HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - April 24, 2015
Published: Fri, 04/24/15
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When There’s a Good Reason to Not Enforce Your HOA’s Rules
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Put yourself in this real-life board’s shoes. An owner’s young daughter has
cancer. The Make-A-Wish Foundation offers to build a playhouse in her
backyard. But you believe the playhouse doesn’t comply with your HOA’s
architectural guidelines.
Enforce your rules, or have a heart? An HOA in Missouri did both, first
enforcing its rules and then changing its decision.
In this week’s tip, we discuss what to do when owners have what most people
would consider a pretty good reason to allow your rules to be violated.
The dilemma for this board was painfully obvious. “Those are tough
decisions,” notes Christopher J. Shields, a partner at Pavese Law Firm in
Ft. Myers, Fla., who's represented associations for decades. “I guess the
question is where you draw the line. You should always be mindful and
empathic to anyone who’s battling cancer, especially a child. But a board
has a duty to enforce the governing documents as they’re written. Every
association wants to do the right thing, but if they look the other way too
often or just once, they may have an enforcement or estoppel defense used
against them in the future when they try to enforce their rules.”
The board’s position could have been even more complicated if the owners had
raised legal issues. “There could be fair housing issues there,” explains
Brian S. Edlin, a member at Jordan Price Wall Gray Jones & Carlton, a Raleigh,
N.C., law firm with more than 1,000 association clients. “Fair housing
isn’t quite as straightforward as it used to be. It’s a complicated area of
the law. And if the Fair Housing Act applies, you have to allow people with
disabilities to make reasonable accommodations to their property. The
question is whether this is necessary for their family to make use of their
home. I don’t know enough of the facts, but the lawyer advising them should
know all the facts before they make a knee-jerk reaction.”
Shields agrees it’s wise to consider the applicability of disability laws.
“I’d ask whether it would be possible for the HOA to still be able to enforce
restrictions on other owners while giving this person an exemption if this
person can be considered disabled or handicapped,” he says. “If that’s the
case, arguably the association would have to make a reasonable
accommodation or modification.
“But where do you draw the line?” adds Shields. “When it comes to assistance
animals today, it’s extremely difficult for any association to preclude
anyone, even a tenant, from saying, ‘I’m entitled to an emotional support
animal. I think most associations are very empathic, but I think the
pendulum has swung too far with what’s been allowed for anyone claiming an
emotional support animal.”
Read about how this board could have started off on better footing in our new
article: http://www.hoaleader.com/members/1165.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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HOA In No-Win Situation: Should It Have Stood Its Ground?
An HOA in Missouri has reversed its decision denying homeowners' request to
allow the Make-a-Wish Foundation build a playhouse in their backyard for
their daughter, who's battling cancer.
Here's the rub: The HOA was probably right in the first place that the
proposed playhouse violated the CC&Rs. So was this a time when rules should
be waived?
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/HOA-In-NoWin-Situation-Should-It-Have-Stood-Its-Ground.cfm
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HOA Parking Problems Persist: Prepare to Prevent Them
The management company for a Colorado HOA hired a private company, Parking
Authority LLC, to enforcing parking restrictions in the community. The
result: One couple got a ticket for having expired license tags. So in this
week's tip, we begin addressing the many touchy and difficult questions
this incident raises for HOAs.
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/HOA-Parking-Problems-Persist-Prepare-Prevent-Them.cfm
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As Though Parking Doesn't Already Anger HOA Owners Enough
The management company for a Colorado HOA hired a private company, Parking
Authority LLC, to enforcing parking restrictions in the community. The
result: One couple got a ticket for having expired license tags.
This raises many questions: Why is the HOA management company hiring a
private company to enforce parking restrictions? Isn't this something the
HOA expects the manager to handle? What authority does the company have to
ticket for expired tags? Here our experts weigh in.
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/As-Though-Parking-Doesnt-Already-Anger-HOA-Owners-Enough.cfm
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To Reimburse or Not: Should the HOA Cough Up?
In this week's tip, we respond to a reader who wants reimbursement for legal
fees personally expended to get an HOA board back on track. He's president of
his HOA, and last year he hired a lawyer to rein in rogue board members. The
pressure the lawyer put on them prompted them to resign. Can the reader be
reimbursed?
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/members/Reimburse-or-Not-Should-HOA-Cough-Up.cfm
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How to Protect Yourself and Your HOA from the Neighborhood Sociopath
Run into any owners or residents who show contempt for and consistently
disregard your HOA's rules? One in 25 people is a sociopath, or a person who
regularly exhibits asocial or antisocial behavior. Sociopaths look like
your everyday neighbors, but they can be scary and intimidating--and they
can turn your HOA into a battleground. Learn how to wisely and safely handle
the most difficult owners and residents you'll ever face, led by two
community association experts with decades of hands-on experience in
advising associations. (Recorded April 9, 2015.)
Click here to read full article:
http://www.hoaleader.com/snip/191.htm>
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