Q: Our homeowners association has decided to boot vehicles instead of having them towed for various violations. Our community has single car garages and a space in front of the garage for the second car. Could the association and tow company be at risk for a lawsuit if both cars are out of service in case of an emergency, the booted one and the one trapped in the garage? — Eric

A: Your community association can tow or boot your car if the association’s rules allow it.

That said, your community and their towing vendor must follow those rules.

Also, depending on where you live, laws or ordinances may hold the towing company, and your association, liable if the tow or immobilization was done improperly and causes you harm.

Your situation is more complicated because booting the vehicle in the driveway will also immobilize the properly parked vehicle in the garage.

In the hypothetical scenario where both vehicles are immobilized due to the homeowners association’s decision to boot vehicles instead of towing them, the association and the tow company would be at risk for a lawsuit if their decision led to damages or injuries for several reasons.

First, the rules under which community associations operate emphasize the protections of the residents’ rights, while not unduly impairing the ability of the association to carry out their responsibilities to the community as a whole.

This means that your association must carry out its duty to ensure proper parking in a way that does not infringe on the rights and safety of its residents.

While booting a car may be an appropriate remedy to curb parking violations, booting a car that also immobilizes other non-offending vehicles is inappropriate.

Your association could also be liable for negligence if booting the car created the foreseeable risk of immobilizing your “non-offending” car in the event of an emergency.

In other words, your community might have the right to take “remedial” action to remedy your parking violation, but if they overstep and take “punitive” action to punish you by immobilizing both cars, and you are damaged as a result, they could be liable for causing that unnecessary or negligent harm to you.

In this scenario, it may make more sense for your community to tow the offending car so that the car in the garage does not get blocked in.

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