Taking away a parking stall

[Craig M.]

Aloha everyone,

I recently took over management of a 10 unit apartment building in Hawaii for a family member.  I am not a realtor or a PM so forgive my ignorance.  The building has a very limited amount of parking stalls.  I want to take away and reassign a parking stall from a tenant who has never used it in 10+ years.  I have been told by the previous manager that the tenant claims that one day he may get a car and complains if anyone parks in the stall.  There isn't a separate fee for parking for any unit but found out his rent has not been raised in several years (another issue I'm dealing with).  Would it be wrong/illegal to take the stall away?  I would give proper notice (30 days?) and maybe tell him rent will not be raised for 12 months as an incentive.  I read the agreement and there's nothing stated in there regarding an assigned parking stall.  I'm guessing it was verbally assigned.  Any constructive comments/suggestions will be greatly appreciated.  Mahalo.

[Kyle Keller]

@Craig M.

How long is his lease for? It sounds like he is probably already paying a lot less than he should be paying. If there are a limited number of stalls, I would start charging extra to park in them, that may deter people from unnecessarily getting a parking stall. Maybe you could put out a general announcement to the complex saying that you want to ensure parking is used by those who need it so you will start charging a minimal monthly fee for each stall, limit one per unit. You are allowed to make amendments to the lease.

A good source for any questions of what you can and cannot do is the tenant/landlord hotline at 808-586-2634.

Hope that helps.