minor skateboarders

You can file - or threaten to file - a complaint with the Fair Housing Administration for discrimination again a disabled person.

You can contact a lawyer that represents disabled people and have him/her send a letter to Association.

Stand your ground and go where you want to go. Only person stopping you is yourself. The kid is going to have to move or fall off their board. Simple as that.

Most skateboarding kids are not bad. Matter of fact many are respectful young adults. Just ask them nicely to avoid you and your dogs. They most likely will listen if you nice about it.

Thank you for your advice. I wanted to try and get the President to just enforce it but I see he won't. This President feels that I send it too many complaints and that I keep going over the same complaints and it is unnecessary. I admit I send in alot of complaints about violations that are happening and they all go on even though I complain.Because I have complained about the skateboarders the President told me I did not put in an application to have new windows installed and to get one and fill it out. Well I did get an application and fill it out , turned it in to the property manager, I followed the procedure. I received a Notice of Approval. I had my windows put in about seven weeks ago and he is just saying something to me. He said he signs off on all projects and he did not sign off on mine. Now he said he is going to discuss this with the property manager on Monday.
So now that I made those complaints he is going to pick on me.
Thank you

Thank you for your advice. I wanted to try and get the President to just enforce it but I see he won't. This President feels that I send it too many complaints and that I keep going over the same complaints and it is unnecessary. I admit I send in alot of complaints about violations that are happening and they all go on even though I complain.Because I have complained about the skateboarders the President told me I did not put in an application to have new windows installed and to get one and fill it out. Well I did get an application and fill it out , turned it in to the property manager, I followed the procedure. I received a Notice of Approval. I had my windows put in about seven weeks ago and he is just saying something to me. He said he signs off on all projects and he did not sign off on mine. Now he said he is going to discuss this with the property manager on Monday.
So now that I made those complaints he is going to pick on me.
Thank you

Hello,

Thank you for the advice. I really appreciate it. I am going to continue to collect evidence .

Hello,
Thank you for your advice.

There are no hearings or fining in my community, they just send a violation letter every time you violate the rules.

I have suggested more than once that a committee be established to have hearings for violations. That fines be given out .

Most of my suggestions are thrown out.

I have been told that certain rules are being amended , they don't say which ones. I have asked more than once for a copy of the amended rules and I have been told the board is not in agreement on one rule change. So, I am assuming that the original rules are still in effect.

I asked the President for the attorney's name that they use and he will not give saying it is privileged information.

My property manager asked me to take pictures of the skateboarder, that it would be helpful, so I am going to do it.

I have a video of the skateboarders, the only problem with that was the skateboarders told the mother and I had a confrontation with her.

Thank you again .

Pamela, please read your governing documents to make sure there is nothing about HOW rules are enforced. Read your declaration (aka covenants, CC&Rs, restrictions) and your rules and regulations. It's hard to imagine that there is zero about how to enforce rules in your assn.

I feel certain FL statutes cover this topic. I believe the state has requirements about how to enforce HOA's rules & CC&Rs, i.e., certain steps that must be taken. Florida is an open meeting state which means the Board's discussion about new rules or enforcing the rules must be in open meetings so owners can see & hear the deliberations. Do you attend them?

Can you tell us what the basic violation letter from he assn. says??

HOAs are not governed by presidents, but by boards of directors. Leave the prez alone UNLESS you have some governing document or there is a Witten policy that says the president enforces the rules. Your PM's right, the HOA attorney is not for individual Owners.

I strongly disagree with Melissa who seems to feel it's OK for boarders to break the rules. It is not. I'm also taken aback that wheeled devices are permitted in the parking lots.

Agree with Augustin. Document/save all of your notes, emails, pictures, etc. on this topic.

She did say she was injured in the past. But I believe the idea of safety rules is to enforce them before harm is done. I’m not sure why you suggest it is t a big deal unless someone actually gets hurt.

Hello,

I will read the documents again but from what I read there is a procedure which is a violation letter, a hearing committee, fines.
My community only gives out violation letters, they say they give out three of them. After the third one nothing is done. We have no hearing committee set up, they talked about it one time and I volunteered to do it. I believe our President said no violation has ever been serious enough to fine the person.
As for the president being involved in all of this. The property manager forwards emails to the President and he takes an action if he feels it is necessary. He has involved himself on his own. I believe all the emails I send in are given to him or he just monitors the email account.
Only some of his replies to me he has sent to the rest of the BOD.
Even if I send in the email to the property manager the president reads it and answers it.

As for the meetings, I have gone to some of them. When it comes to open forum there are say maybe 5 owners there that have an issue that they want discussed. So you can't have a lengthy discussion on an issue as others want to speak.
As far as the rules go it is in the rules that the rules can be amended by the BOD at any time. This is not brought up in any meetings, they just change them.
I will tell you we have under " disturbances" That no owner shall make of permit any noises that will disturb or annoy the occupants of any of the units, I chopped it short. The unit above me, I have complained about the noise from there for 5 years. So they changed the wording to say that if the noise could not be heard from outside the unit that it isn't a problem.

The basic violation letter states, this comes from my letter, It was brought to our attention that you are using your balcony/lani for storage. Please have the ladder removed immediately. I had put my ladder out there so the Maintenace man could fix a vent on the ceiling in the lani and I forgot to put it away. It was my error and I removed it right away.
The letter just says that they are trying to protect property values, maintain aesthetics of our neighborhoods and insure compliance with our community covents and restrictions.
There is nothing about what will be done if you don't comply. Nothing is said about fines or hearings.

I have been saving email,pictures. I plan on getting more pictures.

Thank you for all your advice and replying.

Could you tell me what document would have in it how long a term is for an officer like the president?

Good Morning,

The thing is that the skateboarders have been skating around for quite some time now and when they violated the rule the parents were notified. Supposedly the parents spoke to them. The skateboarders have chosen to disregard the rule and what their parents told them. The skateboarders were told once again, but they chose not to comply with the rule or the parents.
You can't rely upon the skateboarders to do the right thing whether you are around them or not.
The skateboarders are also breaking the law. In Florida you are to wear a helmet if you are under 18 years of age and the law here states not to use skateboards on the sidewalk as well as bicycles, roller skates etc.
I could have gone to the authorities about this. You can get arrested for not using a skateboard properly. There are skateboard laws in Florida.
I decided to be nice and just report to the president here.

The reason it ended up being reported is because of injuries. I have an injury that is going to last me for life from the skateboarder, so I guess I am a Karen

My community has a variety of ages and there are alot of senior citizens here. The skateboarders have no respect for the elderly at all. A 93-year-old woman was coming out of her door, the skateboarders were skating through the hallway, scared the woman and she fell. It was reported.

So I guess we are all Karen's because we are looking out for our safety because no one else is.

So, kids are racing around on the sidewalks - against the HOA rules - and creating a dangerous situation. And your complaint is against the elderly people who fear for their safety and want the rules enforced.

I think we just found the mother of the skateboarders...

Sometimes Melissa is simply clueless. She often doesn't seem to absorb what is said in previous comments and can't see the underlying issue that is being discussed.

If this keeps kids from playing on my personally cared for lawn where yours truly actually does sit out and read in the peace and quiet now and then, then I have no problem with being assigned the descriptor "the crabby lady on the corner." Besides, I am going to be the one out there in a flash anytime a kiddo say falls and cuts open her or his head in a bike accident and is bleeding profusely or I see some adult stranger looking strangely at kids on my block.

But I would be a tad concerned about addressing kids directly from the perspective that the parents might file a Fair Housing complaint that I was harassing their kids; making the neighborhood hostile to kids; and so discriminating on the basis of familial status.

Just saying.

Hello,

I tried talking to the skateboarders which turned out badly. The two skateboarders went to the house of one of them and told mother what was going on. Needless to say the mother came and confronted me, just screamed at me. She threatened me also. She said for me not to speak to her child again and if I did she would take action to protect her child. This particular child I did not speak to.
We have a trash compactor that the sidewalk has a slight incline so the skateboarders would skate up to the wall then sit on the skateboard and push it down the sidewalk into the street.
This is the area that one of them came zooming by right in front of me causing me to lose my balance and fall. I got up , all I did was fall and that is when I told them it was not a proper place to play. Stinks something awful there, sidewalk is dirty from garbage.
I was in that area because I was walking my dogs and i had stopped to video my dog sniffing the flowers there. So when I spoke with the one skateboarder my camera was still on and recording them. The one that i spoke to told me I could not record her without her permission and I told her she was wrong that if you are outside in public anything or anyone can be recorded. That is the way I have to walk to take my dogs to the dog run. I don't know if you read this in another post but I walk with a cane and have a brace on my right leg to help my knee.
Talking to any offender does not work out, I have tried it more than once at the suggestion of others.
I want to thank you for offering your advice .

Pamela, you may have to fight fire with a blowtorch. If your board is making s dangerous situation in your community, look to the lamplighter HOA lawsuit in Las Vegas.
Dangle that over the Boards head at a meeting see if they flinch.

Oh, I'm well aware there are rules, just like in my neighborhood. Frankly, if I'd gotten injured and knew where the kids lived, I would have already sued the association and the parents. I would have also talked to a few neighbors to see if they'd also come thisclose to being run over by some kid wanting to be in the next X Games on ESPN.

Chalk up my direct contact to my parents and where I grew up. Those were the days where if you did something and your neighbors saw it, your parents were prepared to great you with an ass whooping when you hit the door. Eventually we kids figured not to do stuff around certain homes because we knew the residents wouldn't keep their mouth shut. Whatever works.

My mother is in her late 90s and before she got sick, she still would come outside and tell people about themselves. It's truly a miracle neither she nor I have been cussed out or worse (because you don't know who's packing these days or what they've been ingesting).

All of that said, I agree with you about the president. It may be she's tried talking to the parents and it didn't go well. What she should have done after that is talk to a board and they should have. called in all the parents for a come to Jesus meeting. After that, tell the neighbors of the importance of documenting and reporting rule violations by anyone regardless of age, establish a fining schedule if the law allows, and go from there.

Wait, wait. You say, Pamela, a that open forum at board meetings have too many who talk too much or something like that. All you need to do at open forum is to ask the Board the Following: "When will you start enforcing the rule against no skateboarding, etc., except in the parking lot?" No details, but pass around your dated pictures of the violators if possible.

Do not ask the prez, the PM or any individual director. Question the entire board. Do not refer to the age of the violators.

Are your streets/sidewalks public? If so, then this is a police matter not an HOA one necessarily. It may be that they don't need to put in a restriction for not doing it on sidewalks/roads if it is already a city/county law that exists. The HOA could have made an exception to allow the kids to use the parking lot instead. That would make more sense on why they are allowed to use the parking lot. It also make sense the parking lot isn't a great venue for skateboarding. So the kids take to the streets.

Also if the kid injures you while on a skateboard then you sue the kid/parents for the damages. It could be covered in your homeowners insurance policy. I would not assume it's the HOA fault. They allow for skateboarding in a parking lot. So if your in the parking lot and this happens then it's even more not the HOA fault. Your in the area of which it is allowed.

Good Morning,

The president has stated that he has enforced the rule. The parents were sent letters and he said he spoke with the parents.
He told me the incident was closed as far as the skateboarders are concerned. They are in compliance with the rule.
After those actions were taken I reported the skateboarders again. The president then said I was sending in emails about old issues, rehashing it and this was unproductive.
So I am taking it as he will not do anything further about the skateboarders. I told him if you are compliant with the rule that means all the time, to reoffend means that the skateboarders are not in compliance, so it is another violation to which another letter should be sent.

The president has also told me that the procedure is three letters after that it is a fine which he states he has never fined anyone and hopes not to for violations.

Thats a great idea and I tried yesterday to get some pictures but the skateboarders are aware of where they should be using the skateboards and the oldest one, the instigator, kept watching me to see where I was. I realized she knew so I left the area. The father of the oldest one told me she is gifted so that skateboarder is very very smart. It is going to take awhile before I can get pictures.

Now because I have reported these skateboarders I feel the president is picking on me. I guess he was going thru my file and he told me that I needed to fill out an application for my new windows.
My windows were installed 7 weeks ago.
I made sure I followed procedure and I got an application from property manager, filled it out and gave it to her. I got a notice of approval in the regular mail stating I could put in the new windows. I have that notice.
I think she lost my application because the day the window company came I had an issue with the parking. I had told the guys where to park, in my assigned spot. One guy parked in the spot next to me to get equipment off of his truck and then move it. The maintenance man came by and told them to move. I emailed the property manager telling her all about it and she asked if I had filled out an application.
So I think she may have lost it, I guess it never got into my file. The president is going to discuss this with her today.

As I said I feel he is picking on me now. Looking for things to pick at.
I have to tell you all the president monitors my email to the property manager, he has stated I send in too many emails. That be so but if he enforced the rules I wouldn't send them in.
At one meeting the vice president said the owners should report people, so I do. This year I have sent in over 100 emails. They have all been about violations.
Some of these violations I report to the city after I reported them to property manager because nothing was done. There are quite a few military that live here and they get preferential treatment.

Well thank you for your advice and help.

A 100 violation reports in 10 Months? Are you walking around looking for violations? If so, why?

Hello,

I just happen on those violations, I am out walking my dogs when I see them.

Thanks.

Hello,

I am out walking my dogs when I see the violations. Let me say that I may send in maybe 6 emails about the same violation. I know it doesn't sound too good they are not all different violations.
We have a lani here that is loaded with things that are not supposed to be there. Our rule states patio furniture and plants, you can not use it as storage.
Well this lani has a big sofa , kayak, two vacumn cleaners, two tents, trampoline, fishing pole to name a few there are more items. I reported it 7 months ago and another two residents also reported it.
I was told they were sent a letter. Okay two months go by and the lani looks worse. So another email is sent in for violation. I have sent a total of four emails about this including pictures, so have the other residents and the lani is stil with all those items and more on it.
This is why I sent in so many emails for all the violations.
I was kind of working for the property manager on a few violations, she asked me to take pictures of what the residents were doing and send them in with an email, so I did.
Little people swimming in the pool, no adults in sight.
There is a resident here that uses his grill right in his garage doorway, which is a violation. He has oxgen tanks in his garage doorway also. To me that is kind of dangerous.

I don't want you all to think I walk around looking for violations, I don't.

I said earlier the vice president wants residents to report violations but then when you do all you get his complaints.

Thanks

PamelaC8, just saying: I think a huge faction here agrees that you have the right to have the covenants and rules enforced.

Had the disparaging remarks being made here about your handicaps been made by a director or manager at your HOA, they would be the stuff of a very viable fair housing complaint, IMO. I am sorry these remarks are appearing here. Being seventy years old should have been enough to tell these posters to lay off any assertion that you are getting around the grounds like a competitive marathoner or sprinter instead of the senior citizen you are.

I appreciate your trying to enforce the rules and covenants. I would welcome you as my neighbor.

Hello,

Thank you. It is very hard to try and help everyone stay safe. I want everyone to enjoy themselves but you cannot do it at someone elses expense.

Thanks again, you should be one of my neighbors. I thank everyone on here for their advice. It has been very helpful.