Harassment of Vendors.

Nicole,

I am not sure if CA has a similar provision but in AZ we have available an "Injunction to Prohibit Harassment." These are issued by the justice courts, the municipal courts, or the superior court and without charge. To have one issued you need to fill out an application and describe what the person is doing to cause you or others grief. There is no charge for the injunction and the sheriff or police department will serve it for free.

Initially it takes about an hour to file the application but you will have to come back if the respondent requests a hearing. Historically, the courts usually issue the injunction based entirely on the application and very few injunctions are quashed after a hearing, if one is requested.

These are great for dealing with unreasonable people who do not understand the meaning of the word No." If they violate the terms of the injunction they get hauled off to jail.

If you can PROVE that this is not mere rumor, your board needs to write a letter from the president on behalf of the board directing this owner to stay away from your vendors and not attempt to direct them in any way. The wording of the letter should be crafted in executive session and a vote taken to send this owner the letter certified mail return receipt requested. Record all of this in your ex. sess. minutes.

Or you PM can send the letter making sure that the Board directed the PM to send it.

The reason you want this on the record is in case one of these vendors decides to sue your HOA for condition that create a hostile workplace environment, which the vendor might claim was so uncomfortable that s/he had to quit working on your premises thereby losing wages, etc.. If race/ethnicity is involved, a claim against you can be even more serious.

But if your Board is on record of sending the letter and following up if need be with additional letters, you should be able to show that you tried to prevent the "hostile workplace."

What we did about 5 years ago was vote on a new rule that corroborated instances of residents harassing onsite staff or vendors would result in an immediate call to hearing and the possibility of a $100 fine. The fine can be doubled if the behavior is repeated. We've had one incident when we did call someone to a hearing.

If you have a web site or newsletter, you could try a softer approach first reminding residents that vendors need to be able do their assigned jobs without interruption, etc.

The big problem with your previous one-on-one attempt is that there's no Board oomph behind it, and it's is NOT on the record.

People seriously annoying other people is far too common. I think most states have some provision in either the statutes, common law, or rules of the courts for issuing low-level injunctions. Boyfriends harassing old girl friends is fairly common and municipal or equivalent courts usually have some means for trying to keep the parties separated without making a federal case out of it.

I forgot that AZ also has a similar injunction to prohibit workplace harassment.

If you are curious about similar injunctions that may be available your local municipal court might be a good place to start. I think in some places they are called "peace bonds" because the offender may be required to post a small bond to keep out of jail.

We don't have an issue, but this is good for Nicole to know. Maybe start with a stern letter for the board as a whole, that lets the owner know they can take further steps if the vendors aren't able to do their jobs because of interfering residents.

Cool Larry. Can you provide a link to the actual provisions. Thanks.

We have it in our CC&Rs that no homeowner will intervere with the PM, their employees or personnel doing work on behalf of the association. We have only had 1 close call when our landscaping company was applying weed control and one homeowner went nuts when she perceived they went too far with the application. Most of our vendors and their employees know enough not to respond to confrontations. They back off and call a supervisor.

Oh, yes, Tim and others thanks for the reminder how vendors need to be instructed, and the reminder to H/Os that express any concerns about the quality of work to the PM or Board.