Property manager sending emails to HOA owners from a fake email account

The HOA that I've written about, where I own a rental property, has a community-wide email list. Some owners were complaining about the property manager. Then "John Smith", who I didn't know, and who wasn't known by people I spoke with, emailed the whole community and told owners to not use the email list for questions and complaints relating to the property manager.

The owner of the email list, who is an owner in the HOA, investigated and found out that "John Smith" was not an owner or resident of the community and had an email address that seemed recently made. After some further discussions, the owner of the email list believes that the property manager made up "John Smith's" fake email account and used it to email the community. The email that "John Smith" responded to when he emailed the community had been forwarded to John Smith; he wasn't a member of the list.

This isn't illegal, as far as I know, but it just seems weird.

Has your HOA email list been misused before? And what would your community do in this case (other than changing the settings on the email list so that only members of the community could send emails)?

Thanks.

Thanks. The HOA email list is run through a paid program (ConstantContact and others have them). One owner volunteered to set it up, at his own expense; he's the owner.

For what it is worth:

HOA/condo managers can and do complain (sometimes with an attorney speaking for them) of being defamed. I think CAI is actually spending a lot of money training managers thusly. (CAI could care less about Owners being defamed by the manager and boards.) I think this "John Smith" (who may be the property manager himself, as ChrisE8 suggests) was probably right to say do not use the email list for complaints about the manager.

Granted, if "John Smith" really is the manager, he has a vested interest in keeping complaints about himself to a minimum.

HOA/Condos should provide a formal mechanism for Owners and tenants to complain about the manager. Owners and tenants should use it. I mean, duh.

Owners and tenants who want to get together, consolidate their concerns about the manager, and so on should do so. I think the way to do this is to invite people to a meeting (either a formal meeting or possibly a gathering at someone's home) to discuss this and how to get their concerns in front of the board.

Regarding mis-use of HOA/condo email lists: In my experience the biggest problem is the Board and/or manager will say that an owner has misused the email list when in fact she or he has not. E.g. some Boards try to prohibit announcements from candidates being sent out on the email list. These Boards are entrenched, not playing fair, and are likely violating the governing docs or state statute.

Can you say what state this is?

Chris,

I can't tell from the explanation if it is an actual fact this occurred ... are you able to ascertain it is factual?

ChrisE8, what do you personally suggest be done?

I do not feel like it is the Board's place to, say, send out another email saying people can criticize the manager using the email list. Because this is not the appropriate, or even wise, way to correct a HOA employee's actions.

And for what I propose: the board should send around an email reminding everyone that the email list is only for use by owners and HOA management.

And maybe consider the judgment of the property manager.

So, Chris, have you sent your proposed solution to the Board in writing?

None of that is proof, and such reasoning would be laughed out of court. ISP's are spoofed regularly, especially by spam bots and bad actors in general. If that's somebody's idea of hiding their tracks, they're woefully inept.

As for the content of messages allegedly posted by the property manager, I'll repeat what I said earlier: the owner of a platform is legally liable for anything posted on the platform. That's why most sites have Terms of Service agreements as long as your arm, and why responsible owners are diligent about removing junk that violates the Terms.

IF the property manager did in fact post the message, he's probably firing a warning shot across the bow of the owner of the email list and letting him know that he's flirting with possible legal action if he doesn't deal with false accusations.

And finally, a privately owned email list (which this is, regardless of what the person who set up the list claims) is not the place for people to post complaints about how their association is being managed. These should be put in writing and sent to the board, with the writer's name and address clearly stated. No anonymous accusations or rumors - a board that acts on such things is acting on hearsay, which would also be laughed out of court if push comes to shove.

UPDATE

"John Smith" just emailed the whole HOA owner list again, saying that he really likes the property manager and thinks that owners should be appreciative.

Unfortunately for the property manager, "John Smith"'s email had the property manager's corporate disclaimer at the bottom of the email.

So it's clear that the property manager was the one using "John Smith", a fake email account, to email owners.

The property manager shouldn't have done that.

But it's also not the crime of the century.

Put yourself in the manager's shoes for a minute; it's tough to read a bunch of mean things about yourself. When the pool opening was delayed this year because of COVID, and finally opened with limited hours, I was subjected to a wave of astonishing abuse and hostility. It was the worst moment of my managerial career (and I had a homeowner threaten to shoot me, with a gun holstered at his waist).

She tried to mitigate the negativity in a silly and easily discoverable way, and will probably feel really stupid when she realizes she's been found out.

Instead of burning her at the stake, perhaps a board member could quietly take her aside and let her know that they know what happened, and maybe for her own sake she should get off the email list. The board can tell her if some burning neighborhood issue comes up that needs her participation to resolve.

Thanks.

The property manager who sent the "John Smith" emails is a board member.

The board won't do anything about this.

I find the whole thing bizarre. Not illegal, and there have been plenty of worse things in HOAs, but it's just bizarre. The property manager is a forceful bully; he could have just been his forceful bully self and told people to knock it off.

This is not an HOA issue. The email list is owned and operated by an owner at their expense.

This rental property has been very profitable and I am selling it. This is more amusing but bizarre, since its profitable. The NY one is a financial black hole due in part to management.

Well that’s new information and it does change my opinion slightly.

A property manager shouldn’t sit on the board it’s a conflict of interest and bad optics. But it seems not enough people in your community realize and want to change that.

Well if the board won’t tell him to knock it off maybe the email list owner could write back to “John” and ask for his address to verify his membership on the list, and see if that scares him off.

In NC, the bylaws do not limit board membership to residents or owners. Anyone can serve on the board.

In NY, the bylaws require that a majority of board members be residents. They don't need to be owners, though.

There are no other qualifications.

PM is not an owner.

But, no excerpts, as requested?

Sure.

Kerry - this ended predictably, huh?

I converted a copy of our Covenants and Bylaws from a PDF file to a MS WORD file. I made the disclaimer that the word files are copies for information only and the PDF file is the "legal copy". A conversion program will fail to catch all conversions properly and I was not about to proofread/compare them.

Actually, Chris, your avoidance of providing the actual language (sans identification of the association) makes me suspicious - and, given your lack of interest in the work of typing in a few lines, makes me suspicious, and your lack of interest in doing this after repeatedly being asked, makes me suspicious.

Why is this part hard? Lots of folks here are interested in helping, but the avoidance thing is distracting - well, at least to me it is.

Nope - it explains that you are still avoiding.

Weird.

George Out