Defining "undue hardship".

Started by DaleB • 2 replies • 3011 views

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DaleB (Arizona)
Posts: 12

Posted:

IN our CC&R's a variance to the can be given for "undue hardship". I do understand giving a varince under the disabilities act, but that has not been an issue. "Undue Hardship" has never been defined though and I think we need to be careful when giving variances so we do not set any kind of precedent. Does anyone have a good definition for "undue hardship"? Or thoughts on the topic?

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

Dale,

"Undue Hardship definition: Special or specified circumstances that partially or fully exempt a person from performance of a legal obligation so as to avoid an unreasonable or disproportionate burden or obstacle

"Undue hardship is a legal term used to design an accommodation to employees that would either alter the nature of the enterprise or affect its viability. It is used in the employment discrimination law in the United States, Canada, and other countries.

"Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the "ADA")(1) requires an employer(2) to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities who are employees or applicants for employment, unless to do so would cause undue hardship. "In general, an accommodation is any change in the work environment or in the way things are customarily done that enables an individual with a disability to enjoy equal employment opportunities."(3)There are three categories of "reasonable accommodations":

What will the "undue hardship" clause be used for? Delinquent dues, rentals or what? My Fl. HOA tried to ban rental of units except for the "UNDUE HARDSHIP" clause until the HOA lawyer saw it and made them remove it. Reason, a hardship has no defined meaning except to the interested parties. It is ambiguous and has different meanings to different people.

JanetB2 (Colorado)
Posts: 4,219

Posted:

Undue hardship is a tough threshold to meet. Synonyms for undue include: excessive, extreme, improper, unreasonable, unjustified.

If at all possible best to avoid variances for this reason. Variance should potentially be given if for example someone had a fence approved, and the ACC or board made a mistake when approving, the HO paid money to install said fence. Then potentially a variance could be given to that individual for the current fence until it needs replaced in the future.

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