What is a Protected Class regard rules and laws?

I am posting as an owner. One of my neighbors who has lived here for years appears to have had some sort of mental episode that has been a real noise issue.

It's been 6 weeks since the initial noise complaint was lodged with our HOA. Since then many police calls and complaints. The tenant is threatening people, the minors in the unit next door. He is banging furniture around all hours, screaming the devil is gone, fighting with his family when they are over and seen tossing garbage and small furniture out the front door of us unit. He has vandalized his front door and has been doing other things like climbing through his window to enter and exit. It's been insane. The unit looks like something off of the hoarders.

I have taken legal matter in my own hands and have had the resident cited. I have tried to contact his landlord and he or she has never once returned my call or email. There for I have had her tenant cited for disturbance of the peace,and will continue to do so.

Saying this it's been 6 weeks of crazy. 12 police calls 8 from myself and 4 other units. I feel as others do feel unsafe in our own home.

Not one email from our managment or HOA ha been sent regarding this issue. I have emailed maybe 5 since the initial incident. Nothing. Today I got a letter from the HOA atty This was dated 6 weeks from my initial report.

I will post what I can..

The letter stated he is representing the HOA BOD. We are informed that you have made numerous complaints about the resident of Unti xyz
Please be advised that the resident of the unit is in a legally ported class of people. As such the HOA will not entertain any complaints which may interfere with his legally protected status.

The Association will continue to investigate any potentially meritous homeowner complaints. However, it will not be a party to the unlawful harassement of another homeowner.

Exactly.. How do you interpret this. ? I have shown this letter to a few friends, and neighbors. All conclusive they board doesn't wish to enforce rules or regulations on this renter for a known disability...

That is get.. However the HOA has a beef with the owner.. Yes, but the tenant is still screaming threats. A complete nightmare. To make matters worse the gaurdia of this individual is THE OWNER.

I interpret it to mean that the attorney is a worthless piece of crap who had no business interjecting himself into this situation. I will leave it up to your discretion whether to kill him or not. Same for your spineless BOD, who sicced the attorney on you rather than speaking for themselves.

There is no such thing as a protected class of persons who may vandalize property and disrupt the lives of others. The person at the center of this sounds like he is mentally ill, but mentally ill are not immune from laws or condo rules.

I read it as you do, the HOA will do nothing so, please, quit filing complaints with the HOA.

However, you should continue to file complaints with the police when you feel they are necessary.

This is a tough situation all around. The facts seem to fit with the following picture. The owner of this unit is guardian of an individual with mental illness. At a time when that individual was relatively stable, the owner rented this unit to him. Then something happened, possibly as simple as the individual going off his meds. If this were simply a landlord-tenant situation, the landlord would be taking steps to evict. The practical reality is that the landlord is also the guardian and has no other place to put this individual. The landlord would love to do something about the situation but doesn't have any options at this point.

Let's suppose further that this individual has been found to be disabled due to his mental illness, which seems plausible. Disabled persons are a protected class, bringing in a host of rules that can make it hard for the association to do anything about the situation. And, realistically, what can the police do? They aren't going to jail someone for having a mental illness that produces erratic behavior. Maybe they should be calling in social services, but for one reason or another may not be able to do that.

I'm not sure there's any effective solution, but if I were in your shoes I'd contact the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Describe the situation and see what they can tell you about social services that might be available. Possibly there's an agency that would send someone out to make an evaluation that this individual isn't competent to be living on his own, and start the process of getting him into a group home. If he's truly dangerous (rather than merely scary), they may be able to take emergency action.

The other thing I'd be doing is maintaining a log with details of the individual's behavior, attempts to contact the unit owner, calls to the police and their responses, and anything else that might be relevant, so that when it becomes necessary for someone to decide how to handle this situation, they have a good base of facts. Meanwhile, try to understand that the individual is acting this way because of illness and not because he wants to be this way, and the owner is acting this way because he doesn't know what else to do, and the same is probably true of the association and the police. It's severely frustrating to have this problem dumped in your lap, and it's easy to get mad at the people who aren't solving it for you, but all of them have limited options, and are more likely to respond favorably if you can minimize the anger.

They are "protected" only to a limited extent. In a condo complex, they may request permission to install structures to accommodate their disabilities or they may park in the handicapped spaces. That is about where the protections end. Disabled people have no rights to create a nuisance for others. I suspect that the guardian purchased the condo unit as a place for this mentally ill man to live so that the guardian would not have to deal with him on a day-to-day basis.



This is a good idea but I think ultimately if Nicole wants a solution to this problem she will have to seek it through the courts on her own dime.

One thing to look into: If there is a guardian it is because the man was made a ward of the court. The guardian has certain duties to the man and to the court; sticking him into a condo complex where others must suffer the consequences is likely a breach of the guardian's duties. Since it appears that the man is a ward of the court you might want to look into petitioning the court to remove him from the condo.

This may or may not be a reference to the American with Disabilities Act. According to a blub I saw on various sites, the law protects people with physical and/or mental disabilities from discrimination in public accommodations, public transportation, businesses, employment and government services. I would think this DOES not exempt people from being held accountable if their behavior is creating a nuisance or endangering people.

That said, this is a tough situation and I concur with ArtT5’s suggestions. You might also want to contact your local Adult Protective Services and see if there’s anything it can do. ADA issues may be out of a HOA attorney’s wheelhouse, so the association may want to talk with an attorney with experience in this area - the association attorney may have some suggestions on where to look or you can contact your local Bar Association.

As for the owner/landlord, you may to take private legal action against him/her if there’s no response (keep in mind, he/she may have the same protected class issue – maybe they want to evict the guy and might have even tried, but can’t).

One more thing, regarding your protected class question, I don’t know if you tried to do a web search (you might try that first next time), but here’s what I found on attorneys.com:

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has heavily influenced the way that courts determine the protected groups under discrimination laws. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevents discrimination in educational facilities and public workplaces. Under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a person may not be discriminated against due to the following:

• Age
• Pregnancy
• National Origin
• Race
• Ethnic Background
• Religious Beliefs
• Sexual Orientation

As you can imagine there’s a LOT more to this topic, so depending on what you’re wondering about, you may need to talk to a private attorney, especially if you want to know what laws may or may not apply. Good luck!

Tolerating the above is not, repeat NOT, a 'reasonable accommodation'.

The BODs need to obtain some spherical objects.

Start FINING the member of the association who permits these nuisances to continue.

Seek an injunction.

ACT

Here is the newsletter:

http://www.davis-stirling.com/Newsletters/tabid/795/www.davis-stirling.com/MentallyIllResident/tabid/4548/Default.aspx

NicoleO1 CAL : Should be be interesting to hear comments by Richard P13 or KerryL.Wonder what a "legally ported class" means ?

In addition to documenting disruption, respectfully you would do well to see how California & US Rights law treat 'duty to accommodate" - particularly if the duty is to 'accommodate to the point of UNDUE HARDSHIP". If so that raises questions like what is 'due hardship' ?

A Plan B would be establishing clearly how the burden-bearing criteria is worded. But it sounds like your HOA's counsel knows it & has concluded the point of undue hardship (or whatever) has not been reached. Or at least that he ain't living next door himself.

( FYI Here - with an enormously strong Rights environment - it took 10 years of periodic straitjacketed removals by police, periodic hygienic crises & fires barely missed before a court ruled in 2003 that a mentally ill 'warehoused' individual's presence was an oppression against her urban condo community. The unit was ordered sold . . .)

PitA gave us the citation form CA HOA attorneys, Jan mrs, and that's what I'd do in our condos if need be. I'll check your cited blog later. thanks. We'll see if Nicole shows up again

Good one, Bob "due hardship"!

Very helpful thank you.

THank you very helpful

Technically correct.

"CAN/MAY" be anything

The question is: Are the actions of disruptive mentally whacko persons protected from the law and contracts?

?Which legislative branch enacted legislation permitting illegal and disruptive actions?

The jails and asylums are overfilled with disruptive whackos.

Even if a 'protected class' you may still enforce any existing contract or law FAIRLY and EVEN-HANDEDLY.

? Are we not ALL a protected class ?

? Does the law not protect ALL of us ?

I appreciate your post and comments. This guy prior to his breakdown was fairly functional, and conducted himself in an entirely different manner. However, he had the ability to talk a lot.. TOO MUCH about is health issues. He will never run out of insurance etc we know because of the situation and him disclosing way to much personal stuff there is no reason for him not to have health insurance.

Simple as this. I do not care if he is out of his meds, needs to be hospitalized etc. Everyone has their own lives to live and this guy has completely distrusted our quiet community. I simply don't care about his personal issues specifically. I am tired of the excuse of a mental issue to excuse the weeks upon weeks of nonsense. It's been posted as this.. His family guardian or whatnot has simply knowing his situation left him behind for us to deal with. It's not ok, and rules, laws have been broken.

Good news.. I think he has been removed from his unit and for days there has been no activity. I do not care about anything other than the nonsense stopping. But you all have given me some very wonderful pointers, advice and have been very supportive. Thank you..

It is written in our rental agreements that the rules must be followed and it is still hard to get some one out.