Harassment in HOAs

My suggestion is to find an online legal forum for this.

What George said. If you're on the board and have a personal beef of some sort with a neighbor, you two will have to figure out a way to fix it.

In this case, simply yelling at someone about how awful you are as a board member isn't necessarily harrassment. If the person frequently comes to your home after you've asked him or her to stop, calls you all day and night, or physically threatens you - that may be something the police might look at, especially if this behavior escalates to property damage or threatening your family.

Your board colleagues should make sure board meeting are productive and held n an orderly manner, so if the neighbor shows up and becomes disruptive, they could compel the person to behave if he or she is attending a meeting - other than that, they probably will treat this as a dispute between neighbors.

Until then, you probably have a disgruntled neighbor who probably won't follow through on his threats to vote you out. And if you get an opponent of teo, you need to man up and deal with it like you would if you were running for any other elected podition. Show what you've done and force the person to be specific about what you're doing wrong, and then let the homeowners vote accordingly. But you lose, you won't die - people will soon to r out if the new board member is competent or simply a jackass.

Markw,

Did npb note this was happening in their HOA?

It is just more of the same from npb.

Time burning and ankle biting.

Is NpB even on the board? And if not, this is even less an HOA case than if s/he were, so far as I can tell.

Agree with others, try a different forum.

Sorry guys I respect all of your opinions and you guys have been around longer than I have been. I try to answer the current questions and do not always know the past posts.

The police in my area will respond to calls about "harassment", which they define as "getting in someone's face" or coming within ten feet of someone if that person doesn't want you there.

In my community, we always tell people that the police should deal with matters like this. The board is not a police force, doesn't have the authority of a police force, and should not behave like one. In other words, not an HOA issue. (It may become one if the person is being targeted because he or she is a board member - in which case get a police report and then sic the attorney on the offender. Disagreements are fine, abuse is never OK.)

If an HOA Board knows there is tension, harassment and general personality differences between neighbors, is there any benefit to the Board hiring an organizational psychologist, or professional mediator to try to bring harmony or is that just a waste of time?

I think that would be an overreach as well as being unaffordable. And some states such as California already mandate things like dispute resolution.

On the other hand, our association's attorneys offered mediation services if a particular dispute was threatening to boil over into lawsuits.

The bottom line for me is that adults are responsible for managing their own emotions and feelings - it's not something that others can or should impose on them.

It's highly unlikely a judge would order something so foolish, and if she or he did, I expect the judge's decision would be thrown out on appeal.

What is common is a judge's (civil restraining yada) order for --

-- Party X to stay 50 feet [or possibly more] away from Party Y;

-- Party X not to communicate with Party Y by phone, email, in-person conversation or any other means, indirectly or directly electronic or otherwise.

Where I am, a provable violation of such an order will result in an arrest by the police (for violating the judge's order).

Interesting. Assuming all are treading carefully with regard to possible conflicts of interest (which can be so rigorous when it comes to attorney representation), this sounds like a good option, that your law firm holds out to Owners, for Owner-to-Owner disputes.

Well said. Getting on the BOD does not mean association paid Therapists though many BOD Members could use some.

Is harassment in your Rules and Regulations. In our HOA, it is in our Rules and Regulations, thus giving the Board the power to get involved and do the steps that are at their disposal when dealing with any violation. We are using the definition from our state law.

Harassment is not in our Rules and Regulations.

Harrassment is a CRIMINAL violation and is handled by police/criminal court. It is NOT considered harrassment for a HOA to enforce their rules onto someone nor use methods to collect dues.

Look at it this way... A HOA contacts you to let you know your fence in the front yard your installing is against the rules. It has to be removed. They send you notices and request you come to the floor. You get angry and hostile over it and they respond in kind. This doesn't constitute as "harrassment". It is just a disagreement based on not liking the HOA telling you what to do.

Now if someone comes up to you from the board and says "Take down that fence or I will punch you in the face" and continues to lobby insults/threats that could be considered "harrassment". However, it could be just against that individual not the HOA board.

If it is the latter, then you call the police and press charges. Threats of violence is criminal. Threats of removal because it breaks the rules, is civil.

The harassments we are discussing was from a post about owners verbally making it know thy disagreed with BOD decisions. I say this si fine as long as it does not become physical harassment.

Our vendor employees are told when confronted by an owner they are to call their on-site supervisor. That supervisor will tell them to contact their BOD. We have informed our owners they are not to "give orders" to any vendor but we have seen no need to make a rule. We know who the pi$$ers and moaners are, as do our vendors.

I may have misunderstood you, NpB, when you wrote tension, etc. "between neighbors," I though you meant two neighbors. I there's tension, etc., among (more than 2) a bunch of neighbors, that's a different story. I doubt your governing docs encourage such an expenditures.

What is the issue, or are the issues, among these neighbors?

But your HOA should be spending money on "beautification" projects. It's purpose is to keep the property attractive to potential buyers. A reserve build for a project 10 years down the road holds little to no value to anyone. If you need that kind of money. you raise dues to support that part of your budget.

I agree with JohnC. Calling me names because of what decision I made as a board member/officer isn't harrassment. It's part of the job. Thick skin is what you have to have.

Now have been harassed before and it was a criminal situation NOT HOA. Physical attack or actions that violate laws is police action NOT HOA.

You know, NpB? The issues you raise seem to be very common in HOAs. Even in our high rise with raised painters, there's plenty of disagreement form time to tim about WHAT to plant, etc. I do not think an HOA should use Owners' fees to hire mediators, etc.

Relax Augustine, it's just a "saying". Worked a job once that told people "If you don't end up bleeding, your not doing the job right". Doesn't mean I was looking for blood donations or a Vampire. The job involved putting grommets into a piece of sharp metal slots. Had to tape up my fingers to prevent slicing fingers. Those who didn't would get sliced. Seen a few people require stitches...

The fact there are so many posts, it indicates that this issue is a common problem in HOA's. However, it is not limited to HOA's as a couple of comments have indicated. Our association put the harassment behavior into our Rules and Regulations. Good luck to all with dealing with the toxic resident(s).