just real nice to have it here to work on something. If they forbid me to park it here then so be it. But there are a couple people parking larger company work trucks and utility trailers in our public parking areas. I might even buy a magnetic sign. Yeah, I'm a troublemaker at heart.

[GeorgeRa]

Originally Posted by booster

Actually building a garage of that size and shape is pretty easy in many communities, including where we are in Andover. Probably not on a city lot of 1/2a or less but for sure on 1a and up. There are several similar shape buildings around us as the 18X45+ is what they put up for their class A motorhomes. They are under 900sqft so most rules allow that in many neighborhoods. We have a 1820sqft garage on our 2.5a lot plus a 440sqft attached one and are legal.

What you do miss out on here is having the onsite security and maintenance of the condo garage, though, plus more traffic to discourage criminal behavior. Thieves like detached garages.

In my previous house we had 2 garages, the large standalone one had 12’ doors (about 40’x40'). We had HOA but standalone garage was not visible from the street, matched house architecture in color, finish, roof slope and four sides 3’ eave. So, we got HOA permit. Since then, I acquired the appreciation for RV storage at the house, all tools in place, no driving necessary for large or small project, partially finished project can stay at unfinished state without end of the day cleanup.

Our current house has 10’ high garage doors and is large enough to store our camper van. It is a little tight but I have installed some sensors to allow me to park within an inch forward in or back in.

[KurtFranz]

This is great. Could one live there do you think if a full bath was installed?
I could see a single guy going that route.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by booster

Actually building a garage of that size and shape is pretty easy in many communities, including where we are in Andover. Probably not on a city lot of 1/2a or less but for sure on 1a and up. There are several similar shape buildings around us as the 18X45+ is what they put up for their class A motorhomes. They are under 900sqft so most rules allow that in many neighborhoods. We have a 1820sqft garage on our 2.5a lot plus a 440sqft attached one and are legal.



What you do miss out on here is having the onsite security and maintenance of the condo garage, though, plus more traffic to discourage criminal behavior. Thieves like detached garages.

I also meant visually in a normal home to home built up street scape where vast majority of single family homes are. The more rural you get you have the space. I could have built the garage on my unusual Tonka Bay home sitting on 1-1/2 acres and 300 ft off the street.

[Davydd]

Originally Posted by KurtFranz

This is great. Could one live there do you think if a full bath was installed?
I could see a single guy going that route.

Are you writing about a condo garage development? If so, there are some with mezzanines installed mostly I have observed as a living space or office space. Unfortunately I haven't seen any water sources in the garages. You have your B van of course with a bathroom, kitchen, bed and living amenities that some people live full time that would be parked in your garage. With the door pulled down it would be pretty bleak living.

We have other amenities. There is a public toilet. There is a huge pull thru wash stall bay with power soap and rinse wands, movable ladder to wash the top, etc. The cost to start up the wash wands is a mere dollar. There is a dump station for RV's. The development is security fenced in with a gate you can open with a fob or inputting the number code. Unfortunately they have a rule that you cannot stay overnight so living there is not an option.

We pay condo fees about $900 per year for gas heat, lighting, electrical service, maintenance, trash pick up, and snow plowing that I can see and property taxes about $1,000 per year for my 18' x 45' garage. I don't pay utility fees. I don't have a loan. The value of my investment has gone up 30% in five years. I My garage is the smallest offered in my development but it is huge for my needs as we have a 20' long van. It came with a 30a RV plug and a few other standard electrical outlets. So it is my wood shop and man cave and still large enough to store a lot of junk I should get rid of.

I can't possibly store a B van at my house. This is what it would look like.

[W9TR]

Our HOA allows us to park an RV for 72 hours before and after a trip. It’s a good position that allows me to work on the can and get it ready for trips. We have outside storage about a mile away. I’m building a garage/loft to house it but with building costs going crazy I’m waiting a bit to start construction.