Board is Arrogant & Ignorant

Our HOA has been severely harassing renters in our neighborhood. They even have "renters rules" which is discrimination. I recently moved full time here & have started standing up to our Board. They have been letting the ARC harass people about when their garbage cans are put up, telling renters they can't have smoker grills in their backyard when others do, trying to run them out of our communinity etc. The only member on the ARC was the wife of our Treasurer. They would ride around looking for issues to harass people about, which is not their job.

During my communication with our President, who doesn't live here full time, I have made suggestions on needing to change some covenants & rules to prevent loopholes allowing harassment & unfairness to renters. I informed him that I have been studying the covenants, Florida law etc. and would be happy to help.

He emailed everyone & said they were forming a committee to review the covenants & rules & would ask for volunteers at a special meeting some of us were calling a couple weeks later. Some of us fully intended to volunteer. Next thing we know we are advised that a husband/wife, whom is known to severely harass people are named as chairman of this committee. Noone was allowed to volunteer at our meeting and this husband/wife team informed us that they don't want us on the committee. I am the one that brought to their attention that changes need to be made!!!!

Another twist, there is a woman whom, for 13 years has MAJORLY harassed people. We'll call her Ms. Kravitz. The board was sent a letter by a homeowner recently threatening legal action if this woman does not cease her harassment of her renters. This letter was brought into the open at our special meeting.

Anyways, a friend of mine was allowed onto this committee, and low & behold, they have allowed Ms. Kravitz onto the committee! (husband/wife great friends with Ms.Kravitz cuz they all get off on harassing people for ridiculous things!) My friend was sent a draft of the changes they are wanting to make, and it is so ridiculous that they don't even know the difference between the covenants & the rules. You can see Ms. Kravitz' hand all over the proposed changes, things like, "garbage cans must be put up IMMEDIATELY" this is one issue she has constantly harassed people about. People work, it is ridiculous to have this kind of change. I have researched enough to know that covenants & policies are 2 different things, and policies must be in line with covenants. It's hard to explain this, but all they have done is taken the covenants regarding pets, garbage, basketball goals, etc & have drafted them into a new set of rules, totally ignoring the technical stuff in the covenants.

My problem, our board is so ignorant that they haven't even been familiar with our covenants until now, I don't think any of them know the technical details of any of it. My friend is keeping us up on all the communication, which by the way, the committee is only going to communicate through email! Something as important as changing our covenants, and they are going to do it through email, what a joke!! Should we be worried that they are going to totally screw up our covenants, will the State of Florida allow changes to our covenants that are ridiculous? Should we just sit back & let them make fools of themselves?

Yes, florida will allow any changes, because they are not involved in your hoa, but.......it may not legally enforceable. I could add no blacks, handicapped, gays, etc and say board members must be KKK members, to our CCR/bylaws, that doesnt mean i can legally enforce it.

First off one person's "harassment" is another person's "Notification". Getting a notice of violation is NOT harassment just like owing dues and getting notices to pay up is not. The manner of which the notices may be given is up to debate, but if they cross a line, the police get involved.

Now, your HOA should NOT be directing anything toward the renters at all. The violation notices are to go to the OWNER's of the unit NOT the renters. The HOA is a THIRD party to the rental agreement of the owner. They can not enforce the HOA rules onto them as they are NOT members of the HOA. The OWNERS are members. The HOA holds the owner's feet to the ground when it comes to renter's violations. Which the owners should have that in their lease agreement the renters have to follow the rules of the HOA. However, most off the shelf lease agreements do not have this built into them and this causes a problem for all involved.

Remember the HOA can NOT kick out a renter nor fine them. The owner has to kick them out or pay the fine if your HOA has a fining schedule in place. Legally the tenant's have rights too. Which means BOTH the HOA and Owner can NOT violate Tenant's rights. That means evictions can take a month to up to a year. It's not a "here today, gone tomorrow". There are legal rights that can't be violated. Our state 2 10 working day notices have to be given to evict. Plus there is a 2 week period after that where if they don't leave, the sheriff's department comes in to evict the tenants. Making the process at minimum around 6 weeks. It took me 5 months to evict my tenants.

This is a heads up from someone who was a landlord and President of a HOA. Look into your tenant's laws before just assuming many things. Plus HOA's typically can NOT limit renters even if written into their documents. Only one state I know of has any kind of possible enforceable limits, that is California. Even that is limited as it just came about in around 2012. So be aware of this when you try to modify your documents. Discuss it with your lawyer. A HOA does NOT own the houses, so they can't enforce rental agreement limitations. It's up to the mortgage company to do that. Although some HOA's do have a certain waiting period similar to many existing mortgage company rules. Do some research...

In Florida, the Association can take action against the tenant. Please review 720.305

Wow, SteveM9, you are a friendly fellow, aren't you? Thanks for the wonderful advice! btw, Florida does have regulations concerning HOA's & have statutes regulating HOA's

To everyone else, by harassment, I mean cornering people in their yards, cussing them & screaming that they are going to run them out of the community, not simply asking them not to do something.

GlenL- our BOD has NEVER posted dates of BOD meetings other than the annual. They have done everything in secret and are only now communicating with the homeowners of their actions. Only because some of us have stood up and demanded it. An AdHoc committee is a really great idea, thanks!

Melissa P, our renters are SEVERLY harassed, I am NOT a landlord, just a concerned member of the community who believes discrimination is WRONG!!

Once again, KellyM3, I am NOT a landlord, just believe in people being able to live their lives in peace, renters or not.

actually, you could get away with some of that... just not all.