“Commercial Vehicle Threat To Be Towed”

Firstly I live in a co-op housing complex. Last winter i started a business and bought a new truck. There has been no issues until recently. I put the logo of my company on my truck and now the co-op is threatening to tow my vehicle at my expense and told me I am not allowed to park it in my parking spot anymore.

The by-laws just state no commercial vehicles. in their letter they say that I am storing equipment for commercial purposes in my truck but there is nothing in my truck except 2 lawn chairs as this is not only my work truck but my personal vehicle as well.

I cannot seem to find any laws that support this. Any advice?

Funny from Dec 4th there has been no issues, July 25th I put on 2 signs on my side doors and on August 1st i get told can't have the truck here.

A co-op housing parking lot is considered private property and would be covererd by their own policies and by-laws of the co-op. They can pretty much tow any motor vehicle that violates these by-laws. Local police or by-law enforcement would not normally be involved in the process. It sounds like your truck does fit into the HTA definition of: "commercial motor vehicle" means a motor vehicle having permanently attached thereto a truck or delivery body yand includes ambulances, hearses, casket wagons, fire apparatus, buses and tractors used for hauling purposes on the highways.

Its interesting under the bylaw

Types of Vehicles Permitted:

<co-op name> parking lot is for regular passenger cars or trucks only. No parking of any type of commercial vehicles will be permitted. No storage of any type of recreational vehicles will be permitted.

My Truck is a basic 2011 GMC Sierra 1500 pickup truck. There are also at the present time that I can count 7 other trucks parked in the parking lot in front of peoples units.

They state that I store commercial equipment in my truck, but they are making assumptions as I have a Tonneau Cover that is locked on the back and there is only 3 lawn chairs back there for when we goto the beach.

Also add there are 3 of those electric scooter bikes and 1 motorized bike here.

You're in a bit of a catch-22 situation. Under the HTA you have to have the name of the owner on a commercial vehicle, so if you take it off you violate the HTA section 103(1). If you leave it on, you could get towed. Magnetic logo for the side of the truck?

The bylaw looks like it allows trucks, just not ones used for commercial purposes.

Looks like the powered bikes are ok as they are not a recreational vehicle (RV or motorhome)

The only way around this would be to get the bylaw modified.

I'd make it very clear to the Co-op board that if they start enforcing this, they'd better be prepared for fair and consistent enforcement throughout the complex, regardless of who owns the offending vehicles.

Remember, you only need a name on your CMV if it's gross registered weight is over 18,000 lbs (or 8181.81 kg). See O/Reg. 587(8)(g). Don't ask my why they switch between lbs & kg in the Act and the regs.