HOAleader.com - Tip of the Week - May 3, 2019
Published: Fri, 05/03/19
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How Closely Should You Track the Wellness of Your Condo/HOA Residents?
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In this week’s tip, we answer a question from someone who’s written to HOAleader.com to complain about a community association manager and ask the proper protocol.
The reader suspected that a friend—an owner in a townhouse community—had passed away. But the manager wouldn’t act, forcing the friend to call the police, who found the owner deceased in the unit. In addition, the owner had been catsitting for the writer, and the manager refused to let a third party into the unit to set a humane trap for the cat (the cat was later recovered hungry but safe).
The writer is outraged at the manager’s inaction, so we asked our experts if an HOA or condo board is responsible for conducting wellness checks on any residents and whether it’s OK to let a stranger into a unit in which an owner has died to recover an animal.
Nearly universally, our experts would be uncomfortable with their clients assuming the role of wellness checkers of their residents.
“Associations generally shouldn’t be doing wellness checks,” advises Susan Hawks McClintic, co-managing shareholder and the chair of the community association transactional practice group at the law firm of Epsten Grinnell & Howell in San Diego, who just spoke at an industry meeting on this very topic.
“If they have a suspicion that something’s going on, they should bring in the appropriate authorities,” recommends McClintic. “Maybe it’s the senior aging agency. In this case, it might have been to call the police. So I’m surprised the association here didn’t call the police if they were aware of the facts the reader mentions. To me, that’s what you do. If you have any suspicion anybody might be in danger, you call the police.
“To act otherwise could create liability,” she says, pointing to a recent California case, O’Malley v. Hospitality Staffing Solutions. “If the association undertakes to do something, they’re going to create liability if they don’t do it properly.
“That case didn’t involve an association but a hotel,” explains McClintic. “A woman was on a business trip, and her husband hadn’t heard from her. He called the front desk and asked if hotel staff would go check on her. The person at the front desk said OK, and a maintenance man went and stepped inside the door; he didn’t see anything and left. The hotel told the husband the woman wasn’t in the room. It turns out she had a brain aneurism and had been on the floor on the other side of the bed.”
The court found the hotel could be liable for a negligent undertaking, notes McClintic. “They agreed to undertake the task of checking on the guest even though it wasn’t part of the maintenance person’s duties. But then simply looking in and not seeing anybody and doing nothing more wasn’t proper. The maintenance worker should have walked in and made sure she wasn’t there.
“The case pretty clearly lays out that if it’s not your duty or responsibility to undertake a duty, you should call in somebody else to do it,” she concludes.
The answer may be less clear under Florida law. Find out more, plus what an expert in another state thinks, in our new article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/3905.cfm
Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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Recent articles posted at HOAleader.com:
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Best Practices When Your Condo/HOA is Asked to Conduct a Wellness Check on an Owner
After an encounter with a manager, a person has written to HOAleader.com with a question for our expert lawyers and managers: "I recently had reason to believe my friend had passed away in her townhouse, and when I contacted the HOA manager, he refused to call the police. Not his problem, I was told. Personally, when a friend disappears for a month and someone's mailbox is so full of mail, it's stacked up by the door and the door itself is unlocked and a dread smell is emanating from within, I think it's time to call the police."
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Best-Practices-When-Your-CondoHOA-Asked-Conduct-Wellness-Check-on-Owner.cfm
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Watch Out Prior Board Members: This New Condo/HOA Board is Coming After You!
In this week's tip, we answer a reader's question about whether it's proper for a new board to troll through prior board expenses and even attempt to force former board members to reimburse for those the new board finds questionable.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/public/Watch-Out-Prior-Board-Members-This-New-CondoHOA-Board-Coming-After-You.cfm
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Good or Bad Idea? New HOA Board Reviews Prior Board's Expenses and Might Seek Reimbursement
An HOAleader.com reader writes, "This is a Florida HOA, not condo. Four of the five board members are new. In searching the records, it was found that the old manager was reimbursed for legal expenses, which, at the time, was defended as being necessary to fight Department of Business and Professional Regulation complaints filed by resident A.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/Good-or-Bad-Idea-New-HOA-Board-Reviews-Prior-Boards-Expenses-Might-Seek-Reimbursement.cfm
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Preventing and Reducing Anger and Tension in Your HOA
Join us for an in-depth webinar on May 23 led by two community association management experts. In just one hour, you'll receive practical and useful information that will help you lower the tension on your board and among your owners.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/products/preventing-reducing-anger-tension-a.cfm
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What to Know About Banning Religious Services in Your Condo/HOA Common Areas
It's so common for owners to ask to use your HOA common area for religious meetings. It's also common for there to be complaints, either that your common area--let's say it's your meeting room or clubhouse--is either improperly being denied use for religious services or that it's being monopolized by a group of owners for their religious services. What if you ban all religious services in common areas? Then you risk owners filing a religious discrimination lawsuit in response.
Click here to read full article:
https://www.hoaleader.com/members/What-Know-About-Banning-Religious-Services-in-Your-CondoHOA-Common-Areas.cfm
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