What is a passenger vehicle? Is an extended-cab pickup truck a commercial vehicle, or a passenger vehicle? A man and his homeowners association in upstate New York disagree on this point, with the HOA suing the truck owner in county court, seeking an injunction to force him to stop parking his truck in his own driveway.

The truck in question is a Ford F-150 with an extended cab. That model of truck is the most popular vehicle in the United States, but it is apparently not as popular in Manlius, one of the more wealthy suburbs of Syracuse, NY.

The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that the homeowners association claims to own the driveways of all homes in the development. Garages belong to homeowners, and they are allowed to park any vehicle in the garage, but only “private, passenger-type, pleasure automobiles” can be parked in driveways.

The problem with this is that the pickup truck is registered as a regular passenger vehicle with the state DMV, not a commercial vehicle.

The homeowner counters that other homes in the neighborhood have pickup trucks parked in their driveways, which the Post-Standard’s reporter also saw reports seeing on her visits to the neighborhood.

Each of the development’s single-family homes is allowed two parking spaces: one in their own garage, and one in the driveway that is considered the property of the homeowners association.

This is all very baffling to people who own pickup trucks. Back in the ’80s and ’90s, my father drove an extended-cab pickup truck to commute to his job as an accountant, and used the bed of his truck mostly for personal tasks like hauling his all-terrain vehicle to hunting camp, hauling deer back from camp to the butcher, and bringing my mini-fridge to me at college. That’s a family vehicle, not a commercial vehicle.

CNY homeowners sued, told they can’t park pickup truck in driveway [Syracuse Post-Standard]

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