HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - May 14, 2021
Published: Fri, 05/14/21
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HOA President Faces Owner Rebellion Over Garage Door Rule
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Who knows whether everything posted on social media is real or not? Even so, when someone claiming to be an HOA board president posted on Twitter asking whether he was the one who's being a jerk, it caught our eye.
The president explained that a new HOA rule demands that homeowners keep their garage door open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. daily because one owner was apparently letting someone live in their garage, and another was offering the garage as a short-term rental. The president also said the rule was followed by massive noncompliance, with about half of the owners ignoring the edict and others opening their garage door only several inches.
The board then imposed $100-per-day fines for noncompliance.
In this week's tip, we assume the post is real and pick up where the president left off. We offer suggestions on what a board can do when it has backed itself into a corner with a heavy-handed solution that has no buy-in from owners.
Let's assume for a second the tweet is real and that this board actually created this rule. Several of our experts say the rule would probably be unenforceable under their state's laws.
"In California, to have a rule, you have to go through a membership comment period before the board can adopt it," states Joan Lewis-Heard, a senior associate at SwedelsonGottlieb in Los Angeles, who at any given time represents hundreds of condos and HOAs throughout California. "Notice has to be sent out, and there's a whole process to go through."
Why is this important? If the owners are rebelling on such a massive scale, it's unlikely the board consulted them. Or perhaps it did consult owners and proceeded despite opposition. Either practice can lead to this level of discord in a community.
But whether this rule is valid or not, one of our experts says this whole situation is corrosive. Find out why in our new article: https://www.hoaleader.com/members/4321.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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