HOA using city code enforcement to harass

My HOA (one board member in particular) is using city code enforcement to harass me and other property owners in my single family Florida community. There have been several cases of the association sending violation notices (1 time notice) and then suddenly city code enforcement shows up 2 weeks later citing the exact same issue that was mentioned in the violation. The HOA has close to no budget for legal fees and it appears that they are trying to utilize the city's budget to enforce their regulations (or lack thereof). Furthermore, the so-called "violations" are not found in any written documentation for the HOA. They are attempting to claim untrue facts (example: hedge is higher than city code, but in reality its in compliance). After speaking with code enforcement they informed me they are receiving regular "low level non-safety or building type related" complaints from this community that are "consuming an excessive amount of their time."

What can I do in this situation besides talking with city code?

I was thinking about sending a cease and desist letter directly to the board members house and another one to the HOA and then turning in the board member's house for every possible city code violation I can read from the code book to send him a two part message that I'm done with his games.

I'm agreeing with Melissa! If you're not in compliance with city code, they can send you notices whether or not at the request of your Board. Your beef if with the City.

IF you're getting violation notices from one director, that doesn't sound right unless the person's been assigned by the Board to send out notices, but it seems you have been getting violations from the board as a whole.

This still is not harassment. If the code people don't find you in violation then your clear then are you not? HOA just reporting what they think is a violation. If it's not, the city then say no. End.

OP: We have a similar situation in our HOA. The Property Manager "constantly" called 911 to report some kind of civil encounter with a non-compliant Owner. (There is and never was an enforcement authority in the Covenants.) Civil matters are not within the jurisdiction of the County but HOA continued to call for help.

County Sheriff finally fined the HOA for excessive use of 911 so the Members had to pay the fine for the Property Manager's abuse of the county resources.

The HOA now tries to correct what it believes are ARC violations (Covenants never authorized an ARC) with Code Compliance and Code keeps telling HOA that there is no violation of Code. Eventually, Code Compliance is going to drop the hammer on HOA for excessive ungrounded complaints.

My suggestion is that this a self-correcting problem and, in the short term, you will suffer these visits but soon they will mysteriously stop.

I believe that your Association knows it has no legal basis to enforce compliance and is indeed using Code compliance as a bully stick. Regardless whether this behavior is motivated by "thrift" or being hamstrung by absence of authority to enforce, if harassment continues or escalates, you might consider a HUD "hostile environment" complaint. You will need perfect documentation. Code enforcement visits are public records and free to you. You might even send a letter and tell HOA that you are compiling documentation in anticipation of a complaint. You need to observe the 1 year lookback period of HUD, by the way.

In any case, you diminish your position if you do a tit for tat retaliation. I would encourage you to write to the board (not to an individual director), include documents of no code violations, assert that there are no governing documents to give HOA authority to demand compliance with their imagined violations, write a "cease and desist" from further harassment and assert that you are compiling a portfolio documentating all past and future behavior related to ungrounded property violations and send a copy to Code Compliance Officer/Dept. And end it with (my peronsal favorite) "Govern yourselves accordingly."

Stop me if I'm wrong, but HOA's can't have CC&R's that supersede local ordnances. i.e. if the city says hedges can be 10' the HOA can't say 9'?
It looks to me that someone is abusing the city code enforcement, if by the claim that the CCEO is getting allot of calls from this particular development, then it is time to issue a citation to the person making the complaints.

The city claims that the complaints were submitted "anonymously" yet they almost match the "violation" notice sent by the HOA word for word.