HO Caught Vandal on Camera...

Started by KevinA2 • 9 replies • 995 views

💬 Join us to post & get advice from 50,000 HOA & Condo leaders.

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in

KevinA2 (California)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Hey all, first time poster. I'm a new, young president of a small condo complex in CA and am hoping for some validation.

We have a HO who has had their car vandalized while in our underground parking. When it first happened, I encouraged them to make a police report while agreeing to post a notice to all HO's (a car was vandalized, we're a community, be an adult, etc).

The HO just called me because they caught someone on camera messing with their car. Now the HO said they're not sure if they want to press charges, but want to talk to make sure this gets handled.

My instinct is to listen and encourage them to make a report/press charges. Vandalism of personal property is not an HOA responsibility, even though it reportedly involves two homeowners in my understanding. I don't want us to stick our noses in something that we don't need to...

Thanks for the advice/support!

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

Welcome to the forum... Been there, done that. You know what? You or the HOA is NOT responsible for the vandalism or reporting the crime. You know what? I'd tell them as much. Thanks for letting me/HOA know but if you want something done that is on the police department. All I can do is call the police to come your door to discuss the matter.

Don't get suckered into this. It's very hard not to do. Used to be President and created the Neighborhood Watch program. It was human nature for some NOT to report the crime but want someone else to do it. The only thing I am going to do is to encourage you to report it. I may pass the word around to be aware. However, if want something done about it, it's NOT a HOA or my personal responsibility.

Former HOA President

JohnC46 (South Carolina)
Posts: 14,265

Posted:

Kevin

This an issue for the HO to handle. It is not a BOD issue. Be careful of the issues people try and suck the BOD into.

DaveD3 (Michigan)
Posts: 796

Posted:

I'll agree. This has nothing to do with the HOA if it doesn't involve a violation of restrictions or rules. Stay out of it. None of your business. If the homeowner wants to call police, that's their prerogative.

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059

Posted:

The homeowner has the video.
The homeowner is the victim.
Only the homeowner can testify to the authenticity of the tape (as they likely made it).

It's up to the homeowner to report the issue to the police.
If they don't want to make a report, then it's not that important of an issue to them.

LetA (Nevada)
Posts: 2,679

Posted:

As an end run around the homeowner, you can do as a BOD of the association is have the individual trespassed from the property. The Individual being on association property itself is a crime "trespass, loitering, vagrancy etc." But other property crimes involving individual owners is not a concern of the association.

AugustinD
Posts: 5,144

Posted:

Forget about the homeowner's attitude. To me the question to ask is: Are there steps the HOA reasonably could take to prevent a recurrence of this? Liability issues could arise if the HOA knew of a prior crime and did not take steps to prevent it in the future. Maybe next time someone's car will suffer thousands of dollars of damage; the vandal will not be caught on camera; and the HOA should have had, say, better lighting in the parking area or should have notified all owners of the previous crime, but did not. See more discussion at:

http://hoalaw.com/WPnews/potential-liability-for-crimes-on-premises/

https://www.hoaleader.com/public/606.cfm

DaveD3 (Michigan)
Posts: 796

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By AugustinD on 01/22/2018 7:54 AM
Forget about the homeowner's attitude. To me the question to ask is: Are there steps the HOA reasonably could take to prevent a recurrence of this? Liability issues could arise if the HOA knew of a prior crime and did not take steps to prevent it in the future. Maybe next time someone's car will suffer thousands of dollars of damage; the vandal will not be caught on camera; and the HOA should have had, say, better lighting in the parking area or should have notified all owners of the previous crime, but did not. See more discussion at:

http://hoalaw.com/WPnews/potential-liability-for-crimes-on-premises/

https://www.hoaleader.com/public/606.cfm

Unless those are obligations of the HOA according to the governing documents, I'll disagree.

Notifying the membership is a nice thing to do of course.

MarkM19 (Texas)
Posts: 1,459

Posted:

Kevin,
The way we handled our Video footage with the 25 cameras that our HOA maintained. We put out the rules that said if anyone wanted video from the cameras they would need to first get a Police report. If the PD ever requested video we would always have someone meet them at the Office where the Camera DVR was housed. Our system would only save the video for 14 days before it was erased.

We caught many vandals and thieves over the years. We also had License plate capture cameras at our entrance and exit so it was easy to prove timelines. We also had the same problem with people choosing to not press charges.

Put rules in place so that you can always point to them.

KevinA2 (California)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Great ideas everyone!

Sounds like I was pretty on target thinking it's HO responsibility, not HOA.

Of course, the details make it a lot muddier...It was a visitor, not the HO themselves, for instance. But it's a case of "That's really unfortunate, and call the police"

Wish me luck with this conversation!

🎯 You've read this entire discussion

Join the conversation with 50,000 HOA & Condo Leaders:

✓ Ask follow-up questions
✓ Share your experience
✓ Get expert advice
✓ Access 350,000 discussions

Create Free Account →

⚡ Takes 30 seconds

Already a member? Log in here