Furniture Moving Dilemma

There is an owner who lives on the 18th floor of a San Francisco high-rise condominium. When the family moved in (and subsequently when they moved additional articles of furniture in) it was necessary for their movers to remove the drop ceiling panels in the elevator cab of the building’s passenger elevator to provide the headroom necessary to fit some pieces of furniture. No tools were necessary and no mechanical fasteners were involved. The removal of ceiling panels was just like the removal of Celotex drop ceiling panels. Just push up and slide over. Two identical passenger elevators serve the building. There are no freight elevators and only interior and exterior fire stairwells. Other than moving costs, there were no fees associated with these moves charged by or paid to the HOA.

The Board of the Association recently decided to enhance the elevators’ cabs’ appearance by installing a fixed drop lighted ceiling, without any notice to the owners and residents that the utility of the elevators would be diminished, thus prohibiting some furniture from fitting in the elevator cab.

The owner in question is planning some redecoration and it would appear that the only way to remove or install large furniture is through the fire stairwells. Needless to say, this will add expense for the labor required for the 18 story move/s. The Board has proposed an alternative, i.e., for a fee of $800 to be paid by residents (each time) they will arrange for the building’s elevator service firm to send two men out to operate the elevator so that the roof of the elevator is level with the elevator lobby floor when the elevator lobby doors are opened, thus allowing the furniture to ride down to ground level (or up from ground level) on the roof of the elevator cab.

The fee for this service, while reasonable in magnitude for the work the elevator service company would perform, is considered unreasonable by the owner because the family’s expectations, which are reasonable from some perspectives, are that what goes up should be able to come down the same way and at similar costs (historically, free in this case).

-Did the Board act within their rights in making the modification without notice of the consequences to owners?
-Can owners’ furniture effectively be “held hostage” for the $800 fee as is proposed? (No rules on point, nor schedule of fees/fines, have been adopted or published.)
-Would the proper adoption of a rule suffice? What about right now, when the owner wants to move furniture and before such rule adoption has taken place?
-Is use of the fire stairwells for furniture movement legal?
-Should the Association/Board be warned of any potential liability or any legitimate or legal recourse the owner might have?

Thanks in advance for your insights and comments.

Hi Dennis … Per your questions:

-Did the Board act within their rights in making the modification without notice of the consequences to owners?
This would depend on what your governing documents state as to whether the board alone can make these changes or if these changes must be voted by members. If they had been smart they would have received opinions from the homeowners and this potential problem could have been addressed before the changes were made.

-Can owners’ furniture effectively be “held hostage” for the $800 fee as is proposed? (No rules on point, nor schedule of fees/fines, have been adopted or published.)
This would be something to potentially ask your HOA attorney. Individuals purchase their homes based on what is available at the time of purchase and the rules in place. While they know rules can be changed and most times need to be voted by members, to make physical changes without membership approval and which hinders access might give homeowners an edge. As you stated, what goes up must eventually come back down. Potentially the HOA could be responsible for the $800 fee every time a homeowner needs access because they made the change that now denies access homeowners previously had available.

-Is use of the fire stairwells for furniture movement legal?
This would be something the local fire marshal’s office could tell you whether or not it is legal. They may have a problem with an oversized sofa potentially blocking the stairwell in case of a fire.

-Should the Association/Board be warned of any potential liability or any legitimate or legal recourse the owner might have?
Yes

My two cents … change one of the elevators to enable movement of furniture or equipment as needed. At some point this could be an issue for the HOA when they need to potentially do repairs or something themselves and cannot get large pieces of sheetrock or lumber up to a higher floor for repairs.

Yes, I believe that the Board was within their rights. The elevator still serves its primary purpose: to move people.

The owners' furniture is not held hostage. The owner is free to disassemble/destroy their furniture, sell it with the unit, sell it to a neighbor on the same floor or move it through the stairs. Even though the owner found a way to get his furniture up there, he had no guarantee or right to expect that that use of the elevator would be preserved.

The HOA really doesn't have to provide any option for the owner, as I see it. Certain furniture may be impossible to get to and put in the unit; the HOA doesn't have any obligation to provide a way to convey various kinds of furniture into a unit. Since the elevators are Common Area, the owner must ask permission of the Board and, if the Board insists, pay to get the job done and even pay additional fees (surcharges) to the HOA. The owner can negotiate with the Board directly before the rule is put in place or wait and abide by any rule that the Board does put in place.

I don't know if fire stairwells are allowed for furniture or not. My guess would using the stairwells would be allowed by the fire code.

It is always nice to warn the Board if you plan to sue them. I don't really see the homeowner having recourse.

I understand that this is a tough situation for the owner but, in this case, he relied on something that isn't within his control.

The question seems to be: "Does the Board have the obligation to maintain the Common Areas such that they can be used for the same price and for EVERY purpose as they've ever been used before?"

For example, can the HOA unroot a tree and replace it with a different kind of tree? A homeowner might complain that they used the previous tree with a rope swing for their kids and the new tree doesn't have the limb in the right place. Since the homeowner used it once for a rope swing, does that mean that it must be maintained forever such that a rope swing might be attached.

I think that the burden of maintaining a list of purposes which Common Area elements had ever been used is too high.

It is relevant that the owner had to modify the elevator in order to accomplish his purpose (albeit a trivial modification). He'd have a better case if the elevator had been made smaller capacity, instead of a modification that he made before now not being available.

(Wearing my California ARC chair and former Board presidents hat now)

In my opinion, the Board is way off-base on this. The Board made a mistake in changing the capacity of the elevator cab, without warning, and without taking a survey of the homeowners in advance. The homeowners with over-sized furniture could have made arrangements to remove it before the change, or otherwise object to the plan, but were not given an opportunity to do so.

If the normal practice, approved by the Association, had been to allow transport of furniture pieces whose length exceeded the height of the cab by the simple expedient of moving ceiling panels out of the way, then the burden is on the HOA to accommodate the removal of overlong furniture from the building.

However, it is also the responsibility of the HOA to either (1) now notify all homeowners of the new height restrictions in the cab, so future purchases the homeowners might make will take this into consideration, or (2) - my recommendation - rethink the change to the ceiling of the cab.

Either way, in my opinion, the HOA is now responsible for providing a means for furniture that was brought in by elevator, to be brought out the same way, at no charge to the homeowners.

Rob