How to Enforce Dog Breed Bans

I am just curious how an HOA would enforce dog breed bans? Our HOA states "Under no circumstances whatsoever shall any dogs be allowed on the properties which are a breed known to bite people, such as pit bulls, Doberman Pinchers, German Shepherds, Rottweiler, Akita, Bull Mastiff or Mastiff, Chow, Husky, Presa Canarro, Bull Terrier, Wolf Dog, etc."

My question is, if a resident has one of these breeds, how can we enforce that rule? All they could say is that their dog is not one of those breeds. If they deny it, how can we argue that they are lying?

And if one resident has a dog on the ban list, would we then have to investigate and make ALL residents remove dogs that are on this list?

I don't personally believe in banning the specific breeds either, however those are the rules set forth. There is also an issue that there are 2 sets of rules that were distributed, one that included what I posted above, and one that only included the first 3 breeds.

There is government license requirement in my jurisdiction, and as far as requesting vet records, and the resident refuses is our only recourse court action? Can we really assess fines for a violation that the owner denies unless we take them to court?

Yes our CC&R gives us the authority to impose sanctions in the form of a $50.00 per day fine for as long as the violation occurs, however we have a procedure we must follow first, as a written demand to correct the issue giving them 10 days to respond. If the owner does not respond we consider the complaint valid. If they object they must do so in writing in 10 days, and then we must respond with our findings and set a hearing. It does not set forth any recourse for us, as to request vet records, etc. and there are no state of city laws banning those breeds.

So if the owner denies their dog is one of those breeds, it seems our only recourse would be court, and given that there were 2 sets of of rules it doesn't look like we could really do anything about it

Sorry, I meant the "Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, Restrictions and Easements" is what it is officially called and does contain pet restrictions and covers fines

The CC&R verbiage regarding pets is important.

Any chance you post it?

I'm still curious, Jay, to know more about the "two sets" of rules. I think you've made it clear that one set actually is in your CC&Rs.

What/where is the other set? Is it in a document called something like Rules & Regulations? Who approved them? Are there minutes that show the approval?

RE: the owner who says he never saw the CC&R (Declaration) restriction. That's his problem. They should have been included in the papers he signed when he closed on the purchase of his home. Unless your contract with your PM states the PM must distribute CC&Rs to every new owner (which I doubt), the PM is in no way responsible.

Our MC certainly does not distribute these to every new owner and every new renter. Our board via our PM annually reminds owners that our CC&Rs are on our web site. Ditto our Rules & Regs.

Unusual, but I disagree with Tim about a couple of things. While I agree it's the Board's job to discipline owners who the Board knows violate the restricted breed CC&R, I do not agree that the board should "investigate" to try to learn just who has one of these dogs.

Secondly, In our HOA & many others, the lot owner is responsible for dogs' behavior whether the dog belongs to the lot owner, a guest, a renter, a contractor, etc. In our HOA our rules are we would call the unit owner to a hearing if a dog involved with that unit bit someone, relieved itself in our elevator, etc. If a dog bite, the Board can demand that the dog be muzzled in the future or ban the dog from the premises. IN towers with two smallish elevators each, we as a board cannot have vicious dogs in them.

How many units are in your HOA, Jay? Are they detached homes? Or?

I have no idea how to detect if a dog "really" is one of the breeds that's banned.

Our HOA has alist of banned breeds from prior board. WE have altered the rules to ban any dogs over 30 pounds unless already in grandfahtered in prior. We also require all homeonwers to have insurance. etc. But even that is hard to enforce.

I attached the page regarding the dog breeds. The other set is the same exact document (CC&R) except under the section attached it only mentions the first 4 breeds. That documents is dated 6 months prior to this copy. Since I was not on the board then, I have no idea if this was officially adopted or not.

These are town homes that have 15 units per building, and 4 separate buildings, each residence has their own entry.

I figured that it does not matter if the owner received a copy of the laws or not, and it should be assumed when you purchase the property that there are going to be some rules. The fact that when they finally did receive the CC&R, the version they received was different that what we have been handing out. I believe that the version without the additional breed restrictions was the original, and they changed it a few months later back in 2004 when the HOA was created.

I think this is a big problem because owner's are not provided with the CC&R at closing, nor are they told where they can get it. No email, link or anything. I don't think you have to expect a owner to actually go to the court to get a copy when they are not told it exists. The only notification our management company gives is the coupon book (of course they want you to pay the dues!). They need to provide the CC&R at that time as well.

That would be the CC&Rs (vs rules adopted by the Board)

Keep in mind in many states the BOD is not compelled to enforce every CC&R and/or rule.

However it must do so equitably.

Additionally, often every member has the same 'power' to enforce the CC&Rs and rules as the BOD.

Before blazing a trail, and assuming no complaints, why not ask the membership if there is a problem?

Seriously?

Enforce the rule on one owner but not the other(s)?

Your docs seem clear, enforceable, and immune to challenge especially if in place since community inception.

Failing to enforce ANY similarly established CC&R in an equitable manner will result in the loss of the case and association monies putting you right back to where you are now.

Doesn't matter. The Association is now aware of the problem and, since that breed is on the ban list, that is also a violation.


Not relevant. Even though it's an excellent example as to why not to ban dogs based on breeds, your governing documents do ban dogs based on breeds.


You do.

In fact, since the Association is now aware of the violation, failure to enforce the covenants equally on this owner as well does two things:

1) Provides a valid defense for the owner of the pit bull if they want to take the Association to court for selective enforcement.

2) Increases the risk of future exposure of liability to the Association. As stated earlier, all dogs can bite. If the Association didn't have the ban in place and the huskies bite someone, it would be an issue between the person bitten and the dogs owner. Unfortunately, since the Association does have the ban in place and since the Association is aware of the violation, failure to act would be a case of negligence. Therefore, if the huskies bite someone the person bitten now can likely win any legal action against the Association for contributory negligence because had the Association enforced the covenants when they were aware of the issue, the dogs wouldn't have been there to bite.

To be honest, in my opinion, a semi-competent attorney would certainly bring such action against the Association simply because there is a ban in the Covenants. However, failure to act when knowing a violation exists makes it more likely that the attorney would win the case against the Association.

Bottom line is the Board doesn't have the authority to waive covenants (unless the CC&Rs grant such authority). Therefore, the choice is easy to see but tough to make:

1) Enforce the covenants equally on both parties.
2) Don't enforce the covenants on either party.
3) Realize how the ban creates a larger exposure to risk of liability for the Association and propose an amendment to the CC&Rs to remove the ban.

Mind you, I am not an attorney and I do not work in the legal profession. You may want to seek a legal opinion from your Association attorney as to what the best option for the Association would be.

Tim addressed your misunderstanding JayS, but I will re-address what I said earlier...

"Keep in mind in many states the BOD is not compelled to enforce every CC&R and/or rule.

However it must do so equitably.

Additionally, often every member has the same 'power' to enforce the CC&Rs and rules as the BOD."

This might be simple (as Tim stated), see if the membership wants to change the covenant.

You could foment the need to do so by informing all other owners with 'illegal' dogs what could happen as a result of this incident.

Virginia actually did have that challenged.
Court supported the challenge.

End result: Associations now call them monetary penalties or charges vs. fines.

Lots of money was spent over semantics with zero change in what can occur.

I disagree 100%

My non-expert, non-legal opinion is that those rules are vague and in no way enforceable.

"Under no circumstances whatsoever shall any dogs be allowed on the properties which are a breed known to bite people, such as ....."

1)Name for me one breed that is NOT "known to bite people". (what does that phrase even mean?)
2)The list is not inclusive. It merely says "Such as" and continues on with an "etc..."

Small ankle-biters (thanks to horrible owners that excuse miserable behaviour) are some of the meanest, most unruly, mannerless things alive. What if one of those little dogs snapped at or bit someone or another dog? Would the HOA need to invoke the "such as...etc..." clause and kick it out?

The "30 lb" rules are equally bad. As if something happens when a dog reaches that size that makes it worse than one that is smaller.

John,

No probem with diasgreement.

Remeber these are CC&Rs not BOD rules.

In what way are they capricious?

Tim

At least one can drop kick them little suckers about 10 yards......LOL