Not in Compliance

Recently a homeowner who is a friend of mine applied for the vacent board position. He is more than qualified having been a retired Police officer, and investigator. Since we have a cliche board this is not a easy task. He had a impromptu interview from our "in house" Ombudsman, as we don't have a nominating committee. We usually have a hard time finding baord volunteers. He was told by our Ombudsman that since we already have a quorum with just four members, it may not be necessary to have a fifth member at this time. However he could run for the board position at the next election. But he would present his request to the board.

That's not the end of it. A few months back my friend was asked to trim a palm tree as it was in his neighbors view plain. He did so immediately, but left "one" prawn as to not kill the tree. (believe me it is not even noticable) Now the Mgmt Co. has sent him a letter of "Non Compliance" My question is when you are in "Non Compliance" would this mean that you are no longer a Member in good standing?

I think we need a State run Ombudsman to protect us from our "in house" Ombudsman/homeowner that is overpaid, and is just protecting his job.

NancyM2

Nancy - Is that view restriction thing really spelled out in your documents? If so, wouldn't leaving one leaf so it would not kill the palm allow it to grow back and obstruct the view again? Was the palm approved in his landscape submittal? But since he was told to trim and not remove, and he did trim.....they should have told him what results they were expecting. Such as: does this one leaf still obstruct the view of the neighbor? Here we go again: Doesn't an HOA foster such great and friendly neighbors?
Your documents should spell out the qualifications and/or limitations required of an applicant to the board. We can't answer that here.

It all depends on what is in your governing documents. Somewhere in there it should spell out who is and isn't allowed to run for a position on the Board. Our CC&R's require a member to be in good standing to run for the BOD and the only thing to make a member not be in good standing is for them to be over 30 days in arrears.

oops, meant to add, got distracted:

There should be a time period between getting the letter/notice and the actual decision to assess a fine. That is the period where the owner has the right to defend his actions, seek clarification, be heard, etc.. During this time period (after receiving the letter, but before his due process is up) he should be a member in good standing, with all rights given to him as any homeowner. Until he has completely been through the process, he is considered "innocent" of any non compliance (ie, a ruling has not been laid down).