Are new owners in an HOA responsible for previous owners violations?

Recently my wife and I purchased a manufactured home in a gated senior HOA community in Oceanside, California. The first day we moved in we were confronted by an HOA representative who stated that there were building violations that needed to be addressed by us concerning the previous owner's patio deck repairs. We were never informed about this when we were in the process of buying the house. No member of the HOA and no real estate agent told us about patio repair violations. We later found out that the previous owner was well aware of these violations and waited until a week before closing to tell the HOA that he believed all of the violations had been removed. The HOA did not respond to his claim and still no one told us, the buyers, about these violations. Are we responsible for the previous owner's violations that we knew nothing about? Shouldn't the HOA have contacted the seller's real estate agent as soon as they saw the "for sale" sign go up? What about the real estate agent who is selling property in an HOA community but did not bother to consult the HOA before selling the house to us?

Contact your Realtor.

You may or may not be able to get out of the purchase agreement.
You may be able to bring legal action against the previous owner for failure to disclose.

However, you are responsible for the violations now.

Talk to the Board, explain the issue and the fact that you desire to comply.
Then work out an arrangement to give you time enough to do that.

The HOA should have disclosed this as well. They should have performed an inspection and in doing so would have had full knowledge in addition to the fact they are privileged to the violations. Aside from that, the new owner may still need to correct it but the HOA holds responsibility as well.

Such requirement varies by State

It is the responsibility of the owner to contact the HOA when they are going to sell. That doesn't always happen especially when they are trying to hide something.

We hardly ever have For Sale signs.

Did you meet with the board before closing? Many documents say that you must.

For you information we did get a copy of the CC&R. There was nothing about the previous owner's violations.

Did you (or the title company) receive anything at/before closing from the HOA that stated the property was in good standing with no violations?
THAT is the golden ticket in this situation, and should be required by anyone seeking to purchase property in an HOA.

Let this be a lesson to all. If buying in an association, get a document from the association saying no violations, dues, fines, etc. are outstanding. Often called an Estoppel letter.

JohnC46 ... has it right especially for those states which do not have certain HOA disclosure statutes. It would also be good backup (even if have state laws) for everyone no matter the State Laws to have it in writing that the HOA has no pending issues with the property and that the property is in compliance with the CCR's along with no past HOA dues owed. It is a great CYA!!! Also, agree a home inspector would not be looking for HOA issues. It is beyond their scope of work.

I would respectfully disagree ... if the HOA does disclose then the purchaser could put into their contract that those items need to be addressed and fixed by the current Owner before they purchase. OR they could agree to address themselves, which would put them on the hook via a contract. If items are not disclosed then potentially the HOA could not do anything in future to have corrected by a new owner. The HOA not properly addressing an issue with the individual who committed the offense ... does not make it a different innocent families liability when they knew nothing about the issue.

Prior to a home selling in our neighborhood the HOA is asked to sign a form saying the lot is up to date and in compliance. Did you receive that? Check with the title company. As stated earlier, THAT is the golden ticket. If they signed that, there are no violations.

Does Davis-Sterling say what happens if they were NOT given that?

Carl has a point if an HOA wanted to be self serving and mistreat its owners which is Carl's belief about HOA's. His point of view is self serving and wrong in probably well over 99% of HOA's.

Sure, Tim, and in either case in your example the HOA wins. I don't see the difference.

First, get everything in writing.

The previous owner stated that these violations had been removed. You need to get that in writing. You need to ask for past minutes from the meetings and violation notices. Look at each violation.

You need to ask if the violations were known to the real estate agent for the previous owner in a letter and get a response in writing. You might ask for proof of the repairs (receipt). You need to ask your real estate agent if he/she was aware of it and get the response in writing.

You need to determine if there were public papers stating that the person was in violation such as small claims court. If there are papers filed in small claims court, then you and/or your real estate agent didn't do due diligence. However, California has a full disclosure code.

You are not responsible for any violations, but you need to consult with a lawyer after you determine the cost of making those repairs (and get at least one written estimate, but three are better with people approved/recommended by your HOA or their management and be sure those people have proper credentials--don't add to your problems) and then decide with your lawyer if you still want the unit with the repairs. You need to go after the previous owner.

I would recommend that when one buys into a HOA, one should check court records and even do an internet search. There are things we did not tell the person who bought our condo because we had listed them in a complaint that was public knowledge and we also got the HOA Board of Directors to assure us they would not continue violations. So we made sure when we sold that every violation the HOA board had been doing was addressed and covered. The person who bought our place at a very low price didn't get a deal, but the court papers should indicate the board had problems--three court cases that it lost in less than six months before we sold.

When you say "win" you mean the property is repaired so there are no violations, right? If that's what you call a win for the HOA, then I agree. It's not like there's a trophy or anything. If people would abide by the agreement they made in the first pace none of this would have to happen.

BTW - in Virginia not only does the Association have to make a statement regarding violations on the property (do they exist or not) but the Association is legally bound to that statement if they happen to miss a violation.

I agree with Tim and would add that in Ohio we have Laws of Disclosure and the Realtor could be held liable also unless the previous owner lied on the real estate questionnaire on these type of things. Previous Owner could loose a lot of money for not disclosing the violations.