HOA Directors Picture Taking of Residents Homes

A new BODs has taken it upon themselves to go around the community looking for violations and in many instances
taking pictures of residents property in an effort to look for violations.
Our management representatives says she needs proof of a violation of the property for her to make a determination
that there is a violation.
Is it within the law for these Directors [and in some instances their spouses]to take pictures first of a suspected
violation OR should they contact the Manager first before following up with acuiring proof of a violation.
The Directors seem to become very agressive in their desire to look for violations.

Gregory,
I personally think inspection and violation tours should be done by the PMC. There should always be a little insulation between management and the board. That being said if a board member sees a blatant violation, he/she should bring it to the attention of the PM. As far as spouses taking picture I am really against this behavior. They are not elected and should not be involved IMO.

Also: many CC&Rs give individual homeowners the right to enforce the terms of the CC&Rs. If this is the case in your community, then random people may be taking photos. You'll need to check with the legal folks, but I think that as long as no one is taking photos of the interior of the home, then it's fair game. Google photographs homes regularly to maintain their maps - they're careful to avoid showing individual faces and inside the homes.

Given how many have high-powered cameras in their phones, you should assume that anything outdoors is under surveillance. If you have any smart devices, you should also assume that the interior of your home and your conversations are also under surveillance. It's the world we live in.

In general, anyone can take photographs of people/places/things in areas where there is no expectation of privacy. So Board Members, their spouses, Management Company reps, your neighbor, or any Joe Schmoe off the street has the legal right to be on the street and other generally-/publicly-accessible areas and take photographs of houses, property, other people, etc.

You have your perspective on what your Board is doing and relayed it here. However, they may be doing certain things for certain reasons that you may not fully understand/comprehend. Perhaps they are being heavy-handed with their approach (intentionally or unintentionally) and there may be better ways for them to achieve their goals. Perhaps you've assumed/perceived things inaccurately and need to better understand what is actually going on. Who knows?!?!

My overall guidance is that it would be worthwhile to have additional discussion on thie topic/issue in your HOA between your Board, Management Company, and neighbors to better understand all perspectives and the best course of action forward.

As long as they're photographing something that can be seen from the street or sidewalk (not the one leading up to the front door), it's ok to take pictures, although I think it's better for the property manager to take the photos. Our community is managed by a national property management company (you probably know the one) and it had a separate service where it would conduct regular drive-throughs of the community to look for repair needs in the common area as well as violations. Part of that included photos.

You say the directors seem agressive in looking for violations, but it may be there are things that have been going on for years and no one's paid attention or backed down if people squawked at receiving a notice. However, as a HOA member, you are legally obligated to comply with the community's documents, so if there's a violation, you should receive a notice and fix it. Better yet, comply with the rules from the start and you won't have to worry about photos.

That said, I wouldn't have board members or spouses, children, in-laws, etc., taking the photos themselves because people are really cra-cra these days and a conflict might ensue. If the property manager does it, they might have a professional photographer who could take the photos in a way that doesn't invade privacy and clearly display the problem. The photos should also be date and time-stamped because the owner might fix the problem between the time the photo's taken and he/she receives the notice, so another photo could be taken to prove this. Other owners won't believe they're in violation unless they see a photo because they've gotten so used to whatever it is, they're blind to it.

If this is what your board is going to do, it should notify the community of the inspections, not when they'll occur (homeowners should be complying with the rules 24/7), but they can explain why this step is being taken, what issues have been more problematic and will receive more scrutiny (so homeowners can fix them immediately), remind homeowners of what the rules are and why they exist, and how the enforcement and appeals process works. This could be a good way for homeowners to consider what rules should be tweaked, added or dropped, and they could send those comments and suggestions to the board.

GregoryG8, please clarify: Do you object to the covenants? If not, then why would you object to enforcing the covenants?

Do you understand that the board has a duty to enforce the covenants? Do you understand that a board's failure to do so can have a myriad of legally dire consequences down the road?

Google Earth Camera Cars will not enter a gated community or other private area. You can see my house from their satellite view and that is it

My previous association did an annual inspection. Pictures were taken from sidewalks and common areas.
This helped us two fold:

1) Picture is worth a thousand words - we included it in the violation notice that was sent.
2) Picture provided documentation for the files and prevented I say, you say arguments.

The Board makes decisions for the Association.
The Board is free to hire anyone to make their job easier.
This may be a bookkeeper, a CPA, or a Management company.
When MC are hired, they take over a lot of the officer duties running the day to day tasks - thus freeing up time for the volunteers.

I know that when I was treasurer, I spent a good 20 hours a month on HOA work.
You won't always find volunteer willing to commit that amount of time. Hence, the hiring of others to lessen the work load.

As Lori suggests, read your Bylaws and/or CC&Rs. Ours and I believe many others, state that the Board may delegate some of its powers to others, ours do mention management company , and also committees, "The Board shall have the right to delegate its powers or duties to any management company, committee or other persons...."

Our CC&Rs: "4.3.3 Delegation of Powers. Professional Management. The Association acting by and through the Board can delegate its powers, duties, and responsibilities to committees or employees, including a professional managing agent ('Manager')."

Our HOA's law firm just restated both of these documents for us in 2022 and the layer we worked with stated he's done over 1,000 originals & amendments. So I know we're not the sole HOA with this type of verbiage.

With Lori, write a proper request to review the contract with your MC. Our HOA has all contracts posted on our protected website, does yours? what size is your HOA?

Re: photos: We're a twin-towers condo high rise. When I see a balcony in the tower opposite mine in complete disarray or items stored that are against our rules, e.g., bicycles, or as in one gross episode, dog urine running down the exterior of one balcony onto the one below, sure I take a pic. Any resident may. The alternative would be to call management and ask them to waste their time to come to my Unit to see the violation and take a pic. But he has enough to do! So I can send a pic, identity the unit brief form, which asks for a little more info. He then would send a courtesy letter to the violator asking them to cure it (immediately in the latter case, which involved a call to hearing per our Rules & Regs.)