HOA Violation Letter

Had an interesting conversation last evening.

Declarant appointed BOD discussing pending turnover.

Subject of violations came up.

While it was agreed to discuss a written policy and fining structure, the question was when to make something "official" and start a "clicking clock".

I said I would like to see the first step be a polite, informative, informal, not official, not clock ticking, maybe even not a signed notice before we made it official they were in violation.

Each of our homes mail boxes does have a newspaper, advert, whatever box underneath it so we have an unofficial way of delivering such.

Something like:

The BOD would like to remind you that our whatevers say that nothing should be placed on the grass areas around your home as it will impede our landscaping service.

We are specifically refering to the garden hose you have coiled on the lawn at the side of your home.

We ask that you correct the issue.

Thank you for your consideration.

The BOD

Now I also said if it is not corrected in a time frame we consider acceptable (yes very subjective) then the next communication will be a USPS mailed letter that is polite but a bit more official as in clock ticking. Some wanted to skip the non time clock notice and start with the more official letter.

Advice/thoughts please.

John,

The ticking clock starts when the violation is discovered and should be documented.
How Associations address the violation varies.
We do the following:

Informal Notice (written or verbal) - 15-30 days to comply
Formal Notice (written, sent first class) - 15-30 days to comply
Hearing before the Committee (written, sent certified) - Committee has various options
Hearing before the Board (written, sent certified) - Board has options plus fining authority
Legal Action

If the new citizen HOA board has only discussed the structure of handling HOA violations, I'd notify every citizen of the outcome of that deliberation before moving into the punitive stages of rules enforcement - giving uniform information and a small time period to correct the obvious violations, which people know they're in violation.

Once fair notice his given, I'd skip informal letters - by virtue of their definition they will be ignored if considered informal. Those letters are never considered friendly notices. Get down to business and your rules-abiding citizens (the vast majority) will appreciate it.

I know most people write here to complain, so once in a while, I like to express my admiration that other associations have tried and come up with various solutions for touchy problems.

Our former condo just wrote threatening notes mostly motivated out of spite.

Tim, I'm in a Northern VA HOA. We are trying to deal with ongoing (10 years) maintenance violations with one homeowner, that have gone from eyesore to a potential safety/health risk. Currently the matter has been turned over to the County to pursue, but after two years in the court system, the homeowner has been uncooperative and no resolution is expected as the county can't enforce HOA maintenance violations. The neighbors are becoming quite irate and expect action.

We discussed getting a court order to go on to the property, bring the property into compliance and bill back the owner, but we're certain this will become a recurring expense ... and ... as the homeowner already owes a sizeable amount for unpaid fines and dues, this will just add to the bill and probably won't ever be collected until the property is sold and the lien collected. The cost to get a court order to go onto the property and make repairs (requires removing four trees) would be about $15,000.

Have you, or any others on this forum, used non-judicial foreclosure to force the sale of a property in an HOA to collect outstanding fees and fines? I know this is an absolute last resort. The property now has no gutters, all wood trim is rotted with a hole under the roof into the attic, and tree roots have broken through into the foundation.

We have never gone the foreclosure route (knock on wood). We have filed liens in the past but only for non-payment of assessments.

We have been fortunate in having members take care of their property. Neighbors will sometimes mow a neighbors grass if it gets too far out of hand (but that is on them, not the Association). Were there are issues of maintenance, we try to talk to the individuals and see what would be helpful. For example:

Recently at one enforcement hearing (because a shed was in disrepair) the gentleman argued that they were old and it was hard to do the work. Right after he said that, and it's in the minutes, I offered to assist if he was willing to allow me to come onto his property. Guess what, he declined the help and the issue was repaired the following weekend without any assistance from anyone. Sometimes you have to listen to the excuses and then offer ways around those excuses. If the excuses are real, they will take you up on the assistance. If the excuses have no merit, most will concede and correct the violation.

What you need to do is ask what is in the best interest of the Association. If the issue is maintenance, offer to help. If they turn the help down, it can actually make a stronger case if you do have to go to court.

If the issue is health and safety due to lack of maintenance, call the county. They typically have more power to make things happen than the Association. However, it should also be all the neighbors reporting it to the county as well (since the squeaky wheel gets the grease).

With Assessments, prior to sending the issue to the attorney we make one last ditch effort and offer the member three choices:

1) Pay what they owe including all charges and fees.

2) Pay the the Assessments they owe plus the rest of the current year and the Association will waive all unpaid charges/fees (this gets them paid ahead for the rest of the year and achieves the goal of collecting the unpaid assessments).

3) Pay nothing and have the issue forwarded to the attorney for escalated collection procedures and, in addition to all charges, they would be responsible for any costs (legal fees, court costs, etc.) associated with collections.

What we discover is that if the individual isn't behind on their mortgage, they find a way to pay. If they are behind in their mortgage, they will likely let it go to the attorney.

Sound advice.

Rarely have I ever seen an association foreclosing work out to the association's advantage. The exceptions I have seen are in high rise, multi unit buildings when during the process, the unit did not appear any different (as in not an eyesore) to all.

I know of when were the BOD changed the door/mat decorations (which were allowed) to reflect the current holiday theme when no one had lived there for a two years and the unit was being foreclosed on. Rumor was they also entered the unit to draw the curtains so not one could see in..."rumor" of course....LOL

To answer the questions asked:

This is a Town House with no mortgage or insurance. The owner is exempt from real estate taxes because he meets the income requirements for the waiver.

I recently learned that he is 76 years old, which surprised me because he looks much younger, and is quite agile. It has been said that he is manic depressive and when he is on his meds, he's quite cordial; when he's off his meds or changing to new ones, he becomes shy and withdrawn and 'holes up' for several days at a stretch. He has never been angry or threatening.

He is the original owner and lives in the Town House. When we ask him about his house - what we can do to help him, he ALWAYS says, "I like my house just the way it is." Because the trees are the primary concern of his adjoining neighbors, he told them recently, "I love my trees, they give me privacy."

Since the county has become involved, he refuses to answer the door when the inspector comes by and the law prohibits her from entering the property without his permission. The county can only litigate, fine and apply a lien. They cannot enforce the maintenance violations (HOA or county).

The attorney is becoming exasperated because the homeowner told him that the county can't force him to make changes to the property or displace him, and he can wait them out until his supervisors shut down the case. He told the HOA the same thing and said no judge will ever allow them to evict him ... no matter the reason. Sadly, I think he's right!

When a threat was made a few years ago to put a lien on his property if he didn't bring his bill current, his brother stepped in and paid half and set up a payment schedule.

As for the non-judicial foreclosure, I don't know how it works, but I've heard that in VA we do have to get a court order, and then hand off the processing to a third party who specializes in these matters. I read that the average cost for this process is about $12,000. I don't understand how the deed of trust would work in a case like this.

We don't know if there are any other creditors, but I don't think he has any debts other than his car - his brother does monitor him pretty closely.

This is a real sticky wicket - and something has to happen soon, or the neighbors are going to stop being patient.

June,

I feel your pain. I once lived for a short time on a street that had the biggest eyesore property I have ever seen. The owner was "remodeling" and had stacks of building materials in the yard in front of the gutted house. It sat that way for over a decade. There was no HOA and the owner was never present when the city zoning/building inspectors showed up (which was always 8-5, M-F, and never on a holiday), so they could not serve him personally with a notice of violation. The situation could have been resolved years earlier if the city would have authorized some overtime for its zoning inspectors. (You can see where their priorities were.)

You wrote that "Since the county has become involved, he refuses to answer the door when the inspector comes by and the law prohibits her from entering the property without his permission." This is the typical nonsense that these worthless bureaucrats always come up with. I was once licensed as a process server and rule number one was that trespassing laws cannot be invoked to prevent the enforcement of any law. Rule number 2 was that as long as the party has reason to believe that he is being served with legal notice it does not matter whether the paper is physically placed in his hand; leaving the papers in the door is legal service if the party is present and refuses to open the door.

You wrote, "As for the non-judicial foreclosure, I don't know how it works, but I've heard that in VA we do have to get a court order, and then hand off the processing to a third party who specializes in these matters. I read that the average cost for this process is about $12,000. I don't understand how the deed of trust would work in a case like this."

If you have to go to court, then it is not "non-judicial foreclosure" as that term means the foreclosure is carried out without involvement of the courts. A deed of trust would have no application to your situation; I mentioned only because it is the only situation I know of that authorizes non-judicial foreclosure.

Your homeowner sounds like he may be a little off in the head. We had a similar situation with my mother years ago after my father died. We tried getting public and private agencies to assist us to no avail. In the end, we kidnapped my mother and put her into a nursing home for patients with senile dementia. Your homeowner's family may be in denial about his condition or they may be well aware of his problems and are more than happy to let you deal with the problem so they don't have to.

June

If a townhouse, is not all the land outside the units common property?

Also if tree roots are breaking through the foundation does this not harm/endanger other townhouses in the same building?

http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/24205957

these are pics of the TH - nestled among others in an HOA with an average TH property value of $400K.

Tim, neighbors have approached this man SEVERAL times to ask if he needed help and EVERY time, he says "I like my house just the way it is."

He has made it clear that he does not want anyone to touch anything. Since it is private property, we can't do anything without his permission.

His brother is the next option.

Sorry John, I thought I addressed that in my earlier post. In my HOA, the land under and around the townhouse - as defined in the plat - is private property. With these THs, 6 feet in front of the unit and about 20 feet in the back are private property - not common. Common property begins at the sidewalks in front and the tot lot in the back.

Because the tree roots are not breaking through the neighbors' units, the insurance companpanies are saying that no action can be taken on the presumption that the roots will continue to grow and break through the other units' foundations.

Paul

We are 113, standalone, private, patio (small) homes, deeded lots, 5 rentals at the most and several of the rentals off the books as a child living in the house the parent(s) bought for them. I think many of our owners do not know about nor understand covenants (first timers under such) so I think the first approach should be polite, informative, non threatening before ratcheting it up a notch.

In one of my early associations, I put a seasonal flag on my deck. I got a nice letter saying only American flags were allowed. They did not challenge, deadline me. They simply and politely notified me. I was looking to be a good neighbor, so the flag came down post haste.

While I am a OK lets us be nice and explain, maybe even explain a few times, I then go into my ratchet it up mode ...and ratchet it up painfully...like the guy parking in the 10 Minute spot...LOL

Thanks

Got it so my suggested approach would not work.

I think back to the relative might be tried again in like we are trying to aid/help the poor old guy.

Thanks

I have certainly enjoyed reading everyones opinion on how to handle hard to get along with people with violations . I understand your feelings and where you are coming from. However good people will try the system, has been my experience. We are adopting O tolerance program, based on the fact that when residents bought in, they knew there were covenants, and also knew they were enforceable. With that in mind, we are going to enforce our covenants, rememberingthat covenants were put in place to keep property values up, and everything uniform. Also we might all keep in mind "nice guys finish last". I will continue enjoy reading your comments, and have a great week.......Pat