## Facts

- The Boundary is a nine-unit fee-simple townhouse subdivision in Williamsburg, Virginia, with a common area including a private street and 18 parking spaces.
- The subdivision is governed by a recorded declaration and bylaws.
- The declaration defines the “common area” as property owned by the association for the common use and enjoyment of owners and grants each owner an appurtenant easement of enjoyment in the common area.
- The bylaws authorize the board to adopt rules for management of the corporation so long as they are not inconsistent with the bylaws and state law.
- The association adopted parking policies assigning two specific common-area parking spaces to each unit for that unit’s exclusive use and permitting owners to tow vehicles parked in their designated spaces.
- The Whites, owners of one unit, challenged the policies as inconsistent with the declaration and the Virginia Property Owners’ Association Act (POAA).

## Issues

1. Whether, under the POAA and the declaration, the association’s board could assign specific common-area parking spaces for the exclusive use of individual owners.
2. Whether the parking policies effectively granted an exclusive property interest (or comparable exclusive privilege) in portions of the common area that conflicted with owners’ appurtenant easements and required formal approval under the declaration.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Virginia reversed the trial court’s judgment for the association.
- The court held the board lacked authority under the POAA and the declaration to assign exclusive-use parking spaces in the common area.
- The court characterized the assignment-and-towing policy as granting a license (a special privilege) allowing designated owners to exclude other owners from portions of the common area.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the ruling that the policies were invalid and unenforceable.

## Legal Principles

- A property owners’ association board may adopt rules for use and management of common areas only to the extent those rules are consistent with the association’s recorded governing documents and applicable law.
- Where a declaration grants each owner an appurtenant easement of enjoyment in the common area and defines the common area for common use and enjoyment, the board may not, by rule, diminish or reallocate that easement into exclusive-use rights for particular owners.
- A regulation that assigns specific common-area spaces to particular owners and authorizes exclusion of others functions as a license conferring an exclusive privilege, not merely a neutral use regulation.
- Changes that materially alter owners’ common-area rights must be implemented through the declaration’s prescribed approval or amendment procedures, not unilateral board action.

## Conclusion

The court invalidated the association’s exclusive parking assignment policy because it granted certain owners an exclusionary license over common-area property and thereby impaired all owners’ appurtenant easements of common use; such a reallocation required compliance with the declaration’s formal approval procedures rather than board rulemaking.


White v. Boundary Ass'n, Inc., 271 Va. 50, 624 S.E.2d 5 (Va. 2006)