Couple Told They Can't Park Truck in Own Driveway

Homeowners' association deems it unseemly
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 19, 2015 5:48 PM CST
Updated Jan 24, 2015 8:00 AM CST
Guy Told He Can't Park Truck in Own Driveway
File photo of a Ford F-150 truck.   (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Like parking in your driveway? So do David and Arna Orlando, but their homeowners' association says they can't—and is suing to make the point, the Post-Standard reports. The Kimry Moor Homeowners Association in the town of Manlius, NY, just outside Syracuse, cites its regulations in telling the Orlandos to cut it out. The reason: They drive a 2014 Ford F-150 pickup, which the association deems a commercial vehicle. And driveways are limited to "private, passenger-type, pleasure automobiles," the lawsuit says. But David argues that the pickup is registered with New York state as a passenger vehicle, and anyway, other residents park trucks in their driveways (which the Post-Standard confirmed). "This is absolutely absurd,'' he says.

But a lawyer for the association calls this "a matter of restrictive covenants, and interpretation of those covenants." A pickup truck "is not a passenger vehicle by definition," he adds, and notes that the association owns the driveways. The latter part's true: The 84 single-family homes in Kimry Moor are owned by residents, but common areas like driveways are owned by the association and governed by its bylaws. All homeowners also have a second parking space in the garage. Other Kimry Moor rules include no hanging laundry outside, no tents, and no weird smells. But no big trucks? "This is all very baffling to people who own pickup trucks" like the F-150, America's most popular vehicle, writes Laura Northrup at Consumerist. (In other truck news, a plumber's pickup ended up in the hands of Islamic militant fighters in Syria.)

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