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Posted By MaryL10 on 04/27/2017 7:51 AM
Yes, the man is actually running a car repair service and many of the neighbors have complained. But instead of the management company sending him a letter, as they do others, they just ask him about it. The personality conflict is difficult but I have worked with those before with no problems. He kept poking at me asking what my problem was and I kept telling him to let it go. After about the 6th time I whispered to him that I thought anyone charged with indecency with a child was the scum of the earth. He called me a bigot after I said I was not in favor of spending more money on our little park. They just spent $40,000 on it last week. I brought up a couple of suggestions the neighbors had asked me to bring up. I was told no as soon as the words were out of my mouth. I was voted in as I told the neighborhood I would bring questions, concerns and suggestions to the board as well as share information with the neighborhood. The neighborhood has never been notified of a meeting until I posted it on our community site. Then I got an email from the man saying they are not open meetings. I replied that according to the by laws they are and in fact the home owners are to be notified of such meetings. I guess I should not have expected a professional meeting as 2 of the Board Members were eatidinner during the meeting, all 3 texting each other and whispering among themselves. I had at least expected a warm welcome as a new member.
Posted By NigelB on 04/27/2017 7:34 AM
You have a dilemma with not too many viable options.
Is the nature of the violation severe enough to warrant action?
Do others in the community have the same violations yet get sanctioned for those violations? In other words is the violation routinely ignored or is it enforced on others? If it is the former then the board needs to consider rewriting the restrictions to exclude the non-enforced violation.
If others in the community are being sanctioned for the violation yet the director is not - you really only have a couple of options.
Bring it up at a board meeting and demand equal enforcement.
If the rest of the board don't go along you can always fall back on Section 203.003 of the Texas Property Code which gives the County Attorney the authority to enforce deed restrictions. You would of course have to contact the County Attorney.
"Sec. 203.003. COUNTY ATTORNEY AUTHORIZED TO ENFORCE RESTRICTIONS. (a) The county attorney may sue in a court of competent jurisdiction to enjoin or abate violations of a restriction contained or incorporated by reference in a properly recorded plan, plat, replat, or other instrument affecting a real property subdivision located in the county, regardless of the date on which the instrument was recorded.
(b) The county attorney may not enforce a restriction relating to race or any other restriction that violates the state or federal constitution."
Lastly - is the lack of enforcement of the violation sufficient enough to justify the rancor, bad feelings, and all of the related problems that an official complaint would cause?
Quote:
Posted By MaryL10 on 04/27/2017 7:51 AM
Yes, the man is actually running a car repair service and many of the neighbors have complained. But instead of the management company sending him a letter, as they do others, they just ask him about it. The personality conflict is difficult but I have worked with those before with no problems. He kept poking at me asking what my problem was and I kept telling him to let it go. After about the 6th time I whispered to him that I thought anyone charged with indecency with a child was the scum of the earth. He called me a bigot after I said I was not in favor of spending more money on our little park. They just spent $40,000 on it last week. I brought up a couple of suggestions the neighbors had asked me to bring up. I was told no as soon as the words were out of my mouth. I was voted in as I told the neighborhood I would bring questions, concerns and suggestions to the board as well as share information with the neighborhood. The neighborhood has never been notified of a meeting until I posted it on our community site. Then I got an email from the man saying they are not open meetings. I replied that according to the by laws they are and in fact the home owners are to be notified of such meetings. I guess I should not have expected a professional meeting as 2 of the Board Members were eatidinner during the meeting, all 3 texting each other and whispering among themselves. I had at least expected a warm welcome as a new member.
A couple of observations.
Under Sec. 209.0051 of the Texas Property Code Board Meetings must be open, and the members must be given notice at least 72 hours in advance of those meetings. Your property management company should know this and if they don't they shouldn't be doing business in Texas.
That being said - there is no requirement that members be individually notified, if the association has a website or if the management company hosts a website for the association, all that has to be done is to make the notification there. That happens quite frequently and most folks don't bother to check.
We try to notify our members through the management company site and also through a closed facebook group, other than those things that are discussed in executive session - there are no secrets in our community. We try to be as open as is possible.
You inferred that the director you are speaking of has some kind of record.
Section 209.0051 of the Texas Property Code states the following:
"(b) If a board is presented with written, documented evidence from a database or other record maintained by a governmental law enforcement authority that a board member was convicted of a felony or crime involving moral turpitude not more than 20 years before the date the board is presented with the evidence, the board member is immediately ineligible to serve on the board of the property owners' association, automatically considered removed from the board, and prohibited from future service on the board."
