A: Roxanne Vierra, civil-rights specialist for the King County Office of Civil Rights, says your board may be out of compliance with fair-housing laws requiring those who oversee properties to provide reasonable accommodations for residents with physical disabilities.

Since you have a state-issued handicapped parking permit, there's no question that you qualify for a parking accommodation, Vierra says. And simply assigning you another parking spot farther away isn't a solution, she says, because "the condo board isn't in a position to make a call" that one parking spot is as good as another for a person with disabilities.

So here's what you do. Make a written request to your board because this officially documents it. Tell them you have a disabled-parking permit and you want the board to make a reasonable accommodation by returning your former parking spot and enforcing it as handicapped parking for your use. Ask them to respond to you, in writing, within a reasonable amount of time, like 14 days.

"If they don't respond, or say no, they've turned down what is very likely a reasonable request," says Vierra.

Then you take your case to the Washington State Humans Rights Commission; its phone number is 800-233-3247.

Vierra says these situations often arise when the people making the policies don't know the law. She's found that once they do, they're usually quick to fix the problem.