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TammyO3

Posts:0

05/12/2008 8:15 PM
My other post below lists an issue that I am sure is very familiar here. We have board members who are knowingly breaking rules and other baord members choose not to recognize the disregard for rules, however.... they seem to have no problem with enforcing the very same rules on other people. How does one approach this? At the open forum session of the HOA meeting?

MicheleD
(Kentucky)

Posts:1444

05/12/2008 8:59 PM
I'm not sure how I would deal with this. We have had instances where we've had a board member or two be shown to be in violation of a deed restriction here and there. Generally, as with the general population of the HOA, the directors were not aware they were in violation. (A garbage can stored in the wrong place; a kid placed a sign in the yard, that sort of thing.) Once notified, again, as with most of our members, they corrected the infraction immediately. It just confuses me why people think that board members are somehow a higher class or "rank" than any other resident member of the HOA. They are not. They are only individual members who have volunteered their time, energy and talents/skills to help enforce the deed restrictions (which includes managing the day-to-day business aspect of the corporation). But they are not royalty. Nor are they granted any "special" rights or privileges. In addition, at least in OUR documents, board members are not the only ones who can "enforce" any of the deed restrictions. So, a general resident member has the right to issue a letter of enforcement against any other member. I guess, if I saw that certain directors on my board were regularly violating specific deed restrictions, I would first appeal to the entire board to request that they enforce against the errant directors. If they did not, or would not, then I would next put them on notice that I would be recruiting a group of shareholders in the association, in other words, members of the body at large, and we would through petition request the board to enforce against the directors. If that did not work, I would then take my resident group and, following the prescribed method in the governing documents, begin actions to remove the current board and replace it with one that WOULD provide stewardship over the integrity of all our governing documents. I would then, through a new board, begin enforcement against the former directors, and if that still proved fruitless, I would, regrettably, request that the new board begin legal action against the CC&R violators.

AnneA1
(Delaware)

Posts:7

05/13/2008 12:17 PM
Michele, No Board members are not special or above the others home owners. They, more than anyone, should know the deed restrictions and By-Laws. Our BOD make a habit of selective enforcement or writing letters that some people in violation are "okay" with them. What now??

BrianB
(California)

Posts:1591

05/13/2008 2:34 PM
tammy, there are two ways to change a governing body: ballots or bullets. I would suggest you use some bullet points in a presentation first, show them what the rules are and the violations, then force them to deal fairly across the issues. If that doesn't work, then work the ballots. If that doesn't work...

MicheleD
(Kentucky)

Posts:1444

05/13/2008 2:36 PM
Well, Anna, to be sure, our board gets accused of "selective enforcement" all the time. Granted, usually by someone who's just been notified that they're in violation and they want to use the "But Jimmy jumped off the roof, too," defense. The fact of the matter is, we enforce against every valid violation notification we receive, even if it's a board member who has been caught "violating." We just had an email come in yesterday from someone who wanted to know, no, from someone who DEMANDED to know, WHY we were sending a violation notice to a friend of hers with a Holy Cross Picnic sign in their yard, and NOT sending one to the resident who has his car under a car cover! She feels car covers are UGLY and should be banned, and we should slack off on her friend because it was "just an announcement for a church picnic." Of the MANY things wrong with her email, the two that stand out the most are: 1) signs are restricted in our CC&Rs and ONLY lot for sale or security notice signs can be displayed. (or political signs within a certain timeframe around an election) and 2) we do NOT have a CC&R that restricts car covers. So here we are. We ENFORCED against the actual violation, and DID NOT enforce against the imagined or "outta be a restriction" violation. And we were STILL accused of "selective enforcement." Go figure!

JaneK
(California)

Posts:172

05/13/2008 3:35 PM
Selective enforcement is very real. I watch our board do it all the time. When many owners have broken fences and only ONE gets a threatening nastygram………… The MC talked to the owner and settled the issue to the satisfaction of all, but never ONCE mentioned to the board that its action would be considered ‘selective enforcement.’ So the board still believes what it did was OK. Therefore, it’s going to come up again and again…. Until someone gets fed up enough to sue. Read Beth Grimm’s Board Members, FAQs http://www.californiacondoguru.com/bmfaqs.html#problem “What is the #1 problem board members face?” Jane

HaroldS
(Arizona)

Posts:904

05/13/2008 3:54 PM
Interesting site Jane - thanks for sharing. Harold

JaneK
(California)

Posts:172

05/13/2008 7:09 PM
Beth Grimm is one of HOATalk's sponsors: “California HOA & Condo Answers (California Law Firm) California attorney Beth Grimm offers a wealth of HOA & Condo information on her website…” http://www.hoatalk.com/tabid/76/Default.aspx?ID=bethgrimm Jane

IreneC

Posts:0

05/14/2008 7:30 AM
I found this really interesting. thanks so much!

ClaudiaH
(Kentucky)

Posts:27

05/14/2008 7:40 AM
I'm new to being a board member. Our board members are careful to follow the restrictions themselves and would police each other before anyone needed to give them warnings. I see a few problems when dealing with rule enforcement. One of the issues is, "How far are we willing to take this?". We have some mutineers in the neighborhood who are very sensitive to any reminder about the restrictions and can be counted on to violate them intentionally to prove a point. So, we do ask ourselves if we are willing to follow through with warning after warning, and then subsequence consequences outlined in the restrictions. I know it seems as simple as black and white (what I used to think when I started my term last year), but it's really not. For example, if we remind Sally (known HOA hater) that her mailbox is rusted and needs to be repainted, she can almost assuredly be counted on not to paint her mailbox. So, now that we've given her the "1st warning", we've literally started a chain of events that our restrictions instruct us to follow. It's unlikely that we'd foreclose on her property because her mailbox is rusted. She knows it and we know it. In essence, a reminder to her turns into an opportunity for her to rally against the big bad board (volunteer, rotating group of neighbors) on behalf of the little guy (fellow mutineers, or roughly 10% of the neighborhood). However, if Bob (ordinary guy) has a rusted mailbox, he would probably just paint it with no hassle. So, it's easier to ask Bob to comply than it is Sally, because we know Bob won't take it as a personal attack and threaten to eat up hours of our time fighting over it. That's not to say that our board doesn't ask Sally. We do, and the typical Sally's in our neighborhood use these types of opportunities to scramble the team of dissenters who then rally to protest. It's just not worth it. In fact, we're losing several really good board members this year, just because they're tired of all the resistance. It's hard not to remember that it's only about 10% of the neighborhood who continually gives the board hell, when they make themselves the headlines month after month. I don't know why some people just love to hate so much. Some of them are threatening to run for the next Board, so they can intentionally NOT enforce the restrictions that the majority of homeowners voted on. That will be fun to watch. I'm sure there are examples of extremes on both sides between home owners and board members. What I know from this experience is, our board exists to enforce rules voted on by a majority of our homeowners. The roles are maintenance/administrative/gopher only and are being filled by good-intentioned volunteers. This perception that the board is a group of power hungry control freaks is being spread by a group of people who absolutely hate anyone telling them what to do with their property. So why they moved into a HOA governed neighborhood is beyond me. At this rate, Dissension trumps Apathy and Apathy trumps Volunteerism. They can take over the board, do whatever they please, and when the neighborhood starts to reflect it, then it'll be time to move. Simple as that.

GlenL
(Ohio)

Posts:1221

05/14/2008 11:55 AM
Claudia as tough as it is sometimes you have to follow through. Do your CC&R's allow for fining? Do they require you to take the offender to court if so you can request as part of the settlement that the loser pay the HOA's attorney's fee.

SusanW1
(Michigan)

Posts:1533

05/14/2008 2:32 PM
Claudia - if the HOA has jurisdiction over the mailboxes (style, color, condition, etc.)then you can work to enforce that - based on the power given the board. However, if your board is writing a resident because his/her mailbox is an eyesore, you have no way to enforce anything. Does your local municipality have "blight" ordinances? Would they send out an officer about a rusted mailbox OR a junk car in the driveway? Will the USPS get involved when the box is no longer serviceable? Knowing who has jurisdiction is more than half the battle.

ClaudiaH
(Kentucky)

Posts:27

05/14/2008 3:31 PM
We don't give warnings for anything that isn't specifically listed in the restrictions. And past boards have taken some of the homeowners to task. We have the authority to give warnings, then file a lien and then go to small claims court. And it has gone all the way before. I'm just saying, it's not realistic to think you can always challenge these people because it would be a fulltime job policing them. They don't want it, and the board members definitely don't want to have the homeowner's wrath screw up their day to day lives. I mean, we have some dopes who have parked their car in front of our president's home and waited to confront him. I had one woman call me 6 times in a row over her dues being late and not wanting to pay the $25 late fee (I'm the treasurer). Honestly, I have respect for board members. I really don't think they get enough credit.

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