Does the BOD have to disclose?

If a resident were in violation of CCR's and the resident thought that the HOA should pay for the correction of such violation (the resident blames the HOA for incurring the expense) Is the BOD obligated to make any settlement with this resident public knowledge to the rest of the community? In other words, if the BOD agreed to pay any or all to correct the problem/violation, do the rest of the residents in the community get notified? If so how would the BOD need to give notification? If not, why? if it is the associations money that paid for it and we are all members?

Michelle, Thanks for your reply. First, the owner in question tried to blame the ARC committee and the Board for his own stupidity of not knowing where his property lines were. He went to install a fence, which was approved by the committe and within the community guidelines, but it is up to the owner to know where the property lines are. He was going to attach to his backyard neighbor, who called the committe to ask how he can do that A) without asking B)there is a 10ft common area between them. The owner then tried to say that the HOA should be the ones to have the property surveyed to determine where the lines are. This was on his plat plan, that he was provided when he purchased his home and was shown to him by the committe member at the time the complaint was made by the neighbor. He left only one side of his property fenced, which is against the CCR's and he was slapped with a lein from the board.
Now that you have this understanding: This individual was beligerent with the board, threatened a lawsuit, put a for sale sign up on his house, and low and behold, Now the for sale sign is gone, he sent around a letter to all neighbors telling only his side of the story but fails to mention all of the above facts and just trying to make iit look like it is the committee & Board's fault. Now he wants to run for the board. I was informed that when he sent out the letter, the board had already settled with him, and he now has a full fence up, and now after slamming the board and the committee in his letter he wants to run. So somewhere I surmise that some retribution may have been dished out to him. In his letter he is asking the help of the neighbors to help him get the board to pay part or all of his fence. Hence this is my reason for asking the questions. FYI we only get a budget once a year and no other financial reports. Even though our bylaws state we should get them quarterly.

Andrea,

I disagree with your (and your board's) position that the owner is at fault "exclusively" for not knowing where property lines are. The role/responsibility of the "ARC" committee, and the board (if final approval rests for "ARC" review resides there), are to "red flag" such errors in the plans submitted by owners for alterations.

Now if the plans stated the correct property lines, and the owner didn't learn how to "color within the lines" in elementary school and went beyond his/her area, the shame on them - and the board holds no responsibility.

However, this is a fundamental issue with some "ARC" (or otherwise named) committees, in that they are often not staffed with folks who are capable of "spotting" such mistakes. The are homeowners, and volunteers, so that is why it is important to have the board perform additional reviews prior to approvals. Just as with boards and governing documents, you are going to have mistakes made when due diligence is not applied. Sometimes they are innocent oversights, sometimes they are just plain laziness.

From the "before and after" of this owner's personality that you presented, I would not be surprised if he/she just decided to ignore the property lines and crave out either additional space for their unit, or just being cheap/lazy, by attempting to attached to an established fence post of his neighbor. Either way, not very "neighborly" on any account.

Now if the owner and the board were at fault for mis-reading the plan and the plat's for the property lines, then they EQUALLY share the burden of correcting. This SHOULD be disclosed to the community, as HOA funds are being used to correct. What should have occured is that every step prior to litigation should have been done to prevent unnecessary expenditures on the part of the HOA. I know that the board may have done this - but it is required to be said, so that the next poster in similiar situation understands Melissa's standard "marching orders" of not suing the HOA, because you are suing yourself. However, in this case the board should have done everything short of agreeing to paint this owner's house, mow his lawn, and house his mother-in-law for a year - to prevent UNNECESSARY use of HOA funds. Now if the owner decided to hardball it, then YES take it to next level, mediate/ADR (alternative dispute resolution) - with the clear understanding of what the tipping point (where the funds and energy expended, do not proportionately equal the return) would be, with regard to HOA funds spent.

Addressing the community is his right, as a part of the community. Not saying that he is deliverying the "whole truth and nothing but the truth," to them, but there is little that you can do. Outside of launching your own "PR" campaign refuting his positions - say on the community website, newsletter, etc - IF you already have those mediums of communications.

Melissa, I agree with the majority of the post except that liens (where applicable by law) are very good remedies to getting owner compliance to HOA's rules and regulations (when appropriate). I will agree that the potential for abuse is there (we have all heard the horror stories making headlines of liens to foreclosures from some overzealous HOA's and attorneys). I believe that it goes without saying that if the community's governing documents, and the state or local codes allow for liens and other corrective measures - that any HOA would be wise to fully understand these valid and enforceable means towards compliance. Does NOT mean that you become "judge, jury, executioneer" with a "god complex" and abuse the system in perverted ways. Have said it here, sometimes you can get the desired affect/result using a grenade, rather than tossing a nuke....

I do not disagree that the HOA has the choice to send whatever contractor on to property to cure an infraction that an owner has clearly ignored. However, I would also like to add that there are and can be steps prior to this where the HOA may benefit from EDUCATING the owner of the options which are about to take place. If bids for the correction are available, they should be sent to the owner, so that they realize that this "cure" is going to come at a cost to them (hearing that it will cost, and seeing a potential bill may spur the owner into compliance). Yes, this may take more time of the HOA - but it is my belief that you must dot the "i's" and cross the "t's" when it comes to last resort enforcement. Is it a "PIA" (pain in the ***) - ABSOLUTELY, but so is another round of challenges from the owner. Just think of it as offering the last cigarette to the condemned, and making it a choice of filter or no-filter...

We have gone through this exact same scenario. The BOD (the HOA) is not even a small part "at fault."

The ARC approves requests for items, but the ARC does not have the lot lines on file anyway, nor is it obligated in any way to survey the property to determine where they are.

If the homeowner receives an approval to put up a fence that is within guidelines of the ARC standards, then it is up to the homeowner to first get a survey on the area to be fenced in. Even if the homeowner didn't know the "exact" property lines, he connected to a neighbor's fence without asking. How does either the homeowner or the BOD know how far inside his own property lines the next door neighbor put his fence? He may well have come as much as 5 feet in, to make sure he had adequate area around the fence to maintain the grass on the outside and still be on his own property. So without even "asking" to connect to the fence, by doing so, even if there were no "common area" between them, he would have captured some of his neighbor's property as his!

The ARC may learn a lesson ensuring in writing on any fence approvals that the fence is approved contingent upon the resident getting a valid survey prior to erecting the fence. But even without doing so, it is still the homeowner's responsibility to do so.

The fence in question in our subdivision was 8 feet into the common area. It took over a year, but the homeowner finally moved the fence and did so at her own expense.

An Architectural Committee is not a government entity, nor is it an engineering firm or a construction company. The approvals given for improvements are given regarding community guidelines for asthetics and compliance with CC&Rs, NOT ensuring compliance with local building codes. That would be an impossible task. EVERY approval we give for EVERY project stipulates that approval is granted with the understanding it is the homeowner's sole responsibility to be aware of and comply with all local building codes and permitting requirements, including, but not limited to, site surveys.

At any rate, I would submit a request in writing to review the past quarters' financial documents, and even possibly any board meeting minutes. But you might want to be prepared to pay a nominal fee to obtain them.

Good luck.

Liens are ONLY filed for loss of money. They can NOT be filed for failure to obey laws or rules. Liens do NOT work like "tickets" or violation notices. You can't lien someone because you don't like the color of their house. You can lien them for the cost if you go in and paint the house the color you like. BIG DIFFERENCE.

As for people who disagree with HOA's being able to lien or foreclose... Let me give you this scenerio so you understand. If you sold someone your car for $5,000. They paid HALF the money up front and promise to do payments. They NEVER pay you those payments. 6 months later your still owed that money. What do you do? Your options are to place a lien on that vehicle so they can't get it registered or you can go to court to get the sheriff's department to claim it back.

Why should YOU as an individual are legally allowed to collect by lien or siezure but as a GROUP of homeowner's you say NO? The ONLY difference between a HOA doing a lien or foreclosure is that they represent a GROUP and NOT the individual when they file liens/foreclosure when money is owed. That's because the money owed is to EVERYONE in the HOA. A HOA is ONLY funded by the owner's FOR the owners. One owner doesn't pay and still receives the same benefits, wouldn't you want to force them to pay up? Legally, that's through Liens/foreclosures.

In my HOA, it doesn't require a court order to enter someone's property. That's because it is considered "Common area". That means ALL the homeowners own a bit of a stake in everyone's yard. There's no real trespassing if everyone in the community owns the property. Hence why it's called "Common property". We basically own the house and the lot the house sits on and everything else around the home is common property. (HOA owned/controlled). I can see where some people would be paranoid enough to want to get court orders but they truly aren't necessary if there is a majority vote to remove an violation.

That's why many people move into HOA's in the first place. I will use my usual example. What if your neighbor put in an Outhouse in their front yard? IF it is on HOA common area, then the board may vote to remove the structure. They can contact the owner to remove it themselves or they can pay someone to come in and remove it. The HOA can then send the owner the bill, and if they don't pay it, they lien. If it is OUTSIDE a HOA, a neighbor would have to go to City Council and issue a protest. There would have to be a law/ordiance on file that this is a violation. If not, a ordinance has to be passed by the council to make it a violation. After it is determined to be in violation of the law/ordinance, then the Code enforcer comes in and give a 10 day notice for removal. The city can then cite them a fine to a maximum amount. If it is still not removed, the city may be able to come in and remove it. They may or may not charge the homeowner the removal fee depending on the law. So either way, the violation gets removed. It's just one way is much faster than the other. A HOA should be able to manage itself better and faster than it's city council counterpart.

Melissa, I am in total agreement with you regarding liens and always have been. We can only use them to recover assessments, since we don't fine. We have also used them in a very few instances where we have had to enter a property to mow it and recoup our mowing fees.

However, CC&Rs cannot supersede local government regulations. Where we live, local ordinances prevent us from TOWING any vehicles that are NOT on the public right of way, say, in front of someone's house. If the vehicle is in the driveway, we cannot touch it WITHOUT a court order. So even though our CC&Rs say that entering a property to remedy a violation is allowed, that particular violation is one we cannot do without a court order.

So it would probably be in everyone's best interest to determine what local ordinances or regulations would trump any specific CC&Rs.

For the record, it still boggles my mind that someone would ever connect to another person's fence and think that's okay to do without getting prior approval from the existing fence owner. To me it's like, well, theft!

LOL! GREAT STORY!!

We actually had a similar situation in our previous home. We had a chain link fence about 6 inches inside our property line. Our neighbor was shooting our two dogs with a pellet gun. We did not find this out for some time. They were not barkers, but there was some acrimony with that neighbor over some previous incidents a few years before.

When we discovered what was going on, we, too, put a 6-foot privacy fence (you cannot go higher than 6 feet here without a permit and then can only go to 8 feet), with the finished side facing us, so he had to look at the "ugly" part.

He tried to intimidate the fence builders by demanding that they stop construction, that he had called the county zoning enforcement and we didn't have a "permit" (we didn't need one at 6 feet and the subdivision had not HOA; the fencers knew this but they were worried he might try something ugly so were afraid to keep going).

We went outside and told him if he didn't leave the contractors alone to finish their work that we would take him to court for their extra labor costs AND the vet fees for the treatment to our dogs from PELLETS that had been shot at them. Interestingly, there are pellets also imbedded in our deck ONLY on the side that faces HIS house.

His face got so red I thought it would explode right in front of me. He called me a few names ran inside his house.

Are you sure they slapped him with a lien and not fines first, and THEN a lien? Just checking.

But it makes it even more clear, at least to me, that the BOD and the ARC should in no way bear any portion of the cost of rectifying the situation.

Having said that, in the interest of good will, I MIGHT recommend that the lien/fine be dismissed IF the situation is rectified immediately, depending on how much the lien/fine is. If it cost say $30 to file and release the lien, then I would see no problem with the HOA eating the $30 as a gesture of good will. However , I still don't think the HOA or the BOD should pay any of the costs to rectify the fence placement the homeowner incurred in his own stubbornness and stupidity.