Miami-Dade

Residents Complain About Lack of Parking at Miami-Dade Apartment Complex

The residents of the Naranja area complex say they can never find available spots, so some just leave their cars on the street or park illegally.

NBC Universal, Inc.

Imagine coming home tired and finding there is nowhere to park. It's what residents of a Miami-Dade apartment complex say happens every night and when they park in the wrong place, their cars get towed.

Cellphone video provided to NBC6 shows Madison Point apartment residents circling around their community looking for a place to park at night.

The residents of the Naranja area complex say they can never find available spots, so some just leave their cars on the street or park illegally.

“They have people just parking anywhere, I mean, in the streets or in the grass, anywhere they can find a parking space,” said Omar Nation, who lives at the complex.   

Giseyden Borrego, another resident, told NBC6 Responds sometimes she takes a cab to work so she doesn’t lose her parking spot.

Aside from the inconvenience, the parking problems are costing residents a pretty penny.

Miguel Castro, who lives at Madison Point, says vehicles are towed every day. 

“If you're not abiding by the rules, they’re just towing your car and that's $175. I actually got my car towed for parking in a parking space, but not having a decal that they only give us one,” Nation said. “It's really a real, real problem.” 

Those decals were issued by the management company, Royal American Management, as a way to fix the problem.  

They told NBC6 Responds, “We are managing the situation by distributing parking passes to all residents so that we ensure only residents are parking in the lot.”

But that didn’t fix it.  

Turns out, Madison Point has 263 units and only 182 parking spots.

There's not enough parking for the amount of people that are staying here,” Nation said. 

When NBC6 reached out, the management team told us “…We are aware of the parking concerns,” adding, “Royal American Management does manage the property, but we were not involved with the construction of the building or the planning that went into the parking design. The number of allocated parking spaces is in line with Miami-Dade County regulations.”

NBC6 contacted Miami-Dade County and an employee told us, “Code requirement for this property calls for 166 parking spaces. The developer provided 182 parking spaces.”

Juan “JJ” Perez is a real estate attorney. 

There is no law that says every unit has to necessarily have a parking spot unless the documents of that association require every unit to have a parking spot. But under the law of the city or the county, they just have to comply with the local zoning. So there can be a situation where there are not enough parking spaces for each door in the community,” Perez said. 

Perez says, under the law, property managers can enforce their parking rules, but explains that generally, tenants of any building should know that enforcement of property manager rules cannot be selective.

They can't just pick a family out here and just consistently enforce it against that family or that group of people. Whereas the same maybe family or group of people on this side that is doing the same thing is not being picked on. It has to be an equal enforcement across the board. Otherwise they lose their right to enforce that rule,” Perez said. 

The first viewer who contacted NBC6 Responds about this issue had to pay $145 to get her car back after it was towed. When our team contacted the towing company, they told us they provide vehicle removal services for property owners, condominiums, apartment properties, as well as public agencies to help them ensure safety. 

The company sent us a picture showing the viewer’s car was illegally parked but then returned her money as a courtesy.

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