CC&R Violations

I've never been a fan of anonymous complaints - we do have due process in this country after all, which includes the right to face your accusers so you can question them. Sometimes the person investigating the allegation has to go back to the complainant to get more details - how can you do that if you don't know who he or she is? And how would you feel if the script was flipped and YOU were the subject of the complaint? Wouldn't you like to know who's making the accusation so you can respond?

I don't think this is a "rights issue", but on the other hand, I do agree there are times where one prefers to be anonymous because of fear of reprisal (sometimes the violator has already said or done something that gives you pause). If you have been threatened, that's a police matter and you should contact them. Otherwise, if the issue involves a violation of the CCRs or other community rules and the property manager or Board can investigate and verify it exists, it shouldn't be necessary to state who originally brought it to their attention. I don't think you could hold the management company responsible if the violator comes after you - I would think that would depend on what he/she did and what the management company is empowered to do. If he or she were to damage your property, for example, you may be able to file a police report alleging vandalism.

In our community, we have a security officer in our community and if people are worried about retaliation (thankfully, this is a rare situation), we tell homeowners to contact him. Sometimes the dispute isn't the Association's responsibility at all and the complainant is told that - the best we can do is encourage the homeowners to work it out between them. If the complaint involves someone who's renting the unit, we have referred letters to the owner and asked them to respond directly to the homeowner - most of the time, that resolves the problem.

I'd feel the same way as you do, Ted. Our PM, security officers and board of directors don't accept anonymous complaints, but we also don't reveal those names to the alleged violator. Our violation report form states that the one reporting the violation's privacy will be protected.

The reported violation is corroborated by security or the PM or Mgr. Asst. and pics are taken too if relevant. So with two "witnesses," we directors certainly think we have enough to go on. After a 1st warning letter, someone's called to a hearing with the 2nd violation letter. The alleged violators give their side of the story and we make our decision.

It apparently is true that if the violator is fined, etc., seeks another hearing with us or mediation and none of that satisfies him/her, they can take us to court and at THAT time, the accuser would have to appear. Unlikely to happen with mainly $50 fines. After a first warning, though, noisy people or dogs potentially lead to a $100 fine.

I have to say with 6-1/2 yrs on the board and maybe 30-40 violation hearings, only one owner argued with the "facts." It was a late night loud party-on- the-balcony situation. A neighbor had complained and security corroborated the noise. The owner read the officer's report (with the complainer's name/unit # redacted). The owner argued up & down that as an active duty military officer he certainly deserved a party on his 40th birthday! (There was, of course, a first violation). What kind of thanks were we giving him for his service to our great nation! And she did ask WHO reported this? It easily could have been any of a dozen or more units.

If we were to give the names of every complainer to the alleged violator, we'd have very few incident reports and probably more noise nuisances & problems.

Ted

One thing we did to protect people was when we were informed of a violation, the BOD or ARC or PM took it upon themselves to investigate it. If we found it to be true, then the BOD or ARC or PM became the official complaining party. Many times a good PM will step forward as the official complainer. Like taking one for the team. We would not act on anything we could not prove.

If we could not find the violation we notified the complainer of such. We would say that we were more then willing to follow up but we saw no violation. It became their problem how to proceed as in publically step forward.

Quite often the complaint had nothing to do with the HOA. We would notify the complainer that the issue was not an HOA issue. Often it was a law enforcement issue. Things like noise, trespass, out of state car registrations, no building permit, etc. We would advice them to call the local authority.

I am talking standalone, private home HOA. Other locations (high rise condos, multi-unit buildings, etc.) might well call for a different methodology.

Hope this helps.

Yes, John46 & Melissa, we do those things. Since some rep of our HOA personally confirms the violation, the individual is kept out of it. We'd never send anyone a warning letter & then call them to a hearing without two unrelated witnesses, and the 2nd always has been a staffer. The letter from our PM always refers to the specific Rule & Reg.

We did have one unit that had repeated noise violations late at night. 15th floor, security didn't really need to go to the unit as the racket was easily audible from the circle drive, but an officer would go to the unit. A couple of times, they didn't comply with the request to "keep it down," and the disturbed party was advised to call the police, which they did and the police came. The owner, who only had rented out her former home here to weather tough financial times, had moved to AZ to live with adult kids. She never came to a hearing, but was very troubled by her tenants' rudeness to their neighbors.

Her tenants didn't care about the fines that the owner passed to them because they were wealthy. We took away the unit's Visitor Parking privileges, which cut down on the large parties considerably. The tenants FINALLY moved without the owner needing to go through the eviction process that she was reluctantly prepared to do.

That's the only case of this kind--repeated violations of the same type- in my 6-/12 yrs. on the Board.