Selective Enforcement

I live in an older association in California that resides in a quite rural setting. The homes were built around a recreational club which is a member of the Association but owned by a separate entity. Initially, the "Club" was for the Members of the Association. The Club owner sold the Club, because he was losing money operating it as a recreational facility, to an event operator hosting weddings, proms and other events on the weekends. This sale has split the community into two groups; homeowners who are bothered by the music, noise, and excess traffic coming into our quite community on the weekends and homeowners who do not hear anything. This noise nuisance is going to have an impact on all homeowners property values. The board is made up of a majority that is allowing the Club owner to do what he wants and not enforcing the rules and regulations, along with the CC&R's, put in place for all members. The attitude of the majority of the board believes because only approximately 15% of the homeowners are affected that the club owner should be treated differently than homeowners because he is saving the "historic" club. We believe differently. How do we force the Board to enforce the rules and CC&R's

Yes the Club is a member of the Association and subject to all CC&R's and Rules and Regs. Homeowners are planning to vote in a new board but that won't be till the end of the year. We are looking for something to do now.

As Richard said, homeowners can vote out the current board if most (all?) of the board members aren’t enforcing the rules. You don’t have to wait until the end of the year – check your documents to see if there are procedures regarding a recall and follow them. But remember, you’ll have to replace them with people who are willing to step up and do this (including you), along with other HOA management tasks. It’s one thing to join a board because you’re concerned about one issue, but you’ll have several dozen more to think about. Some people are incapable of thinking about more than one topic at a time and rules enforcement can be challenging for anyone.

CCRs can be enforced by one homeowner suing another, so if you and your neighbors are really annoyed, you could all get together and sue the guy. Loss of property value may be hard to prove (what’s important to one isn’t so important to another), so it may be best to focus on things like the noise at 2am (does anyone have a recording of the same that’s time and date stamped) or dozens of cars parked in people’s driveways without permission (you need photographs to prove that point). How about witnesses who can testify they went over to the clubhouse and asked that the noise be turned down? Or dates the police were called with a noise complaint? In fact, try that first – there may be a city/county ordinance that can be used to issue the host a ticket.

If you have all of this stuff to move forward, get going and I wish you luck. You may not need an attorney if you file something in small claims court – contact the clerk’s office to see what the rules are.