Traffic rules on private roads
Can an HOA enforce stop signs and speed limits on private roads?
Yes. An HOA can enforce stop signs and speed limits on private roads it owns, where its governing documents allow it, by sending an association notice. A notice is not a ticket, a summons or a citation: it carries no license points and makes no DMV record. Public roads stay police business.
What the board decides, in order
- A notice, not a ticket
- A person reviews every clip
- Public roads stay police business
First, whose road is it?
The answer turns on who owns the road, not on who lives beside it.
| On the road | A road the association owns | A town, village or county road |
|---|---|---|
| Who sets the rule | The association, under its governing documents. | State traffic law. |
| Who enforces it | The association, by notice. In Florida, the city or county too, if the association signs a written agreement with it. | The police. We do not enforce there. |
| What arrives | From the association, a notice to the car’s registered owner with the evidence attached. No license points and no DMV record. | Whatever the police decide. |
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That gap is why the question reaches the board at all. Police do not routinely enforce traffic on a road the town does not own, and a guard cannot stand at the stop sign all day. So the complaint about the same car at the same corner lands at the next meeting, and the board needs something it can act on.
What the board decides, in order.
Four decisions, in order. Nothing is enforced until the board has agreed it.
Step 1: Mark which roads are yours
At the site assessment we mark which roads the association owns and which belong to the town, village or county. We do not enforce on the second kind.
Step 2: Have your attorney read the documents
Your governing documents decide what the association can enforce and how. Your association attorney reads them. We do not.
Step 3: Write the rule down
The board sets what counts as speeding, what counts as a rolled stop, the enforced hours and the wording on the notice.
Step 4: Warnings first
The first notices are warnings, with the full evidence and no money attached, for as long as the board likes. Fine tiers come only if the board adds them, and counsel should sign off first.
Short of cameras.
Four things a board can do with no camera at all.
A clear, posted rule
The limit, the stop signs and any enforced hours, in the board’s own wording, posted where drivers see them and sent round as an announcement. Announcements are part of the free platform.
A warnings-only period
Pick a date, and say that until then every case gets a warning with no money attached. Residents meet the rule before any fine exists.
A word with the repeat driver
A letter from the board to the household whose car keeps coming up, naming the corner and the time. The platform’s violation register holds the case, from warning to appeal.
An agreement that brings in the police
In Florida, a city or county can take on traffic control on a private road, but only by a written agreement with the association under Florida Statute 316.006. Then it is state traffic law, enforced by the police, not an association notice. Your attorney confirms whether your state allows anything similar.
What none of these gives the board is proof: who, where, how fast and how often, applied the same way to every car. That is the job cameras do.
If the board chooses cameras
AI finds it. A person decides it. The board owns it.
No notice reaches a resident because a computer decided it should.
AI watches the cameras you already have
Software reviews the footage from your existing cameras and flags vehicles that appear to have rolled a stop sign or exceeded the limit the board set. Nothing new gets mounted on your poles for this to start.
A person checks the clip before anyone hears about it
Every flag is reviewed by a human being, who watches the video and reads the plate, before a single word reaches a resident. If the clip does not clearly show what the software thought it showed, it is dropped there and the resident never knows it existed.
The board sets the thresholds
What counts as speeding on your roads, what counts as a rolled stop, how many warnings come before anything else — those are the association’s decisions, recorded and changeable. We do not set them and we do not have an opinion about them.
Warning first, evidence attached, one tap to dispute
The first contact is a warning, not a penalty. It carries the video that prompted it, and a single link to dispute it. Disputes go to the board, which has the final say — we are not the judge of your community’s rules.
Things we will not do
Take a share of your fines
We are not paid more when your community penalises more. A vendor whose revenue rises with your violation count has an interest opposed to your residents’, and no promise of restraint survives that.
Lock a resident out of their own gate
An unpaid fine is a dispute between a resident and their association. It is never a reason to deny somebody entry to their home, and the platform will not do it.
Feed your plates to a national network
Reads stay with your association. We do not pool them into a national ALPR network, sell them, or hand them to law enforcement outside a valid legal request. Your data is yours, and it leaves with you.
Before any fine: what your state adds.
A fine is where state law comes in. For notice, hearings and fines, your attorney confirms your state’s process. Here is what we can add for each state we work in.
Florida
In Florida, Chapter 720 limits a homeowners’ association fine to $100 per violation unless the governing documents provide otherwise, and a fine cannot be imposed until the resident has had the chance to be heard by an independent committee of members who are not officers, directors, or their relatives. The platform is built around that sequence — warning, evidence, hearing — and your association attorney reads your governing documents, not us.
Our Florida pageNew York
On Long Island, town and village police will generally not run radar on HOA and condo roads, so the limit that gets enforced is the one in your own rules.
Our Long Island pageNew Jersey
The Municipal Services Act can reimburse a qualified community for snow removal, refuse collection and street lighting on its private roads. It says nothing about enforcement. Whether your township’s police can enforce on your roads is a question for your attorney.
Our New Jersey pageMaryland
Homeowners associations sit under Title 11B of the Real Property article. Your attorney confirms what it requires before a fine.
Our Maryland pageArizona
Planned communities sit under Title 33, Chapter 16 of the Arizona Revised Statutes, and condominiums under Chapter 9.
Our Arizona pageGeorgia
Nothing to add here, and we will not guess. Your attorney confirms Georgia’s process.
Our Georgia pageNone of this is legal advice.
FAQ
Questions boards ask before they enforce anything.
Read next.
Traffic safety and enforcement
Stop-sign and speed enforcement on the cameras you already have, quoted per site.
Stop sign cameras
The corner that comes up at every meeting, and how a rolling stop is proven.
Cameras and monitoring
Whether the cameras you own can read a plate where it matters.
For HOA boards
The records a board ends up needing, including the violation register.
Tell us about your roads.
Fifteen minutes on the phone covers which roads are the association’s, the corner the board keeps hearing about, and whether the cameras already there can read a plate.