Overhaulin'

Can an apartment complex make you sell your car?

In our lease agreement it has rules on cars. We have done what the office has asked us by painting the truck, fixing the tail lights, and cleaning the bed of the truck out. All that has cost us at least $300. Now they are saying we must remove our truck from the property because it is "ugly" and has rust on it. Now keep in mind the truck is a 1987 Dodge D100. It's old. Any car that is that old and well used is going to have rust. Yet there are 19 other cars (I counted) with visible damage that are not getting in trouble. They will not let us out of the lease and we can not afford to pay a storage fee somewhere when my husband takes the truck to work daily. I am just wondering if there is any legal action we can take against the complex.

Public Comments

1. There are laws regarding you making a neighborhood look bad and lose value. But this is also not your property. So I would say they have the right to say that. Kind of crappy on their part though.
2. If it is running, licensed, and you drive it regularly (not abandoned) they have no right to make you remove your vehicle from the premises. If it has flat tires, broke down, and isn't driven but an eye sore, yes they can force you to remove the truck. The premises is not a junk yard or auto storage area.
3. If it's in the lease, there's nothing you can do. Crappy as it is, you agreed to it when you signed. You'll have to find somewhere else to park your car for now, and when your lease ends move. If the complex allows it, you can try to find someone to take a sublease from you.
4. They are not "making you sell it." The issue is whether you can park it on the premises. Read your lease and the apartment rules. My guess is that it depends on whether the truck is in operational status, properly registered and insured. If you're just parking a unregistered "clunker" in their lot, they probably can require it's removal.
5. You signed a lease with qualifiers in it that gives them the right to not let you park the truck on their property. Is street parking available? If not, you need to move or find a nearby friends place to park it. How do you know they are not asking the same thing of the other 19 owners?
6. the detailed wording of your lease is what counts. if it prohibits 'eyesores' and they get to decide what is an eyesore, you've got trouble. however, if it only prohibits vehicles that do not function, they have no grounds to act. if they do act anyway, you'll have to sue in small claims court. so you'd better read every detail of your lease before this happens. [in general, the courts are reluctant to enforce 'eyesore' clauses if the vehicle is regularly driven to work, etc. UNLESS there is a clear and well disclosed written prohibition in the lease. an example of that might be "the following autos, trucks, boats, trailers, or other licensed vehicles shall not be parked on the property under any circumstances: inoperative vehicles, vehicles not in good repair as required by law to operate on the public streets or waterways, those with commercial license plates, those which are required to have commercial license plates even if they do not have them, those without valid license plates, those with commercial advertising on them, and any that take up more than one parking space."]
7. I very highly doubt they can do what they are doing. Is there some kind of rental authority in your area you can call and ask this question of or at least a lawyer. I have never heard of this sort of thing happening and its sound absolutely rediculous. They can not dictate what kind of vehicle, age or condiditon you are allowed to own. If this is what you can afford who are they to say anything about it. Expecting the truck bed to be clean of visible rubble, garbage etc etc is one thing, but the condidion as long as it is not hurting anything is none of their business. (I would think anyway)