An owner is renting out their driveway on a parking app. What can our HOA board do?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 25, 2026

What an HOA board can do when an owner rents a driveway or parking space on an app: declaration clauses, TX, FL and CO law, a sample rule and enforcement steps.

Part of the HOA board handbook: running the board.

The short answer

A driveway listed on a parking app is rarely a rental cap problem. Nobody leases the home, so the leasing article of the declaration usually does not reach it. What can reach it is the residential use clause, the ban on trade or business, the nuisance clause and the parking rules. Whether the board can stop the listing or only control its side effects depends on those clauses and on state law. In Texas the declaration does most of the work. In Florida and Colorado, state statutes limit what the documents can forbid, so most boards there end up regulating the cars, the traffic and the gate codes rather than the listing itself. That is usually where the real complaints are anyway. This guide is general education, not legal advice. Rules differ by state and by each community's governing documents, and a ban or an amendment is worth a short review by the association's attorney.

Find out what is actually happening

Complaints about this tend to arrive as rumor: strangers parking every morning, a car nobody recognizes, a listing someone saw online. Before anyone writes a letter, get facts. Find the listing and save dated screenshots that show the price, the hours offered, the number of spaces and any words like event parking, airport parking or daily commuter. Ask the neighbors who complained to keep a short log for two weeks: date, time, how many cars, where they parked and whether they blocked anything. Write down what you see, not plate numbers, unless your rules already require registering vehicles. Then call or visit the owner. Some of these turn out to be a relative's car parked for free, or a single monthly parker who never bothers anyone. Others are three spaces turning over twice a day with the gate code printed in the booking instructions. The board's response should match which one you have.

Read the documents in this order

Start with the definitions in the declaration, then the use restrictions. Look for three clauses: residential use only, no trade, business or commercial activity on a lot, and a nuisance clause that bars activity that annoys other residents. Next read the parking article. It should say who may park where, whether street parking is allowed, and whether the streets are owned by the association or were dedicated to the city or county. That last point matters a lot. If the streets are public, the association generally cannot police who parks on them, and in Colorado 38-33.3-106.5(1)(d.5) bars an association from prohibiting use of a public right-of-way that follows local ordinances. Then read the rules and regulations and the article that gives the board power to adopt rules. If the declaration lets the board regulate parking and use of the common area by rule, you have tools without an owner vote. If the only route to a ban is an amendment, plan for that separately.

What Texas, Florida and Colorado law add

Texas. We found no Texas statute that protects home businesses or paid driveway parking in a property owners' association, so the declaration controls. Property Code 202.004(a) presumes the board's discretionary enforcement of a restrictive covenant is reasonable unless a court finds it arbitrary, capricious or discriminatory, which is a strong reason to enforce the same way every time. Before fining, 209.006 requires written notice by certified mail that describes the violation, gives a reasonable period to cure a curable violation and tells the owner they may request a hearing on or before the 30th day after mailing. Section 209.006(i)(1) lists a parking violation as an example of a curable one. Florida. Statute 720.3075(3)(d) says HOA documents may not preclude an owner, or a tenant, guest or invitee of the owner, from parking a personal vehicle in the owner's driveway. The statute does not define invitee, and we found no decision on whether a paying stranger counts. A rule that says only residents may park in driveways is therefore risky. Fines under 720.305(2) are capped at $100 per violation and $1,000 in total for a continuing violation unless the documents say otherwise, and need 14 days' written notice of a hearing before a committee of at least three members who are not directors or officers. Colorado. Senate Bill 24-134, effective August 7, 2024, added 38-33.3-106.5(1)(l): an association may not prohibit a home-based business at a unit, meaning one whose main office is at the unit or whose operations primarily occur there. The association may still enforce reasonable rules on parking, noise, nuisance and similar matters. A paid parking listing on the owner's own lot likely fits that definition, so plan on regulating it rather than banning it. Fines need the written enforcement policy with notice and hearing that 38-33.3-209.5(1)(b)(IV) requires.

Decide which problem you are solving

Write down, in one or two sentences, what is going wrong. Typical answers: cars hang over the sidewalk, paying parkers fill guest spaces, drivers use the gate code and the pool, event days bring a dozen cars to a cul-de-sac, or cars sit across a mailbox cluster. Each of those has a fix that does not depend on winning an argument about commercial use. If the honest answer is that one quiet monthly parker bothers nobody, the board can decide to do nothing and say so in the minutes. If the problem is real, pick the smallest step that fixes it. A motion to adapt: "Move that the board adopt Rule 7.4, paid parking on lots, in the form attached, effective 30 days after notice to owners, and direct the secretary to send the rule to all owners with the reasons for it." Check your documents for any notice period or owner comment period for new rules, and follow the longer of the two.

A rule you can adapt

Keep the rule about conduct and keep it neutral, so it applies the same way to a paying parker and a visiting relative wherever state law requires that. Sample wording: "7.4 Paid parking on lots. (a) Any vehicle parked on a lot must fit entirely within the driveway or garage and may not block a sidewalk, mailbox, fire hydrant, or any part of an association street. (b) No more than two vehicles parked under a paid booking or a third-party parking service may be on a lot at one time. (c) A person parking under a paid booking may not use guest parking spaces, the clubhouse, the pool or any other common area. (d) No owner or resident may give a gate code, remote or access credential to a person who pays to park. (e) The owner of the lot is responsible for violations by anyone parking under a booking the owner offers." In Florida, have the association's attorney read part (b) against 720.3075(3)(d) before adoption. In Colorado, keep every part tied to parking, traffic, noise or nuisance, which is the room 38-33.3-106.5(1)(l)(II) leaves. Change the numbers to fit your streets.

Enforce it in a calm order

A sample timeline. Day 0: complaint received. Days 1 to 14: confirm the listing and collect the neighbor log. Day 15: the president or manager calls the owner and follows up with a courtesy letter. A paragraph to copy: "Neighbors have raised concerns about vehicles parking at your home through a paid parking listing, including cars blocking the sidewalk on several mornings. The association's parking rules apply to every vehicle on a lot. We'd like to resolve this informally. Please make sure booked vehicles fit within your driveway and do not use guest spaces or the gate code. If you have questions, call me at the number below." Next board meeting: adopt a rule if the current ones do not cover the problem. After that, any repeat violation gets the formal notice your state requires, a hearing if the owner asks, and a fine only after that process. Keep towing for vehicles on association streets and lots, under a written policy. Most declarations give the association towing power over common property, not over an owner's driveway, so read yours before anyone calls a tow company. Our guide on writing an HOA parking enforcement and towing policy covers signs, notices and tow company contracts.

Mistakes that turn this into a feud

Citing the rental cap. It almost never fits, and the owner's lawyer will say so. Announcing a ban by email when the board has no rule or covenant that supports it. Treating paying parkers worse than free guests in Florida without legal advice. Fining before the notice and hearing state law requires, which hands the owner a defense to the whole fine. Calling a tow truck for a car in someone's driveway. Enforcing against this owner while a director's adult children park on the same street every night, which undercuts the Texas presumption of reasonableness and looks bad anywhere. Printing the owner's name, address or listing in a newsletter. Talk about the rule in public and the owner in private. For the wider question of what kinds of home businesses an association can restrict, see our guide on whether an HOA can restrict home-based businesses.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

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