Vandalism to Condo Buildings - Targetted at one condo owner

We have a dilemma in our condo. One of our condo buildings was vandalized last week and was targeted at one homeowner specifically. They threw a bucket of paint at the front door of the building, all over the telephone entry pad and spray painted some very evil, nasty things targeted at the homeowner. They even spelled out his full name, and his unit number. They did this in not one, not two but five different locations - primarily where the most number of people would see it.

The police feel that the homeowner angered somebody greatly enough that he brought this vandalism upon himself - unfortunately the damage was caused to the association building so the whole building was victimized and the association as a whole. The resident will not admit to anything, says he has no idea why they'd pick on him.

Residents are demanding we bill the homeowner for the damage caused since he obviously knew who did this to him, and he's not telling either the police or us anything.

It has cost us over $1,500 to remove the graffiti and paint and it's still not all gone.

What would you do?

Should the whole association have to suffer because of the actions of one individual?

Who's the real victim here? The homeowner or the residents of the building or the association as a whole?

Please help us work through this.

OMG...I can't believe I actually read this. Lets sort through this, vandalism is a crime in most parts of the country (giving the benefit of the doubt for any undeveloped areas). If a crime is committed the property owner has two means of paying for damages...1) they can pay for it themselves with either insurance or their own money, or 2) they can sue or ask the court to award damages to the party who did this damage.

It makes no difference who the vandalism was targeted at, even if this person angered the other one how in the world can you hold them accountable for it. The residents of your association should be ashamed of themselves, for all you know this person is a victim. They may be afraid of further retaliation if they tell you or the police who did this. The person went this far to commit a crime, what is next, a bullet?

Bottomline is your association should pay for it, you should apologize to this person and offer support and let the police handle the investigation.

Yea, and women who wear short skirts are just asking to get raped, so WTF, eh?

OMG. I am stunned, and I probably shouldn't be, that this homeowner is being victimized twice, first by this group of thugs, and then by his OWN community.

I'm also pretty ticked at the cop for even making the "she brought this rape on herself" statement. Oh wait, he didn't say THAT, did he? He said, that "the homeowner angered somebody greatly enough that he brought this vandalism upon himself."

I've been vandalized. I angered someone enough that they felt the way to 'get back' at me was to damage my outdoor Christmas decorations.

Let's see, what heinous thing did I do. . . Did I kick their dog? Nooooo. Did I punch their kid? Noooo. Did I slash their tires? Nooooo.

Oh I remember what it was, I was president of the HOA when they received a notice to stop parking their commercial vehicle in their doorway.

Who knows what triggers some lunkheads to do what they do? But because THEY have anti-social behavior and no respect for the law doesn't mean their VICTIM needs to be further traumatized and victimized.

Grow some big ones and tell the homeowners that are blaming him and wanting him to pay for it to suck it up and find a way to reach out to this guy (and his family) to see if they need anything. Don't forget, they're already pretty traumatized knowing that someone would be THAT destructive. They may well be fearing for their very lives or safety right now.

Knuckleheads. . . .

Lets start with the root of the situation. The root is that some person or group felt that it was acceptable to attack the property of a large group because they were upset with a single person.

Nobody "brings this on themselves." Your whole town has a crisis on its hands because the police are being allowed to think along these lines. That they would say this is an indication that they are not going to seriously pursue this crime. If their logic level held, they should be beat out back behind the woodshed.

As for the residents, who died and gave them such knowledge of what others know? And if they have the powers to know what the resident who was targeted knows, why don't they use their power to reveal the perpetrator.

As for the bill, you have no legal basis. The argument will not be allowed in a court. But it is quite likely that a judge will entertain an argument of emotional distress and damages against the individual resident. If nothing else, only spend a few hundred to have the association lawyer explain to the others how this has no legal basis and is bound for failure.

As for who is the "real" victim here. Everyone in the association is a victim. Some person or group attacked your entire community to get at one person. And there is reason to be concerned that the resident named in the attack should be concerned for his/her personal safety. What is worse is that while concerned about being physically attacked, at least some of his "neighbors" are showing depraved indifference for his plight.

Ekrem just what clause would you use in your documents to justify charging the cleanup back to this person? While he and the whole community are the victims in this, he is not the perpetrator and in most CC&R's you can only charge the person or persons who actually did the damage. That is unless you like the thought of being on the news because if you try to charge this guy for the cleanup I can almost guarantee that you will be and it will not be flattering to your HOA.

THis whole scenerio sounds like an HOA who just is looking to lynch someone "just to show them"....

Frankly if I was the victim and I knew about this... I would be contacting an atty!

If I were the unit owner who is being targeted I would file complaints with the police department, would have contacted every news outlet in the area with this story and would have contacted an attorney.

For the police to make that statement above is ludicrous and the officer who made it should be disciplined. Meanwhile if I were a member in this condo community and especially a board member I would start backpeddling to avoid looking any more stupid than we already do...

Didn't you mean to say, "they can sue or ask the court to award damages TO BE PAID BY the party who did this damage?"

Thank you to everyone who has commented. Much appreciate the guidance!

. . . that is to say, watch your back with the homeowners who want the VICTIM to pay.