Another question for all of you helpful people

I would like to start this off by saying that me and my family really keep to ourselves in our neighborhood and we truly don't bother anyone.

That being said I do not have a good impression of the individual in our neighborhood that happens to be on the HOA Board. She has gone out of her way to nitpick and bother us on several occasions. My very biased opinion has simply been that she does this becase we do not go out of our way to socialize with her. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I have no other reasonable explanation as to why this woman would continually bother us. Mind you we show no preference to any neighbor we are just private and keep to ourselves and I've gone so far as to tell her that.

Anyway, in the last year or so, since she has become a Board member we have literally been bombarded with "violations". Some false that we have sent back questioning and they have been dropped and some had foundation, although we have seen the same issues with other homes in our aging community and theirs never seems to be addressed.

In reviewing the HOA docs the HOA complaint/violation form that is filed requires the complainants information and supposedly this form is filed and it sounds as though the HOA is required to keep the form on record. Can we, as the person who the complaint is being filed against, request a copy of these complaints to see if this Board member is indeed the one filing all of these complaints? My thinking is that if we can see that she is, then we can make a request before the Board that any future complaints from her against us be researched by a neutral third party on the Board to see if it is a valid complaint, instead of them just firing off a letter to us. It just seems to me that this woman may have an issue with my family and if she is the one filing these complaints she is engaging in a form of harassment, in my opinion.

It is not my intent to confront this woman in any way, I just want her to stop bothering me and my family with frivolous issues, if that is indeed what is happening. On a side note we never had these issues until she became a member of the Board.

Would appreciate any feedback.

Susan, I would not necessarily jump to the conclusion that only "one" person is responsible for the all the complaints, though it may be, it's just not possible to tell since the Andrea herself is just speculating.

Also, I have no idea what the policy is in your HOA, Andrea, regarding the complaint process. Some jurisdictions do not allow anonymous complaints, some do, and, as in our case, even when we have a name we strip that portion off the file.

Here's the thing, the policy that we have in place requires that, regardless of from where the complaint initiates, whether from a "board member" or a resident, each and every alleged violation is verified by a designated second board member before any notice of violation can be sent. And, yes, that includes noise violations. If the violation cannot be verified, the complaint is closed.

The funny thing about complaints is that some people would be very surprised if they knew who actually was "reporting" them.

Like I said, even though many reports come in "anonymous" in our HOA, it's not that hard for us to know who the complaint filer is. Very often it is a close neighbor with whom the resident has a fairly decent relationship. The reason they report to us anonymous instead of taking the issue up directly with the neighbor is that they don't want to harm their relationship, but they still want to make sure that the violation is addressed.

I've been in face-to-face discussions with a homeowner or two over the course of the years who will ball me out in front of their neighbors when I'm hand-delivering a set of Arch Comm approval forms along with a "cease and desist" of the current unapproved (un-applied for) project, and that person will say things like, "My neighbors don't have a problem with me putting this up, I've asked them and they don't care, what business do you have telling me I can't if it doesn't bother them!"

Well, guess what? It did bother his neighbors, they just were afraid to say anything to him and they called us and told us he was putting up a shed without approval first.

I'm just saying that people very often don't realize that some of their own friends are actually the ones making the calls or sending the complaint emails.

Having said all that above, I would still recommend that you take a meeting with one or two of the other board members and let them know that you are very concerned about the number of notices you are getting, and that you are genuinely and sincerely concerned about making sure that the you and your family are not violating any rules and regulations.

Most people who violate CC&Rs do so inadvertently and without intent to be doing something against the rules. The fact is, a lot of us just don't have each and every Use Restriction committed to memory.

Let them know that since many complaints filed against you have been unsubstantiated and "mistakes" on behalf of the violation committee (or whatever group or person sends them out), that you would greatly appreciate it if the alleged violations could be researched and verified first, to minimize future errors and, quite frankly, stop wasting everyone's time.

During this conversation you might want to mention that you are concerned that the other board member might be a bit overzealous, though you have no idea why, it's just a feeling you are getting. I think that if a resident came to us with a concern that they felt a board member were abusing his or her position against them, we would be very careful to make sure there was no animosity or personal issues there driving some sort of intimidation or vindictiveness factor.

In fact, we remind all of our board members that if they are aware of neighbors in close proximity to them who may be in violation that it is especially important to make sure that a non-neighboring board member verify the complaint.

Also, if you truly suspect that other people with the same or a similar violation have not received notices, then do the right thing and be sure to share the addresses and the violations with the board, in case they may have overlooked a few.

It's not "snitching" and it's not picking on other people, it's helping the board remain consistent and fair in their enforcement. You're a member of the HOA, too, and, as a member, you have an obligation to ensure the docs are enforced as well. If they need some assistance remaining fair and impartial, don't be shy in helping to fill that gap.

When we have people say, "I see XX other people doing the same thing!" we always ask them for the addresses so that we can be sure to see that those violations are corrected as well.

Andre,
Your neighborhod suddenly got lot larger when you bought into a association. But, by being an association, it also shrunk around you like a wrapped new toy, tight and very hard to peel off. That pesky neighbor is part of your society also.

RobertR1 - While I'm sure Andrea can defend herself, I do question why you write the rebuke, "Now you have someone upsetting your little domain and you are getting testy, because all you want to do is "be left alone."". All Andrea wrote was that she wants to be left alone. That's a pretty reasonable desire, and I find your comments that she has a "little domain", and that Andrea is getting "testy" to be a honestly RobertR1 way off base and a disturbing.

Andrea - On the surface it does seem that you are being harassed. However, you wrote, that some of the violations are false. So some of them were true, correct? How were those resolved?

This is what I would do in your case and it may or may not be right...I would ask for a meeting with the board and I would state my case rather nicely. I would say I enjoy living there, and think they do a good job and all I want is to live peacefully amongst my neighbors but I have concerns as to the number of violation notices being sent my way, especially in wake of several of them not holding water.

I would go on to say that I want to follow the rules, and if I am wrong I have no problem being called on it, but it is frustrating to have several notices sent to my home that don't end up being anything. I would end and ask them what they think they can do to help with that.

Hi All,
First I do want to thank all of you for your responses, as they are quite helpful.

I will say that it is not my intent to come across "testy". I actually think I have been quite patient in this whole ordeal and have absolutely no intent to confront anyone in any kind of hostile manner. I have always been taught that you can attract more flies with honey then vinegar ;-) But I would be lying if I said this hasn't been a bit frustrating.

That being said, I do feel that it is my right no matter where I live, be it an a community with an HOA or without to live peacably and not be bothered, as long as I am not doing anything to bother those around me.

In regards to the false violations, I truly wish I could recall them, but I honestly can't. I simply know off the top of my head that we received at least two, which we responded to and it was the end of them.

As far as the valid violations, right now we have two (these were in my previous post). One was for our fence to be cleaned and repaired and our lawn to be seeded. We received this notice in December, in the dead of winter, so I think it is fair to say that it is not something we wouldn't have taken care of on our own, the timing was just odd, for lack of a better word. Needless to say our fence has already been cleaned, I advised the HOA that I did not know what was broken on the fence and asked them for guidance, to which they never responded, and our lawn has been getting prepped for seeding in the fall.

I will say that in all fairness I had never really considered it being another neighbor filing the complaints and after I read that post, I did consider that could potentially be the case as we have had some new families move in that I am not familiar with.

As a side note, in regards to my HOA Violation? post I did hear back from the property manager today and she did state that they would be sending someone out to check the property this coming week. She seemed very nice about the situation and I am hoping this will resolve that issue. Either way, I now feel as though I at least have a name of someone I can talk to regarding some of these other concerns, if they should continue.

I have not read all the replies above...

Can you be fined for these violations?

Robert,

The authority to fine for CCR violations can be found in the assn gov. docs and/or state law. Different jurisdictions and gov. docs have different laws. In AZ a home cannot be foreclosed on for CCR violations, as it can be in other states. Those monies can only be collected when the property is sold, but only if a judgment has first been obtained in a civil suit.