Violations that are Incorrect

Yet another tempest in a teapot: according to contract, our PM runs a Violation Patrol once a month. The most recent patrol flags several Violations that are simply wrong / incorrect:

- one is a broken fence slat Violation that is clearly mis-attributed to the wrong house (photo shows broken fence slat next to red brick house; Violation is assigned to house that is white brick).

- three Violations are for “For Sale” signs in the front yards (which are explicitly allowed according to our CCRs).

It’s been over a week since I sent PM an email on this topic. There’s been no response. The Violations remain in the database.

I don’t want these Violations to be sent out to the homeowners - historically, it tends to tick people off even if the Violation is valid. If the Violation is *invalid* … they’re even more ticked off plus we look like incompetent boobs. Also, sending these things out costs us a certain amount of money; I don’t feel we (the HOA) should pay for this in the case of an obviously incorrect Violation.

Thoughts? Comments? Am I expecting too much for the $2600/month we’re paying our PMC?

BillD (Treasurer of 600 home HOA in Texas)

There should be a process that's followed.

If the PM has simply recorded the results of their last walk-through, the board still has to have time to meet and review, then decide if the violation is valid and send a notification to the homeowner. Generally homeowners are given time to react to official notification, including attending a hearing.

If the board feels that the PM is mis-identifying violations, then maybe it's time for the board and the PM to get on the same page. Ultimately the board is responsible, so if you feel that the PM can't be relied on to correctly identify problems, then the PM shouldn't be sending out notifications without review.

So I don't think this is a tempest in a teapot. As you said, people get ticked about these things, and it's counterproductive to annoy homeowners for no reason. Your violation process should be clear and reasonable, should be published (website, community handbook, newsletter, etc), and maybe even summarized in bullet points on the official notification letters.

Our PM does all of our violations and the board gets a report about once a month. It's a large community, too big for the board alone to handle, and we don't give out that many violations. Plus we always send a first violation as a "friendly reminder".

If your PM is making mistakes like this then the core of the problem is with the PM. Obviously the PM doesn't understand the rules or can't interpret the rules. This is a huge issue for me - if you are relying on your PM to keep violations in check and they don't know the rules, then you have a big problem.

Are you paying the PM company for the violations service? You certainly are not getting what you are paying for. You can take that responsibility away from the PM and have the board or a designated person do it. Back when we had a board president who was obsessed with garbage cans being left out our board hired a compliance officer who patroled the streets in a golf cart wearing a shirt that said "compliance" on it. It DID NOT go over well with the community that we were paying someone especially to send them violations. They take it a lot better from the PM.

My belief is that if you have a PM, sitting down and retraining and educating is a lot better than having the board do violations. I think that when there is a PM the board should be hands off on violations. Our board makes the strategic and sometimes unpopular decisions in our neighborhood. Having the PM handle the day to day violations allows us not always to be the bad guy and also insulates us from charges of favoritism.

When I was first elected to the Board, the Board reviewed each Violation Report. However, the majority of the Board felt that that made us easy to sue for Selective Enforcement. And so I was outvoted and the PM stopped giving us reports. However, I still have access to the Violations database and generate my own reports and see what’s going on.

I actually don’t have problems with most Violations. But the four “Violations” I mentioned above are erroneous and should have never been issued. I’m trying to address this with the PM - but they’ve ignored me for over a week. I’m still plugging away at it. I have a serious dislike of Cc’ing someone’s boss on an email - but it’s beginning to look like I need to do that here.

Regarding having the PM apologize - I’m not holding my breath for that. I don’t know if it’s a quirk of age or something they were taught in “PM School” or what, but our PM won’t apologize for *anything*. Even when they are completely, unquestionably wrong.

I guess I’m sorta just ranting, sorry. It’s nice to see that other people understand how (for instance) sending out bogus Violations can alienate homeowners. The other people on my Board are, to be blunt, hypocritical about it all: a Violation written to a friend of theirs is (of course) a mistake. But Violations written to others, well, we can’t get involved with that because that would be Selective Enforcement.

BillD

When I would take over a new property, in addition to reading the governing documents, I'd ask a designated board member to do a ride along with me so we would be on the same page as to what constituted a violation. So many governing documents say subjective things like "neat appearance", or require judgement calls like - is that fence faded enough to require restaining? When does "repair your fence' become "replace."? What are the context clues that suggest the stuff in the driveway is part of a project they are working on now and will probably have done soon, so is it worth sending a letter?

I find ride alongs very helpful for both parties.

I've sent violations to the wrong house over the years for a variety of reasons: misread my handwriting, accidentally selected the wrong address in the drop down menu on the violation software, neighbors trash cans were in front of a different house. I think the most egregious one I ever made was a few years ago when I sent someone a notice for an unapproved modification that had been approved, and I missed it when I was cross checking the address with the ACC files.

Of course a manager should apologize when they make a mistake. Most homeowners are understanding, a few have never been so insulted in their entire lives and demand to know HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN and my answer is that I'm a human being and thus imperfect. But again, very sorry for the error.

And of course your manager should be answering your emails. My standard is 24 hours but I'd accept 48 for a portfolio manager.

I wouldn't cc their boss, I'd just call the boss and tell them you're having an issue with responsiveness and accountability.