AlK (Florida)
Posts: 2
Posts: 2
Posted:
I recently had a situation whereby our contractor (personal) was denied admittance through our manned gate by action of the Association (sort of). I’ll try to keep it short…
Due to a Hurricane last fall, we had contracted a roofing company to replace our roof. In doing so, we filed the appropriate architectural request form, including contractor’s info (license & insurance) with the association and received approval. We live in south Florida.
A few months later when the roofer showed up to begin work, they were denied entry at our gate, despite our request to allow them through. When I questioned the gate attendant, I was told that this roofing company had made a mess of association property on a previous job a few weeks earlier for another homeowner and had refused to clean it up (according to the association). Subsequently, the gate attendants were told not to allow the company entrance into the association until they cleaned up their mess (tar in the road, etc).
Later, I found that this was not even voted on by the board, but was rather simply decided by the HOA president and the head of our gate committee, in discussion with our MC on the phone, based on the roofer’s supposed refusal to clean up the mess.
I couldn’t find any mention of a policy regarding the association denying admittance in any of our HOA docs. And there was no notice to any of the homeowners, or anyone, of this company being denied entrance.
At the time, I told the association (through a letter from my attorney) that if I incurred additional costs due to further damage to my home from the existing roof, or due to contractual obligations with my roofer (loss of deposit, etc) that I would hold the association responsible, yada-yada.
Anyway, during the time that this letter was being delivered, we (my wife and I) talked the roofer into cleaning up the mess from the other job so that he could start ours and so this situation is behind us for now. But I’m concerned about the legality of the whole thing from a number of standpoints.
1. Is the association even allowed to deny anyone entry despite a homeowner’s explicit approval, not to mention the pre-existing approval we received from the HOA?
2. The fact that there was no board vote/consensus, etc.
3. The fact that there was no notice to us or anyone in the association of this.
Due to a Hurricane last fall, we had contracted a roofing company to replace our roof. In doing so, we filed the appropriate architectural request form, including contractor’s info (license & insurance) with the association and received approval. We live in south Florida.
A few months later when the roofer showed up to begin work, they were denied entry at our gate, despite our request to allow them through. When I questioned the gate attendant, I was told that this roofing company had made a mess of association property on a previous job a few weeks earlier for another homeowner and had refused to clean it up (according to the association). Subsequently, the gate attendants were told not to allow the company entrance into the association until they cleaned up their mess (tar in the road, etc).
Later, I found that this was not even voted on by the board, but was rather simply decided by the HOA president and the head of our gate committee, in discussion with our MC on the phone, based on the roofer’s supposed refusal to clean up the mess.
I couldn’t find any mention of a policy regarding the association denying admittance in any of our HOA docs. And there was no notice to any of the homeowners, or anyone, of this company being denied entrance.
At the time, I told the association (through a letter from my attorney) that if I incurred additional costs due to further damage to my home from the existing roof, or due to contractual obligations with my roofer (loss of deposit, etc) that I would hold the association responsible, yada-yada.
Anyway, during the time that this letter was being delivered, we (my wife and I) talked the roofer into cleaning up the mess from the other job so that he could start ours and so this situation is behind us for now. But I’m concerned about the legality of the whole thing from a number of standpoints.
1. Is the association even allowed to deny anyone entry despite a homeowner’s explicit approval, not to mention the pre-existing approval we received from the HOA?
2. The fact that there was no board vote/consensus, etc.
3. The fact that there was no notice to us or anyone in the association of this.