What constitutes "Hand Delivery of Notice"

"Due Process" as defined by the Virginia Property Association Act details what consitutes "Notice of Hearing", time service requirements, certified mail, return receipt etc; however, our biggest problem stems from fact that most violators see the return address on the Certified Notice as the PM, and they never will claim the Notice of Hearing letter. Now it also says that you can "Hand Deliver" the notice, but I'm wondering how most PM's or lawyers would define "Hand Deliver". Does this mean, just verify the owner and personnally hand the Notice over to them, or have them sign for it if possible, or just tape it to their front door? Just what exactly is "Notice" when they are referencing "Hand Delivery". What do you all think?

At this point, we're just trying to expediate Due Process and resolve some of the old linguring, pending Covenants violation cases in the community.

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POA ACT
Notice of a hearing, including the charges or other sanctions that may be imposed, shall be hand delivered or mailed by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, to the member at the address of record with the association at least fourteen days prior to the hearing.
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B. The board of directors of the association shall also have the power, to the extent the declaration or rules and regulations duly adopted pursuant thereto expressly so provide, to (i) suspend a member’s right to use facilities or services, including utility services, provided directly through the association for nonpayment of assessments which are more than sixty days past due, to the extent that access to the lot through the common areas is not precluded and provided that such suspension shall not endanger the health, safety, or property of any owner, tenant, or occupant and (ii) assess charges against any member for any violation of the declaration or rules and regulations for which the member or his family members, tenants, guests, or other invitees are responsible.

Before any such charges or suspension may be imposed, the member shall be given
an opportunity to be heard and to be represented by counsel before the board of directorsor other tribunal specified in the documents. Notice of a hearing, including the charges or other sanctions that may be imposed, shall be hand delivered or mailed by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, to the member at the address of record with the association at least fourteen days prior to the hearing.

I may be getting picky here, but if you send out the notice of violation, "certified or registered mail, return receipt requested", you've complied with the documents and the law, whether the person accepts the letter or not. I don't see anything in your documents, or the law, that requires you to stop the process if you don't get that return receipt back.

Another way to possibly solve the problem is if the owner is ducking notice, then hire a process server to deliver it and send the owner the bill (check your documents on "recovering costs", as this isn't a fine or a charge for the violation, but an admin cost for delivering it when the U.S. Mail wasn't able to.

Both thoughts are borderline, so you'd want your counsel to sign off on them first.

Another thought - one association that was required to send them certified, used FedEx or UPS to deliver them in one of their envelopes, with a PO Box they rented as the return address on the outside. The person usually signed for receipt. Sneaky, but again, have your counsel advise whether a UPS signed receipt is equal to a US Mail signed receipt.

Joe