Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
App helps find owners who secretly rent units.
Parking app identifies unapproved renters
At least three South Florida condo associations have found a novel way to put the brakes on owners who break the rules. They are using a parking app to do it. “We have implemented new technology to combat both Airbnb and illegal seasonal renters, and snowbirds that rent their units more than what our declarations state,” said Josh Travieso, vice president of the 150-unit Cypress Bend Condominium V Association in Pompano Beach.
The Parking Boss app helps officials identify and tow away the cars of unapproved renters and others living under an association’s radar, even though that is not what it was designed for.
Here’s how the app works: Unit owners are issued decals with QR codes for their personal cars. The app scans the code to see if the car’s license plate matches what’s on file.
Guests have their license plate information plugged into the app as well. But there’s a time limit put on guest parking, four days in a week at Cypress Bend V, which allows the association to catch renters with longer leases and have their cars towed.
“We were able to find a lot of dirty laundry,” said Travieso, who discovered the app was being used nearby at Cypress Bend Condominium VII.
Officials there said it has helped get unauthorized rentals under control.
In the month the app has been in place at Cypress Bend V, the condo has uncovered about 15 owners with roommates who had never been registered or had background checks done by the association. There were snowbirds who were renting out their units on a monthly basis while they were away, in violation of the association’s minimum six-month lease requirements. One owner, who had three units he bought as investments, ended up selling one he had been using for short-term rentals, Travieso said.
So far, he said, only a couple of cars have actually been towed.
Lakeside condominiums in Lauderdale
Lakes has been using Parking Boss for about a year because of the limited parking spaces it has.
The app has helped management identify and tow cars that shouldn’t be there. It also helped discover renters who had not been approved by the association, said Gabrielle Province, Lakeside’s assistant manager.
Many longer-term renters have now gone through the approval process, after their cars were towed multiple times, Province said.
“The people who actually live here are happy about it, because they can park now,” she said.
Generally, condo associations rely on paper passes to control guests. But Travieso said the passes could be left in a unit and used by subsequent renters. There always seemed to be a way for unit owners to get around the rules, he said.
Seattle-based Parking Boss serves about 200 apartment, condo and homeowner associations across the country.
Most use the app as a way to make sure limited parking spaces aren’t being used up by people who don’t belong in the communities, said app co-founder Joel DuChesne.
He didn’t foresee this new use for his 6-year-old system.
“Stopping illegal renting, that’s not something we set out to solve,” he said.