HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - December 13, 2013
Published: Fri, 12/13/13
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What's an HOA to Do When Owners Go Rogue with Holiday Displays?
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In this week's tip, we provide the gift of great information on
a touchy topic-whether and how to set rules on owners' holiday
displays without killing the spirit of the holidays.
What's the big deal with holiday displays? In today's culture
where opinions are strong and often divided, what can possibly
go wrong?
"I'll go back to the beer can wreath issue we had 24 years ago
today," reminisces Elizabeth White, a shareholder and head of
the community associations practice at the law firm of
LeClairRyan in Williamsburg, Va. "I know the date because it
coincided with the birth of my first child, who turned 24 today.
Owners had put up a really, really gaudy and humungous beer-can
wreath on their door, and their neighbors were upset. Then CNN
caught wind of the story that had run on the local news
network. The topic got a lot of traction and bad publicity. But
in the scheme of things, it wasn't that bad of a display except
for the beer cans. It was one of those close calls under the
association's covenants and rules, which I think included
restrictions on decorations that didn't fit the colonial
Williamsburg look of the community."
It's not just Christmas displays that can create division.
"Interestingly enough, I met with a condo association yesterday
that banned all forms of holiday displays," says Duane
McPherson, the Carrollton, Texas--based division president at
RealManage, an association management firm that oversees
properties in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana,
Nevada, and Texas. "They told me that a few years ago, they had
an issue with some owners' Halloween decorations. Some felt the
display was good, and others felt it was objectionable and over
the top. Rather than try to determine what's appropriate, they
just did away with displays altogether. There was no backlash
because the rule was voted on by the owners."
But there's a risk in being the board that says, "Bah, humbug!"
"There are a lot of boards afraid to deal with this issue because
of the political correctness aspect involved," says McPherson.
"In many cases, I think they should do something. But they need
to get buy-in from owners and make sure restrictions reflect the
majority's opinion. If I were a board member, I'd rather make
certain the community is for those kinds of decisions than
trying to make the decisions as a board and having more backlash
than necessary."
Which restrictions are reasonable and typically won't produce
unnecessary backlash? Find out in our new article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/927.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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Four Tips to Avoid Being a Scrooge When It Comes to Holiday Lights and
Decorations
You can put reasonable restrictions on your owners' holiday displays. But
that can cause resentment among some owners. Here we discuss whether and how
HOAs have broached the Christmas display issue by imposing rules and
regulations. We also discuss what an HOA should do when owners go overboard,
creating what some consider a nuisance in the neighborhood, with extreme lighting, noise, and traffic.
Click here to read full article:
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HOA Board Reserves Parking Spaces for Own Use; Mistake?
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.
Click here to read full article:
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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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