Parking ticket for parking in our own driveway! (North Port: home, to live in)

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Originally Posted by s8film40

Seems pretty specific to me.
I guess if you consider the sidewalk part of the roadway, it's a little bit of a stretch since it specifically say's motor vehicle traffic. It seems to me since the sidewalk in an HOA are common property to the owners but not necessarily open to public use it would fall under the restrictions of HOA rules not traffic laws.

Also speeding tickets on private roads actually aren't enforceable.

They are if the owner of the road has given the police permission to ticket on that road. Trust

[s8film40]

The police can not ticket people for violating rules set by private businesses or individuals. They can only ticket people for violations of actual laws.

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Originally Posted by s8film40

The police can not ticket people for violating rules set by private businesses or individuals. They can only ticket people for violations of actual laws.

There is a law in the state of Florida that doesn't allow parking on sidewalks.

Where I live the sidewalks are owned by the HOA.

The HOA has signed a legal department with the local police department allowing them to patrol the streets and all common area owned by the HOA (this includes sidewalks) as if they were public property outside of the HOA and to ticket any vehicles violating the law.

Thus the police can legally ticket vehicles on sidewalks where I live. It's no different than a guy who owns a parking lot downtown who gives the police permission to ticket vehicles illegally parked in that lot.

Could I make it any clearer?

[s8film40]

There is a law in Florida that doesn't allow parking on public sidewalks.

There is a Florida law that allows standard traffic laws to apply to open roadways that are private but not sidewalks.

Most HOA's consider their sidewalks to be private and do not allow the same rights to apply to their sidewalks.

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Originally Posted by s8film40

There is a law in Florida that doesn't allow parking on public sidewalks.

There is a Florida law that allows standard traffic laws to apply to open roadways that are private but not sidewalks.

Most HOA's consider their sidewalks to be private and do not allow the same rights to apply to their sidewalks.

Keyword, MOST. Not all.

[s8film40]

Well I said most because I assume all do, but I don't discount the possibility that there might be some HOA out there that considers their sidewalks public. Keep in mind having a public sidewalk as opposed to a private sidewalk opens up lots of rights that HOA's find very undesirable. For example on public sidewalks it is legal to stage protests and demonstrations and also legal to sell or distribute newspapers, like the little boxes you see on some of the sidewalks on 192 and some even contain more adult oriented newspapers. I don't see something like that going over well with any reputable HOA.

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Originally Posted by s8film40

Well I said most because I assume all do, but I don't discount the possibility that there might be some HOA out there that considers their sidewalks public. Keep in mind having a public sidewalk as opposed to a private sidewalk opens up lots of rights that HOA's find very undesirable. For example on public sidewalks it is legal to stage protests and demonstrations and also legal to sell or distribute newspapers, like the little boxes you see on some of the sidewalks on 192 and some even contain more adult oriented newspapers. I don't see something like that going over well with any reputable HOA.

The HOA considers (per the deed restrictions) the sidewalks part of the common area. They have given the police legal permission to patrol the common areas and enforce FL state laws on the common areas as if they were public areas. That doesn't mean that anyone can come in through the gates.

[s8film40]

Exactly and if the HOA restricts who can come in and who can't then the law allowing people to be ticketed on private property does not apply.

It is the availability of the area or place for travel and the right of general and common use which makes certain private property subject to public control pursuant to Chapter 316, Florida Statutes. Thus, this office has determined that municipalities have enforcement authority with respect to traffic violations and accidents occurring in shopping centers and parking lots which are considered to be "streets and highways" upon which the public has the right to travel by motor vehicle.[4] However, no authority to enforce Chapter 316, Florida Statutes, exists on private residential property which may not be used by the public for motor vehicle traffic.[5]

I don't doubt that tickets are issued and even paid even when this law doesn't apply. But it seems very clear that if someone were to fight this in court it wouldn't hold up under this particular law.

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Originally Posted by s8film40

Exactly and if the HOA restricts who can come in and who can't then the law allowing people to be ticketed on private property does not apply.



I don't doubt that tickets are issued and even paid even when this law doesn't apply. But it seems very clear that if someone were to fight this in court it wouldn't hold up under this particular law.

My neighbor's kid got a speeding ticket in our community and tried to fight it using the private property tactic. He lost.

[s8film40]

Speeding tickets are even less enforceable on private property since no legal speed limit exists. Case by case there are always going to be differences in outcomes some lawyers are more effective than others. With a good lawyer just about any traffic ticket can be dismissed there's almost always a way.