Ever hear of condo owners rolling dice to see who gets one of the precious parking spaces in their building? Me neither, until I put a client in escrow on a home in a six-unit condo building on Nob Hill. There are four parking spaces, and her condo is one of the ones with no parking. That's OK with my client. She's getting a great price and walks to work anyway.
Then I read Article 7.3 of the building's original CC&Rs, dated November 19, 2001. Here's what it says:
Parking Lottery. The usage of the parking spaces designated "P-1", "P-2", "P-3", and "P-4" on the Condominium Plan shall be allocated using the lottery system described in this Subsection. The first lottery shall be held within fifteen days following the issuance of the Final Public Report for the Property and subsequent lotteries shall be held within fifteen days of the anniversary of the prior year's lottery. The assignments determined by the lottery shall take effect ninety days after the lottery and remain until the assignments determined by the next lottery take effect. The lottery shall be performed as follows.
(1) An opaque container with a narrow opening, such as a wicker basket or a ceramic flower vase shall be used to contain six objects that are marked "A" through "F." Each Owner shall roll a pair of dice. The Owner with the highest dice roll shall draw an object from the opaque container first, followed by the other Owners in decreasing order of their respective dice rolls. Where multiple Owners have rolled the same number on the dice, such Owners shall roll again to determine the priority among them. Owners shall not look at the opaque container when drawing.
(2) Six cards shall be prepared, each showing a different allocation of the parking spaces. The following chart shows the allocation to be described on each card.
Object Card I Card II Card III Card IV Card V Card VI
A 1 X 1 4 X 4
B 2 X 2 3 1 X
C 3 4 X X 2 3
D 4 3 X X 3 2
E X 2 3 2 4 X
F X 1 4 1 X 1
Numbers 1 through 4 represent the parking spaces shown as "P-1" through "P-4" on the Condomium Plan and show which space shall be assigned to the Owner with the corresponding object. The symbol "X" represents the fact that no stall shall be assigned to the owner with the corresponding object. Each card shall be sealed in an envelope and placed in a container. Each Owner shall again roll a pair of dice. The Owner with the lowest dice roll shall draw a card from the opaque container. Where multiple Owners have rolled the same number on the dice, such Owners shall roll again to determine the priority among them. The first card drawn shall determine the lottery results, which shall be described on a written "Stall Assignment" form which shall be signed by all Owners to signify their approval of the result and intention to comply with the assignments. All Owners shall be entitled to view all of the cards to determine compliance with this paragraph.
(3) Any Owner may require that a lottery be repeated provided he/she pays the following sum to each Owner: one thousand dollars if it is the first time that particular Owner has requested that the particulaar lottery be repeated and five hunderd dollars if is the second or later time that the particular Owner has requested that the particular lottery be repeated.
(4) Any Owner who wins a parking space assignment may rent his/her assigned space to another Owner, but may not rent his/her assigned space to any non-Owner.
Of course I was all excited for my client after I read this Section. I even called her-- "You've got to read 7.3," I said. "You're not going to believe it!"
Then I found an Amendment to the CC&Rs drawn up in 2003, with tidy dry language that deeded the spaces to four of the units. From what I understand, the two units left out in the cold with no parking were compensated by the other four owners.
If you've read this whole post, I don't even need to explain to you how creatively wacky this parking lottery is. If anyone reading this post has the low-down on how this kind of drawing corresponds to a gambling game, I'd love to hear about it.
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