Difficult homeowner

Our association has a problem homeowner. He e-mails the board almost daily. He has informed the board that he will break every CC&R he can think of and defies them to do something about it.

I am not on the board because my husband is, and our bylaws allow only one person per household to be on the board. However, I am a committee member and work very closely with the board. Our board tends to respond to this person's e-mails. I contend that doing so only gives him the attention he wants and a better strategy would be to simply ignore him.

I'm interested in input from other HOAs with members who seem to want to make trouble constantly. How do you handle these neighbors?

TerryL, why not view the problem homeowner from a constructive perspective? From the information you provided one can determine the problem here certainly is not one of apathy.

So what are the problems? Are they his, the Board's, or both? Usually I have found the answer is both. The owner usually feels they have been wronged by the HOA, and sometimes they are. The Board sees the owner as an irritaion, and sometimes they are.

Try to view the owner as the messenger of problems that needs correction. I see this as a symptom of underlying problems. And the continuing emails back and forth suggests the underlying problems have not yet been addressed. So first I would try to determine what the underlying problems are. Then I would work with the owner to resolve his individual problem(s). Then I would concentrate on correcting the Board problems revealed during this process.

To me, what is most important is correct the Board's problems?
1. Does the Board need to provide more information to the members?
2. Has the Board established effective means to listen to owners, investigate their problems, repond to them, resolve problems with disgruntled owners, etc.?
3. Does the Board need to hire a manager? They do if they see these owners as a problem to be ignored. They do if they can not effectively resolve problems with owners. They do when this type problem creates "burn out" of Board members. They do if .....
4. Other potential Board problems - just read a few posts!

Terry, I hope this answer helps. It may not be what you wanted but your note brought forth one of my pet peeves.

Look for the good!
Roger

Roger, there is no doubt that this HOA has many problems. As I indicated in other posts, we had a board that was the embodiement of the power trip gone bad. Unfortunately, they used the power to benefit themselves rather than seeing to the problems of the Association. They gave lots of lip service with no action. In elections, they received insider information from the Management Company and used their proxies to maintain the cronies on the board. A direct result of their inaction was a lawsuit to resolve some drainage problems which involved two homeowners, one of them being the problem guy. The homeowners were fed up with the former board and felt the lawsuit was completely avoidable.

Because of the lawsuit the former board forced, the homeowners organized and forced the resignation of four of them. The fifth member passed away. Now we have an all new board which has accomplished more in four months than the previous board did in four years. The board sees the resolution of the lawsuit and compliance with a court order to beef up the drainage system as its primary responsibility. Even though the court order was handed down at the beginning of May, no steps had been taken by the former board toward compliance until July when we organized and forced resignations.

The problem homeowner is absolutely impossible to please. As soon as the board complies with a request, he comes up with another, and another, and another. He refers to the new board as illegitimate because they are all appointees, even though the appointments have been done by the book. Admittedly, he was mistreated by the former board, but refuses to see the new board as the solution rather than the problem.

The board does provide information to the homeowners. The do regular walk-throughs in the community on weekends and are so approachable, they have published their phone numbers and e-mails in newsletters. All homeowners except the problem guy have been so impressed with their approchability and willingness to resolve problems. The problem guy refers to their weekly walk throughs as illegal board meetings.

On the subject of a manager, we need a different management company, but cannot change until April '06 when our contract is up. The board has already informed the homeowners that they don't plan to renew the contract and have already selected a new company. The contract was renewed by the former board because of the mutually advantageous and protective relationship they had with each other. In order to get out of the contract, we would have to pay penalties the board is not willing to pay. Clearly, we will be much better off after the new management company takes over because they will do leg work currently being performed by board members.

To give you an example of some of the things the problem homeowner is complaining about, here is a short list:

He wants new entry signs even though he knows all available funds are being spent on the drainage system.

He wants entry lighting to supplement the street lights which we cannot do for the same reason.

He complained about a widow with a bad back not taking her garbage cans away from the curb in a timely manner after the garbage collectors emptied them.

Not all of his complaints are without merit. Those with merit are immediately taken care of my the board because franly, they are trying their best so he won't have a reason to complain. The board is very careful not to participate in tit-for-tat e-mailing with him, but they do issue responses to each e-mail. This is where I think they are giving him too much attention. He knows that complaining about a widow and her garbage cans is just plain petty.

WOW! The difficult homeowner certainly was wronged in the past and it was a bad Board! To prevent constant irritation by the disgruntled owner the new Board can establish a policy to have all communications go though the management company except during meetings. And the owners could be provide up to 30 minutes at the beginning of Board meetings for their comments. Encourage the owners, including him to attend. Regarding his ideas on other expenditures, the Board can encourage owners, including him to offer ideas prior to each year's budget being approved.

In other words, give all members including him the opportunity to express while eliminating venues for disruption. Make sure the Agreement with the new management company covers these issues and the managing Agent has the proper demeanor to handle difficult owners.

Good luck,
Roger

I forgot to address this topic in my previous response. The new management company is very well equipped to deal with this individual and others like him. We have been very honest with him about what he is getting into. We're very encouraged about getting the new management company on board, and the board is trying to get the current management company to let us out of our contract with them as soon as the invoice is paid on the drainage system. Until that bill is taken care of, they don't want to do anything that would jeopardize the situation.

It is somewhat easy to empathize with the problem homeowner; he has been wronged and it doesn't sound like he's over it. HOAs can create emotional situations that take years to heal from. But on the subject of management companies and boards, this question is for Roger (thank you for your wonderful input)--the HOA board in TX where we live has a major problem and no one knows in which direction to take it. The president of the board is in conflict of interest with the management company in many areas, but mainly in this: neither communicate with some of the directors on the board if they do not like them and the president is the only one (self-appointed I might add) who can communicate with the MC. The president's only interest in the subdivision (500 homes) is in the swim team. The team is not sponsored by the HOA but given the gift of hours of practice in the HOA's common area pool and allowed to have a minimum number of meets so as not to interfere with the HOAs member's swim privileges (usually when the pool is closed for cleaning day). However, the swim team has overtaken the board and the membership and to make matters worse have over one fourth of the members from outside who have no team in their neighborhoods. This would be okay if they didn't "RULE" and if the wear and tear on the facilities were by outsiders who are not paying. The president also "RULES" and has set up the board to where favors are granted to vendors who provide sponsorship/donate money to the swim team, including the management company. In fact, the management company is incompetent and only kept because of this arrangement. It doesn't matter to those homeowners who have kids on the swim team, but it does matter to the other portion--over half. The problem is that no one is being told why the monies are all spent and that the reserves are diminishing to below a safe level. The president is in control of all of this and apparently no one can do anything. What do you advise? Is something like this reportable to an agency or the District Attorney? People don't want to be involved and/or spend more money. Is a class action suit the best route. Someone needs to stop this board--they've acquired a third more to go along with the president. Thanks for any information or advice.

I have taken an approach to "our" problem HOA member(s) thusly:
The old adage; "You can't please ALL of the people ALL of the time."
I know, I know...EVERYONE wants to think that there is no problem that is insurmountable, BUT sometimes there is just no pleasing someone, no matter how hard you try or how badly you want to. The "scorn" of a person that feels "wronged" can be an insurmountable obstacle. All efforts to appease, indemdify or otherwise satisfy this sort of member may fail miserably and actually make matter worse. If there are pending issues, address them. If the issues were settled to the best of everyone's ability, but not to everyone's "satisfaction"...what to do?

When I feel ALL, and I do mean ALL, avenues have been exhausted, I take this position: As long as the problem person maintains their property, follows the rules and pays their HOA fees and dues; "Live and Let Live" is the rule. If THEY do not want to participate in their association, that is their decision and they have a right to make their own decisions. "Opting out" of most associations is NOT an option. The people are free to move, rent out or sell their property. I still maintain courtesy with them at all times, no matter what THEY may say. It is always a tragedy when something like this happens, but we do not live in a "perfect world".

If the "problem" member stays and fails in their obligations to the CC&R's of the community, handle the issues as you would any other member without "extra" efforts because thay have been a problem in the past. "Business is business", However; Courtesy, fairness and consistancy is the key. If you do not live in a glass house yourself, someone throwing bricks at it will not bother you.

All of the business professions reading this know what I mean. For anyone that doesn't understand the above, it can be summed up by saying; "Don't feed the trolls." I hope this helps.

I am the Board member who answers our emails on a daily basis. I answer all- even the ridiculous, accusatory, inflammatory, etc. I am respectful of all, even when I am disrespected.

Many are angry that as a Board we do not publish our private phone numbers. Why? Because of these same 'angry owners' who would enjoy calling and screaming at us during our personal time with our families.

While the gentleman you speak of appears to have reason to carry a grudge against your Association, the new members of the Board should not carry the burden of it.

We are in the midst of a similar problem. The emails are endless. Untimately, the same old questions that have been asked and answered keep getting re-hashed. Our 'problem' owner has explained that while he has committed several violations, our job as a Board is not to tell him what to do, it is to ask what we can do for him as an owner.

Finally, we needed to explain to him that we (Board) were all owners too- and that we were giving something back to our community via many projects, time, efforts. We invited him to participate and finding a solution to the 'issues' he had a problem with and to come and explain why he was exempt from the rules of our community when everyone else had to follow them. An old play on 'part of the solution or part of the problem'. We haven't heard from him since. If he had to do more than complain, he wasn't interested.

This is why we don't use a management company -because we don't want to relinquish control, personal involvement or money when we don't need to. many communites in our area have followed suit.

Good luck- Lisa