HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - July 20, 2018
Published: Fri, 07/20/18
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Things You Never Thought You’d Say to HOA Owners:
Your Weed Smoking is a Drag: Please Eat a Gummy Bear Instead
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In this week’s tip, we discuss your owners’ use of weed.
A growing number of states have made not just medical marijuana legal, but they’ve also legalized its recreational use—which means that more and more of your residents may be smoking weed in their home.
Can you stop that behavior? Can you limit it to certain areas? Can you ask that residents only ingest it to avoid smoke nuisances?
According to Governing Magazine, 38 states have legalized some form of marijuana. Here’s a handy map it publishes that allows you to click on each state to see what’s permissible and not in each.
Generally, the number of states that have legalized marijuana for medical use has grown, though the medical conditions that warrant such permission vary among states. For instance, there are more permissible medical conditions in California than in Illinois. The number of states that now permit recreational use is smaller than those that permit medical use, but it’s also growing.
However, federal law still categorizes marijuana as a controlled substance, which means that even if what your residents are doing in their home is completely legal in your state, if it involves smoking pot, they’re still breaking federal law.
“In California, both medical and recreational use is legal, with recreational use becoming legal Jan. 1,” reports Alex Noland, CCAL, founder of Noland Law in San Francisco, which represents about 100 community associations throughout California. “The law still says you can’t smoke in certain places, you can’t smoke while driving or drive after smoking, but everybody [over 21] in their own home presumably has the right to smoke marijuana.”
In Illinois, marijuana is approved for medicinal uses, reports Kelly C. Elmore, a Chicago-based principal at Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit, which represents thousands of community associations throughout the metro area. The same is true in Michigan, states Joe Wloszek, a member at Hirzel Law in Farmington, Mich., which represents more than 100 community associations; he also lived in a condo for seven years and now lives in an HOA.
For both Elmore and Wloszek, their advice to clients is that pot use is still illegal, except for medicinal purposes, because it’s banned under federal law. “We get questions on this now from our clients, and our general opinion is that it’s still illegal with the exception of medical marijuana,” notes Elmore.
That certainly won’t end any discussions with your owners over marijuana use. Find out what else you need to know in our new article: https://www.hoaleader.com/members/3753.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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How to Handle the Growing Challenges of Service and Emotional Support Animals
What HOA and Condo Association Boards Can Do -- without Triggering Costly Legal Trouble
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An Exclusive HOAleader.com Webinar
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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State Rules on Marijuana Use Change: Should Your HOA Policies Change, Too?
A growing number of states have made not just medical marijuana legal, but they've also legalized its recreational use--which means that more and more of your residents may be smoking weed in their home.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/State-Rules-on-Marijuana-Use-Change-Should-Your-HOA-Policies-Change-Too.cfm
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How HOA Community Standards are Like Pornography (We're Making a Serious Point)
In this week's tip, we offer an HOAleader.com reader wants to know how an HOA can set community standards on owners' maintenance of their homes.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/public/How-HOA-Community-Standards-are-Like-Pornography-Were-Making-Serious-Point.cfm
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Setting Community Standards for Maintaining Your HOA's Homes and Landscaping
An HOAleader.com reader has requested guidance on this issue, stating, When someone applies to build a house, they deal with the architecture review committee. But after homes are built and the years pass, people get concerned with the signs of wear and tear the homes experience and when the HOA must do something to encourage/compel the homeowner to do something--remove the mold, paint the house, clean up the trash, etc.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Setting-Community-Standards-for-Maintaining-Your-HOAs-Homes-Landscaping.cfm
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To Bid Your HOA Contracts Out Or Not to Bid Them Out?
In this week's tip, we answer a question that a listener asked at HOAleader.com webinar--though we've broadened the question to help boards out.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Bid-Your-HOA-Contracts-Out-Or-Not-Bid-Them-Out.cfm
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Here's a New Question: Is Citizenship Required for Board Service?
One of HOAleader.com's readers has a question about who qualifies for board service: From reading Florida statute on HOAs, it states that only someone from the United States or a territory can be a president or hold any role on an HOA board? If so, a person from Canada can't be president of a HOA in a condo or co-op in Florida?
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Heres-New-Question-Citizenship-Required-for-Board-Service.cfm
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