Disabled Vet Battles HOA Over Handicap Parking Space

posted on Sep 08 by Brian in the Disability Discrimination, Disability Law, Disability News, Veterans, Wheelchair Accessibility, Wheelchair Accessibility Laws, Wheelchair Accessible Vans category

Marcus Cook, a 67-year-old Lakewood, Colorado citizen and disabled veteran, has had to hire an attorney to respond to his home owners association’s refusal to designate a handicap parking space for his van. Regarding Mr. Cook’s disability, the HOA’s attorney, its board of directors including board president Philip Eves, and Forrest Scruggs of the property management company Realty One, Inc. have said: Prove it.

Allegedly, no other disabled members of the Jewell Lake Condominiums require special handicap parking, so the HOA recommends Cook just obtain a smaller wheelchair accessible van and park in his garage. According to them, Cook has not demonstrated a need.

Cook claims that before the HOA recently resurfaced the parking lot, there was a space painted with the international handicap parking symbol, and that is where he parked. Forrest Scruggs says there wasn’t. It is not sufficient or relevant to the HOA that the veteran’s vehicles have been handicapped plated for 15 years or that he is in the process of adding hand controls with which to operate his current van.

According to Scruggs, the spot where Mr. Cook had been parking was a fire lane; however, apparently no action was ever taken to enforce this ‘fire lane,’ and no one has proven the spot was previously painted as either Handicap Parking or Fire Lane.

The Board of the Home Owners Association like to point out that HOA-dues-paying community member Cook has been at odds with them before, though they do not defend themselves. The HOA claims, for instance, the veteran has frequently threatened litigation against the HOA, but do not go into detail why or if, as in this case regarding one handicap parking spot, litigation might not have been appropriate.

The board says Mr. Cook has an assigned space out in the parking lot, but he has countered that the 9-foot area is not big enough to safely load or unload his wheelchair from his van. He may have to turn to negotiating with other Jewell Lake homeowners for a closer spot if the board and the property management company continue to refuse to accommodate him.

The retired, disabled veteran may be labeled a troublemaker by his Homeowners Association, and important parking spaces may not receive any sort of proper labeling at all, but the one fact all parties in dispute should agree upon is: Cook wants to retain his mobility.

Is your HOA cooperative? Have you witnessed or experienced indignities over handicap parking?

Source: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/28303166/detail.html