Board restricting owner's communication with Board and Manager...is it legal?

Started by HowardB1 • 8 replies • 2477 views

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HowardB1 (Maryland)
Posts: 4

Posted:

Question: Can a Board of Directors legally instruct it's property manager to not respond to a member's e-mails/phone calls? The member is in good standing and has not been abusive to any of the Board members or the manager. The member is a past Director and still is actively interested in the community.

HowardB1 (Maryland)
Posts: 4

Posted:

Let me add that the owner has been asked to only communicate with 1 Board member.

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

Howard,

It certainly might depend on what the H.O is communicating about. If it is about Board business and any administrative issues, then I would agree.

If the H.O is acting in the capacity of neighborhood watch person or basically keeping the P.M. informed of items that he/she should be made aware of, then there should be no issue.

My Florida HOA had an email address for any member of the community to contact the manager with any issue of concern. We had a rule that ALL complaints against another member or complaints in general were required to be signed by the complaintant. The name was NOT forwarded or given to the Board unless it became something that the Board needed to contact that person.

If the contract with the P.M. is written to include intercepting calls and emails from the members, then it should not be a problem

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

The property management and HOA board arrangement is a tricky one. It really depends on the HOA and how it tends to operate. Each situation is different. Either way, there is a separation between the two that has to be recognized. It is that situation that your question falls under.

Typically, the property management is a CONTRACTOR to the HOA. They are paid contractors hired to handle the money and other ordained issues. The board on the other hand, are elected volunteers from the membership. They are elected by the membership to represent them in daily operations of the HOA. This includes working with the management company in ordaining the issues they want them to do.

Your HOA may work where they want the members/owners to bring their issues to the board FIRST and ONLY to deal with. The board then can take a vote and decide if/how the management company should be involved. This way members can't circumvent their board and go to them. It works vice-versa as well. The management company is going to tell the board what a member tells them.

Is it illegal? No. Is it a bit juevenile? Yes. It's like going to the better parent to borrow the car keys in my opinion if a member practices this behavior. I know it wouldn't bold well with the board. It's best to just to deal with the board and get what you get than behind the backs of them...

Former HOA President

HowardB1 (Maryland)
Posts: 4

Posted:

It appears to be more of an attempt to limit the member's communications. Communications which involved neighborhood business or even a complaint of a violation.

It just seems that this is an exceptional treatment of 1 member as I know of no other instance where this request has been made.

I hear your point about the PM being a contractor, but the member also contributes to this contractor's pay.

GlenL (Ohio)
Posts: 5,491

Posted:

Again it would depend on the type of communication the former director is engaged in, if it is a simple e-mail saying there is a light out at or storm debris at, then no it shouldn't be limited. But since the BOD has taken this step, I suspect the communication is more along the lines of questioning the Board's actions through a third party. It could be the MC even asked the Board to do this to keep from being put in this position or the communications could be so prolific that the MC was unable to do their job and instead spent the majority of their time responding to one person who was no longer on the Board.

Studies show that 5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions

JanetB2 (Colorado)
Posts: 4,219

Posted:

Hi Howard:

They should not limit communication for any member unless said communication involves legal litigation. For example if a member has filed a lawsuit against the HOA they can be asked to please send any correspondence to the HOA attorney. If said individual sends to anyone other than attorney, that correspondence should potentially just be forwarded by HOA board member to attorney to address.

If as you state he pays dues and is not abusive, then what reason do they have to limit his correspondence to only one board member? Last time I checked this was a free country with the ability to have freedom of speech. Also, you cannot have rules outside litigation for only one member of an HOA which does not apply to everyone especially when they pay dues and have not been abusive. Even if this individual is an prior board member they still have the right to question items with regards to their association.

My response would be show me in our governing documents where it states any correspondence is to be given to only one certain board member. Also, the board needs to keep in mind this in essence could possibly be harassment in singling out one individual and that you cannot treat one homeowner any different than another. If the MC has any issues or questions regarding any correspondence from this individual, then they have the ability to forward to the current board for response with a reply to the individual that it has been forwarded to the board of directors for consideration.

JoyceS1 (Indiana)
Posts: 140

Posted:

I'm not sure my issue is germane to this discussion, but wanted to share it nonetheless. We have repeatedly instructed homeowners to contact the property manager for more timely responses to their issues and/or attend board meetings in person. Yet, there are those who will contact the Board president any time of the day or night or channel a maintenance request through an individual board member, and write to an individual board member with a complaint. It is a waste of a board member's time conveying their maintenance issue when the property manager could have handled it more quickly if the homeowner contacted the manager directly themselves.

Homeowners seem to forget Board members have health issues, personal crisis to deal with, etc., etc. just as their neighbors do and the property manager is there to assist the board. By the way, we are a small HOA with mostly homeowners in their 70's and 80's.

On a personal level, when I served as president I was in the midst of a family crisis when the telephone rang. Caller ID told me it was from a homeowner.....I ignored the call. I was in no shape to deal with Association business at that particular moment. I learned later that the homeowner had an idle complaint....it was not critical.

It may be obvious from this posting that I had to step away from the service on the board due to burnout.

This is an example of why I believe the board needs to be able to direct communications as they deem appropriate.

KellyM3 (North Carolina)
Posts: 2,239

Posted:

I've only instructed our PM to ignore people (if she chooses) when there are repeated occurrences of harassment and arguing and fighting. Also, members who choose to "curse out" our PM opens the door to being ignored. It's common sense.

Having a homeowner instructed to communicate with a single board member does not shut the property owner out of communicating with his board. It does prevent the property owner from telling a different story to every board member and keeps any report to the board in a single channel of communication.

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