Flooring replacement without approval

GolovaG, installation of hard surface flooring in 2nd floor units and higher is a known source of litigation for condominiums nationwide, due to the transmission of noise. It sounds like your board is being wise. If I were you, I would plan on laying carpet.

What I can attest to is that the case law sometimes shows that the courts requiring sound testing in order for the complainant to prove that the noise from the hard surface floor above is a nuisance. When a condo's covenants offer the possibility of an upper floor owner installing hard surface flooring, and depending on the condo, at times covenants will specify, for example, an IIC rating that has to be met.

I think your bigger problem is that your Board likely has the discretion to flat-out reject hard surface floors. If this is so, and push came to shove, your chances of losing in court are high. If you quote the relevant covenants for your condo here, I might be able to offer more advice.

I am not aware of city requirements.

Does board has a discretion to reject hard surface even if it's not specified in 'House Rules'?

The only relevant document that I have is House Rules and here's how it looks like:
"a. Homeowners should be aware that the City of Foster City requires that noise should not exceed a Sound Transmission Class (STC) rating of 50.
b. The installation of any floor covering, other than carpet, may result in violation of this code. If a noise complaint is received, the homeowners may be required to have sound tests performed and, if found in violation of the code, will be required to take any corrective action"

Seems like someone complained so it is your responsibility to have sound testing done. Once you have the sound testing done if you are within acceptable range take the information to the Board and request to be allowed to keep the surface based on the test if you are out of the acceptable range replace it with a surface that falls within the acceptable range.

Gol

Get ready to replace you new flooring if it does not pass the sound test.

Simple math:

Replace the floor with carpet = $
Fight the HOA with lawyers = $$$$
Fight the downstairs homeowner civil lawsuit = $$$$

Which one is cheaper?

Can they ignore sound test or not allow to do that?

GolovaG, thank you for linking the covenants. I think your biggest problem is Section 8.6. In part it states: "Only soft-covered floor coverings may be installed on floors which are located above and adjacent to any other Unit, except for replacement of any hard coverings in kitchen, bath or other areas where such hard coverings were installed in the original construction of the building."

In the courts, covenants have far more legal weight than 'house rules' and similar. The above covenant flatly states nothing but soft-covered floor coverings throughout your unit are prohibited. Sometimes a court will throw out a covenant if it is "unreasonable." But in my experience with noisy upstairs floors, and from reading some of the case law, this covenant is reasonable. In my opinion, you do not have a legal leg on which to stand. In my opinion, you should plan on installing soft-covered floor covering per Section 8.6.

For what it's worth, I have seen a number of instances where owners had to remove their upper level hard surface floors (on orders of condominium boards), on account of not reading the covenants closely in advance. A board's failing to enforce such covenants has resulted in protracted and expensive litigation more than once. These days Boards tend not to not gamble on having to face such an expense, rejecting upper level hard surface floors whenever their covenants permit same.

What kind of flooring did you install? Many types of flooring haves sound reducing underlayment. Does it have built-in underlayment or padding under it? Does your flooring have a sound rating from the manufacturer?

Vynil plan with additional underlayment to reduce noise. Both of them by specs meet STC requirement. My main concern, that they may not willing to accept it even if it's within noise requirements.

From a board perspective .... which is what we are supposed to be doing here:

Ensure the rules are followed. Way up on the list would be the happiness of 2/3 of the folks in the COA (assuming three floors, higher percentage if more than three floors). Since floor noise is such a big issue in condos, aggressively address every instance of folks breaking the floor covering rules - no exceptions or latitude for games with sound measurement.

This is how I would broadly treat this. Do not let even one person set a precedent.

What is the definition of soft-covered floor coverings?

"Depends on what the meaning of 'is' is." ?

The OP could lawyer up. I believe former President Clinton spent somewhere around a million dollars on attorneys defending his position in the lawsuit Jones v. Clinton. He lost. Then the judge ordered him to pay a chunk of the opposition's attorney's fees as well.

I expect after the OP had spent a great deal of money (exceeding the cost of moving, say), she would lose.

Maybe it would be best if the OP spent a few thousand dollars right now to see what a competent, honest attorney thinks the chances of her/him prevailing are. She or he should just be watchful for attorneys who gouge, being willing to stir up trouble wherever they can, all to increase their billable hours. They are in the minority but I have seen them in action.

Here it's carpet and vinyl (sheet).

Hard surfaces are hardwood (including bamboo), laminate, tile, marble, slate, and others of that ilk.

Vinyl plank and vinyl tile are questionable. They definitely have more give to them than surfaces that are clearly hard. However, they seem to have less give than carpet and sheet vinyl - I've walked on them in model homes and they also don't absorb sound as well as typical soft surfaces.

Many declarations were drafted before these latter items became popular, and I'm not sure what kind of track record they have. Unless the OP's declaration states specifically how it defines "soft", I wouldn't want to speculate how that board will decide this.

Augustin, how does hearing usually works? Is these a certain procedure they follow? I'm trying to prepare myself for it.

And, be sure to let us know what happened!