HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - December 6, 2013
Published: Fri, 12/06/13
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HOA Board Reserves Parking Spaces for Own Use; Mistake?
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In this week's tip, we answer a reader's question about whether
a Washington state board is acting illegally or unwisely in
reserving common HOA parking spaces for its own use.
Are there laws that govern this behavior? Maybe not directly
tied to this specific situation, but there are more general
statutes that apply to this situation.
"In this case, though it's not completely clear, it looks as if
the board is reserving association and common parking spaces not
assigned to individual owners for the board's use," says Kevin
Britt of The Law Office of Kevin L. Britt, who specializes in
representing associations in Seattle. "That's instead of saying,
'These are common association spaces and anyone can use them,'
like guests or owners with multiple cars. So it sounds like the
board made the decision these are perks for board service.
"That's where I'd be concerned this would be considered self
dealing and a conflict of interest," adds Britt, who also
mentions the possibility of a claim that board members have
converted common property to their personal use. "It feels like
a series of boards have taken common property and used it to
benefit only a subset of owners. That's something that wouldn't
be permitted. Owners would say, 'These are common spaces; we all
own a common share and all have a common right to use them.' And
they'd be right."
Britt notes that a recent unpublished Washington court case
broadly addresses the questions at issue in our reader's
situation. "The court said boards must have the correct or proper
purposes for their actions, as well as perform their actions
according to the proper procedures," he explains. "So there are
two elements to the reasonableness test when boards adopt rules
like this. One is the purpose has to be correct. In this instance,
you'd say the purpose of maintaining this benefit isn't a proper
purpose for board members."
There's an exception to that rule. Find out the exception, and
what our experts say the board should be doing with these common
parking spaces, in our new article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/925.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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Reserved Parking Spaces for the HOA Board: a Breach of Fiduciary Duties?
An HOAleader.com reader asks, "We have a secured parking garage in our condo
building with assigned parking spaces. There are four parking spaces that
remain unassigned and that passed from the developer to the HOA at
transition. The board has been unwilling to rent or sell these spaces to
owners, preferring to 'reserve' them for their own use. Is this legal in
Washington state?" Here we address whether there's anything in the law,
regardless of the state, that prohibits the board from doing what it's
doing. Second, we answer the broader question of whether this board is
stupidly harming the HOA--maybe even breaching its fiduciary duties--by
putting its own interests above those of the association and unnecessarily
creating conflict between owners and the board.
Click here to read full article:
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HOA Ordered to Pay Bank's Legal Fees: Could You Be on the Hook?
In August, a Florida appellate court penalized an HOA for overreaching when
it came to overdue attorneys' fees. The court in Ocean Bank v. Caribbean
Towers Condo Association held a bank was entitled to recover its attorneys'
fees from an association in a dispute over the proper amount of unpaid
assessments owed for two properties in the foreclosure process. Here we
explain the case and assess whether it's possible for an HOA to push too hard
in collections cases against lenders.
Click here to read full article:
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Can Owners Use HOA Email for Dissident Purposes?
An HOAleader.com reader describes how one resident in their self-managed
homeowners association "uses our common community e-mail system to rant
about almost anything and everything regarding business in our community
from elections, to policy, to covenant interpretations.... We think that
we may have grounds for a civil charge of harassment, or at least grounds for a
court order to cease and desist using our e-mail system to promote his
agendas." Here we address whether a board can impose rules on a community
email system to prevent such behavior.
Click here to read full article:
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Don't Get Caught in These Three Common HOA Lawsuits
In this week's tip, we reveal three of the most common reasons HOAs get
slapped with lawsuits.
Click here to read full article:
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The Top Seven Reasons HOAs Get Sued
Smart HOA boards need to know the answers to two questions: What are the most
common reasons associations get sued? And how do they head off those costly
cases? Here are answers.
Click here to read full article:
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