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How To Set Up A Parking Lot Management Plan For Your Apartment Complex

As an apartment complex owner or manager, you are probably concerned with keeping your facility safe and your tenants happy. One option for accomplishing both is to consider parking lot management. With a few simple steps and the help of a towing service, you can keep your available parking areas open to residents and ensure the safety of your complex. Here are just a few options for successful parking lot management.

Assign Parking

If your parking lot doesn't already have assigned parking, consider switching to this option. You'll need to hire a contractor to paint each spot with a number or letter code to coincide with each resident's parking assignment. Once each spot is lettered or numbered, you can begin to assign spots based on the proximity to each person's apartment. Be sure to leave some parking spaces aside for guests, contractors and other visitors. You can then issue parking stickers or passes that have the parking assignment printed on them. You'll probably want to issue two spots to each unit if your available space allows, so make sure that the passes allow the tenants to park in either space. After giving residents a month or two to get used to the assigned parking, you can then call in a towing service to begin monitoring the lot for unauthorized vehicles.

Issue Guest Passes

Your residents will likely have friends or family visiting from time to time. To provide convenient parking for these guests, you can issue temporary guest passes to your tenants each month. You can limit the number of days the passes are good for to discourage people from using the guest passes on a continuous basis. Your towing company should visit your lot at least once per day and once per evening to monitor your guest parking spots to ensure everyone in the lot has the appropriate guest parking passes.

Set Rules About Disabled/Abandoned Vehicles

Having disabled or abandoned vehicles in your parking lot that never move can be an issue for both the safety and aesthetics of your property. You may want to consider instituting a rule requiring tenants to move their vehicles every few days. Whether they move from one assigned spot to another or they simply take the vehicle for a drive around the lot to show it is still in working order, having your tenants move their vehicles regularly will ensure that broken down vehicles don't begin to take over your parking lot. If residents fail to move their cars, you can have your towing service remove the vehicles from the lot. Of course, you may want to loosen these restrictions in the winter during severe snow storms so your residents aren't being asked to drive in unsafe conditions.

Your towing company can be your partner in managing your parking lot. Be sure to give your tenants plenty of advance notice before you begin to tow, and post signage indicating that non-residents will be towed at their own expense. Once your parking lot management plan is in place and your towing services professional begins patrolling the lot, you might even find that you have more available parking than you expected.