Dealing with Weeds/Dandelions

I gave you my opinion on forgiving HOA fees in exchange for homeowners doing lawn work, and I believe the other poster also noted it wasn't a good idea. Whatever you choose to do, this is NOT a decent option, so stop thinking about that.

Regarding the dandelions and weed control, if the CCRs say lawn care is the homeowner's responsibility, people need to find a way to comply. I think you had a previous conversation somewhere where you said the board wasn't making a huge deal out of some CCR violations because most of the homeowners balked at that, for whatever reason. That could be why you're now having issues like this - everyone has 24 hours in a day and choose to spend time and money on the stuff that really matters to them, so if they don't have the time or desire to do it themselves, why haven't they hire someone themselves to do it? Besides dandelions looking really tacky, they can cause issues for people who have respiratory issues and severe allergies.

CCR compliance is something HOA boards do, so you and your colleagues need to be the adults in the room and start enforcing them. It's ok to set priorities as to what's more important (e.g. you might have a bigger issue with dog poop). However, you also have to accept that some people will balk regardless because they think rules apply to everyone but them.

With that, I say option B is the best - you can extend it to 10 days, since people are just now starting to venture to the hardware stores for lawn and garden stuff, which can be tricky with this pandemic. If nothing's done after 10 days, start the fines. I'd also remind them that if the grass gets too high, that may be a city or county violation - if THEY send a notice, it's ignored and then they have to come out and mow it, this could lead to a lien if they don't pay the fines. Let them know the board will also file that complaint if necessary.

You could also talk to a contractor about doing the work - homeowners would have to pay for it themselves AND schedule the work, but the contractor could offer some sort of a discount if X number sign up for services by a certain date (let the contractor decide how to handle request for edging, grub control and what not). Those are the choices - do it themselves, have someone do it for them or....pay a fine (and still be required to get it done).

If you want to compensate owners for work, pay them. The CCRs probably define that assessment/dues obligations are to be divided equally. It probably won't happen, but an unhappy owner could sue and potentially prevail over waiving dues.

Good point about D&O insurance, Cathy.

Thanks for the feedback. OK - we'll forego Dues forgiveness as compensation, but that's a shame it can't be done, as it much more financially favorable (i.e. save 32% taxes!).

We pay for a weed control company to control our weeds. They come out a few times a year. Can add that to your HOA budget. It falls under lawncare expenses. Our HOA is ONLY responsible for lawncare and weed control is part of it.

Why why why do you think dues forgiveness is any good idea? How in the world does it save taxes??? It's the worst idea ever. Your HOA is ONLY funded by dues. Less dues, less money in your budget... Do simple math much?

I do KNOW that debt forgiveness is taxed-- but that is for good unavoidable reason. For actual debts, you INCURRED A COST -- e.g. you used a credit card to purchase something.... and so in a way received this direct income. And so forgiveness of credit card debt is taxed.

However, if you owe $10,000 to a hospital, and they cut you a deal where you can pay it off as $5,000 lump sum, and they forgive the rest. THIS IS NEVER TAXABLE. It was services rendered, but never ever paid for.

If however, you PAID $10,000 to hospital using a Credit Card -- and then the Credit Card company forgave you $5,000 -- this is taxable, because it's on money given and spent.

===
I believe that if you permit a volunteer to have "free admission" (skip the normal fees) -- this too is non-taxable. As no money was ever spent. They gave the HOA no money, and the HOA gave them no money.

Before you judge, be sure know what you are talking about. Perhaps I'm wrong; but it's a grey area at minimum.

No matter-- as I said, we won't try this, because EVERYONE here says it's a dumb idea. And so it probably is a dumb idea, and not worth the risk of opening a can of worms.

I just remembered something else - there is case law in Indiana that says HOW's can't assess fines because they aren't government agencies. As far as I know there's no update to the HOA law in this state that allows this. If your association attorney has found some sort of workaround that'll stand up in court, have at it. Otherwise, you risk someone suing the association and winning.

That may mean the only way you can compel homeowners to cooperate is to go after them in small claims court, which can be quite cumbersome, depending on how many homeowners didn't comply.

So I'll amend my response a bit - go ahead and send the letters and be sure to include appeal rights. You may have no choice but to do the work and add a line item to the budget, along with the assessment increases. If people squawk, tell them they either start taking care care of their lawns or pay for someone to do via an increase in assessments. There are consequences for everything we do - time for your board to remind the homeowners of their legal obligations.

GenoS - this is why I put it forth here. Y'all know the conventions for HOA's. Based on unanimous rejection here on this site, I've already agreed to drop that proposal. I only thought of it to achieve an effective +40% gain on virtual compensation for work done by HOA members. (e.g. $170 forgiven equates to about $250 paid on a 1099; money then stretches 50% further via "cost avoidance" mechanism - money never spent, and never collected -- accounting wise this works out fine; but that still doesn't mean it's a good idea; but you see the motivation for testing out this idea, right?)

Sheila, I'm very interested to learn more about this case law against fines. If you can help me find this online, I would really appreciate it. We don't yet have a HOA attorney to ask this question.