ChristinaR (Maryland)
Posts: 99
Posts: 99
Posted:
I am the President of an HOA of 102 Single Family Townhouses in MD. We have severe issues with lack of involvement, parking and all that other stuff that all HOA's have issues with. Here is our situation.
Our community was built with 1.5 parking spaces per home. We do not have enough parking for the now standard multi-car families. To top that off...21 homes were built with driveways AFTER the record plats (without drivewasy) and documents were already approved and in place. The CCRs and/or bylaws have zero mention of the driveways, but do entitle every homeowner to a "reserved" parking space. And it must be a near or convientent as such provision will allow. Well the court with the driveways (28 homes) only has 26 parking spaces. The previous boards (15+ years) have just always followed the rule, which is in our parking regulations which can be voted on by the board according to our bylaws, "Your driveway will act as your reserved space." Recently an attorney told us that this not a good rule and that we should find a way to give everyone a reserved space.
Our parking regulations have been in place for 10+ years to limit the number of vehicles to 2 per home. We did this by giving out parking permits and towing and/or fining violators. Towing works best for us, as the fining process is so spaced out that we could never actually fine. An owner must be given 30 days notice to rectify the situation, then a 2nd notice is sent only if the situation has not been addressed. Then they are given 30 more days to rectify, and so on. All in all, its about 55 days before we can issue a fine No one parks the same car illegally for 55 days straight, so we could never issue a fine.
We live in a very rural area and tow companies are few and far between. We have gone through a few and due to unruley (threating with weapons) residents as well as condesending comments of board members to contractors, we had exhausted all tow companies in the area. We finally secured a contract with a business with multiple references and after 8 months of interviews and requesting additional contracts from other tow companies (none responded) we finally settled on our 'only' option with added excitement that they would also patrol the parking areas, which was a job previously done by board members. Which was probably the reason so many people refuse to get involved with the HOA.
Before you say towing isn't the answer...trust me...even when we had parking enforcemnt on a regular basis, we had 10-15 tows per month. People will park 6 cars with total disregard for the fact that we are 15 parking spaces short of people parking 2. In a recent walk thru of a court, I found 14 of 20 vehicles in that court did NOT have the required parking permit displayed. In the first 2 weeks that we did receive service from this contractor, we still had 10 violations the first day of patrol. Even though the first day of patrol was advertised in large type on the mailbox and community newsletter and people were specifically told "He will tow on April such and such." Our residents have total disregard for these rules, which I see as just blantant disrespect for your neighbors.
Long story short, after paying his fee for patrols, as well as a 'per unit' registration fee and charging residents for visitor passes, the contractor had a 'family emergency' and disappeared. We all understood the issues that happen when you have a death in the family, but our largest complaint, was that this company had 3 trucks with RFID scanners as well as multiple employees, so why couldn't any of them patrol during his family emergency. We called, our MC called, residents called and after 3 weeks his voicemail was changed, without notice to any of his contracts, to state that he was no longer offering towing services.
We have consulted with our attorney and are taking the steps to possibly issue a lawsuit, but we also don't want to lose any more money, and we know that just because we win a judgment, doesn't mean we will get any money. Thanks to a surplus of funds from the new foreclosure law in MD that banks are GRACIOUSLY following even though they don't have to, we did have enough of a surplus to issue a full refund of the registration fee to our residents.
Our problem now is with out residents. We have a few rowdy residents that are attacking the board and distributing information to neighbors that is not true. The most rowdy has accused the board of not accepting responsability for their 'total lack and failure to keep the best interest of the community in mind' and is calling for our resignation. As far as I am concerned, and I know I'm bias as a BOD, I feel as though, due diligence was done. Contracts were solicited and not received, and we interviewed for months and redlined the entire contract multiple times prior to entering into it. I feel as though the board did everything within their power to enter into a legally binding contract with a reputable business in the best interest of the community.
This resident has threatened to sue us in the past. We informed him that suing the board is like suing yourself, so he said he would sue us 'individually.' We also informed him that as long as we are acting on behalf of the HOA in the best interest of the community, we are covered under indemnification according to our documents and the only way he could sue us is for us to not be acting in the best interest of the community.
I guess I'm asking "Should we all resign?" "Is this homeowner correct?" "Can we now be sued individually?" I don't think we can, but now I know why we can't get anyone to volunteer. His letter to the board was so demeaning and hurtful, I had to stop reading it, which no one should have to deal with.
Our community was built with 1.5 parking spaces per home. We do not have enough parking for the now standard multi-car families. To top that off...21 homes were built with driveways AFTER the record plats (without drivewasy) and documents were already approved and in place. The CCRs and/or bylaws have zero mention of the driveways, but do entitle every homeowner to a "reserved" parking space. And it must be a near or convientent as such provision will allow. Well the court with the driveways (28 homes) only has 26 parking spaces. The previous boards (15+ years) have just always followed the rule, which is in our parking regulations which can be voted on by the board according to our bylaws, "Your driveway will act as your reserved space." Recently an attorney told us that this not a good rule and that we should find a way to give everyone a reserved space.
Our parking regulations have been in place for 10+ years to limit the number of vehicles to 2 per home. We did this by giving out parking permits and towing and/or fining violators. Towing works best for us, as the fining process is so spaced out that we could never actually fine. An owner must be given 30 days notice to rectify the situation, then a 2nd notice is sent only if the situation has not been addressed. Then they are given 30 more days to rectify, and so on. All in all, its about 55 days before we can issue a fine No one parks the same car illegally for 55 days straight, so we could never issue a fine.
We live in a very rural area and tow companies are few and far between. We have gone through a few and due to unruley (threating with weapons) residents as well as condesending comments of board members to contractors, we had exhausted all tow companies in the area. We finally secured a contract with a business with multiple references and after 8 months of interviews and requesting additional contracts from other tow companies (none responded) we finally settled on our 'only' option with added excitement that they would also patrol the parking areas, which was a job previously done by board members. Which was probably the reason so many people refuse to get involved with the HOA.
Before you say towing isn't the answer...trust me...even when we had parking enforcemnt on a regular basis, we had 10-15 tows per month. People will park 6 cars with total disregard for the fact that we are 15 parking spaces short of people parking 2. In a recent walk thru of a court, I found 14 of 20 vehicles in that court did NOT have the required parking permit displayed. In the first 2 weeks that we did receive service from this contractor, we still had 10 violations the first day of patrol. Even though the first day of patrol was advertised in large type on the mailbox and community newsletter and people were specifically told "He will tow on April such and such." Our residents have total disregard for these rules, which I see as just blantant disrespect for your neighbors.
Long story short, after paying his fee for patrols, as well as a 'per unit' registration fee and charging residents for visitor passes, the contractor had a 'family emergency' and disappeared. We all understood the issues that happen when you have a death in the family, but our largest complaint, was that this company had 3 trucks with RFID scanners as well as multiple employees, so why couldn't any of them patrol during his family emergency. We called, our MC called, residents called and after 3 weeks his voicemail was changed, without notice to any of his contracts, to state that he was no longer offering towing services.
We have consulted with our attorney and are taking the steps to possibly issue a lawsuit, but we also don't want to lose any more money, and we know that just because we win a judgment, doesn't mean we will get any money. Thanks to a surplus of funds from the new foreclosure law in MD that banks are GRACIOUSLY following even though they don't have to, we did have enough of a surplus to issue a full refund of the registration fee to our residents.
Our problem now is with out residents. We have a few rowdy residents that are attacking the board and distributing information to neighbors that is not true. The most rowdy has accused the board of not accepting responsability for their 'total lack and failure to keep the best interest of the community in mind' and is calling for our resignation. As far as I am concerned, and I know I'm bias as a BOD, I feel as though, due diligence was done. Contracts were solicited and not received, and we interviewed for months and redlined the entire contract multiple times prior to entering into it. I feel as though the board did everything within their power to enter into a legally binding contract with a reputable business in the best interest of the community.
This resident has threatened to sue us in the past. We informed him that suing the board is like suing yourself, so he said he would sue us 'individually.' We also informed him that as long as we are acting on behalf of the HOA in the best interest of the community, we are covered under indemnification according to our documents and the only way he could sue us is for us to not be acting in the best interest of the community.
I guess I'm asking "Should we all resign?" "Is this homeowner correct?" "Can we now be sued individually?" I don't think we can, but now I know why we can't get anyone to volunteer. His letter to the board was so demeaning and hurtful, I had to stop reading it, which no one should have to deal with.