How to deal with past violations

How does a new president of the hoa deal with old violations that was pushed under the table.
but now the new BOD wants the violation Stopped
the violation is that a home was built in violation of HOA rules and CCR but to have them fix the violation it means to redo the outside of home....we are talking big money issue to home owner. but they haved lived there for almost 2 years.

Daniel,

Did anyone object before the home was built?

The reason I ask is I know of a couple of AZ court decisions where owners built structures that did not comply with the CC&R's. In both cases the owners claimed that it would be an economic hardship to comply after the structures were finished. The courts rejected those arguments because both owners had been notified before they started as to the restrictions and both went ahead anyway.

The courts' decisions imply that an owner may be able to raise the economic hardship issue if there was no objection to what he was building at a time when he could have stopped construction.

I would recommend following Tim's advice, especially the part about consulting the attorney, before making any demands on the homeowner.

It sounds like you need to work on developing policies and procedures prior to going through the enforcement process.

This is a process that takes time as you need to review and understand your governing documents and applicable State/Federal laws. Then you need to write a draft. Review it, have the Board review it and make changes, consider (depending on the policy) having the Association attorney review it, then the board or the membership (depends on State laws & your governing documents to determine who) needs to adopt the policy. Then the policy needs to be published (printed and mailed) to the membership. Once this is done, the policy is enforceable.

You might want to do a search for similar associations within your county. Then visit them (in person or on their website) and take a look at their policies. This would provide a starting point for developing your own policies.

I've attached a recommended list of policies Assocaitions should have. However, I would start with the following (if you don't have them yet):

Procedure to adopt/amend Policy and Administrative Resolutions
Procedures to approve/disapprove requests for changes to a lot
Procedures for enforcement of violations (this is a good one to run by the attorney)
Procedures for Assessments (how payments are applied, notifications of delinquent accounts, collection procedure, etc.)

There are firms and companies out there that, for a fee, will assist in drafting policies. They can be helpful but it still requires a lot of work from the Board to review and make changes. Here are some possible avenues for locating them and/or resources that can be helpful:

CAI Alabama Chapter Directory of services (CAI = Community Association Institute)

HOA-USA Alabama Costs to join but still offers good free information on their website under resources.

Community Association Network - Alabama page A sponsor of HOATalk and lots of good information.

These are just a few off the top of my head.

Note: although I use information that is provided by the above organizations for free, I am not a member (and never have been) of any of those organizations and therefore cannot comment on any benefits that may or may not be obtained by being a paid member to any of those organizations or the value a paid membership would bring.