HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - August 5, 2011
Published: Fri, 08/05/11
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Is Your HOA Board Getting a "Gotcha!" Reputation?
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A violation of the governing documents is a violation of the
governing documents, right? Fine the rule breakers! In this
week's tip, we explore the risks of dinging owners for every
little infraction.
"Overregulating is just as bad as not enforcing your governing
documents," explains Robert M. DeNichilo, an attorney at
DeNichilo & Lindsley LLP in Irvine, Calif., who specializes in
representing community associations. "Enforcement has to be
reasonable. Is it reasonable to not give someone a chance to
rectify a situation before you're immediately on them?"
Why shouldn't you just kick out violation notice after violation
notice if you see even a minor infraction? That can dampen
community spirit. "It fosters the negative image that many people
have of HOAs because they're overregulated," says DeNichilo. "
HOAs are supposed to be preserving and maintaining property
values. The whole goal is to make it a nice place to live. By
overregulating, boards aren't doing that. That's why it falls
into the category of unreasonable enforcement of CC&Rs."
The answer may be to make your inspections routine and expected. "
We always encourage boards to do routine, community-wide
inspections, unless they're responding to some kind of complaint
or concern," says J. Roger Wood, an attorney with Carpenter,
Hazlewood, Delgado & Wood PLC in Tucson, Ariz., who specializes
in representing community associations. "In some communities it's
every six weeks. I have others that are more fastidious. But I
don't have any concerns about the golf cart drive-by as long as
it's what the community is expecting. Some HOAs are very strict.
Obviously, when you're driving by every day, there are going to
be more letters. You're going to catch people before they have a
chance to do anything about the problem, and that's frustrating
to owners."
To learn about a smart process for getting violations corrected,
see our new article: http://www.hoaleader.com/members/610.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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< http://www.hoaleader.com/members/601.cfm >
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