How do you solve a problem like Maria??

So we have this one owner that lost her caca and immediately donned her cape and the keyboard warrior took to ND
basically accused the board and the PM of squandering funds and just shy of accusing us of embezzlement.
She lost it because assessments are being raised due to inflation, mainly the skyrocketing cost of natural gas and electric.

this keyboard warriors comments are very close to criminal accusations. Would it behove of us to have our corporate council
send this person a strongly worded letter , that if they continued their tirade we will take legal action against them?

My concern is this one person is going to cause problems for us and individually as a BOD.

What makes this criminal? It's one thing if she threatened to go to all the board members' homes and blow their houses up, or someone else who's even more volatile went out and threatened the property manager because of something this lady wrote. That's assuming this letter has gone all over the community - if she's just railing at you, you may not have much to worry about. Losing one's shit because assessments are going up isn't a crime - hell, that's happening just about everywhere, along with food, gas, insurance (especially that!)

Hopefully, your board has kept homeowners informed about income and expenses, and why this was a difficult but necessary decision, and if so, you may not have much to worry about. For now, make a note of what she writes (screenshots showing date and time stamps are really nice). If other people come after you, you'd have to prove it was because of this lady and then you'd have to show the behavior came to the line or crossed over into criminal territory. From there it's a police matter and reports should be filed. For the rest, a strongly worded letter for spreading damned lies is more appropriate than getting annoyed because she called you a bunch of greedy you know-whats for making things hard on senior citizens, single parents and working-class folk. Interesting how these folks forget board members have to pay the same bloody fees...

wow what garble writing for me. I meant:

I think he is going for per se defamation/libel. If you accuse a person of a criminal act, it can be per se defamation which needs no actual damages in order to sue for damages - in per se damages are legally assumed to have occurred. I think it would have to be more concrete than an implication though. From what I have read, defamation is hard to prevail - it needs to be concrete accusations and bad. Basically the test is if the writing/saying harmed you - not just hurt your feelings.

Why are you on ND?

The best response to complaints of increased expenses is to show the individual cost increases.

For future reference... This is what we call "Noise" when you are on a HOA board. You are not under any contract to react. Give people enough rope they tend to hang themselves...

Has anyone else expressed concern about the budget? If not, I agree with Melissa - the lady can bitch and moan all she wants, but unless and until she can provide proof of what she's saying, she's just yapping. You can't do much about people from other communities who read this - often, people can tell blowhards when they see them because they also have the blowhard's kindred spirits in their own neighborhood. And since they don't live there anyway, why spend more time paying attention to it?

I know there have been a few people on the Next Door websites in my community who will complain about their communities. Some homeowners would respond with "That's BS and you know it" while others would respond with "Say it again for the people in the back!" I don't see much of that anymore - apparently, there are monitors who are able to shut off the more obnoxious comments about anything.

Then STOP taking it personally. There is a point where you got to step back and look at the situation. Are you the liar? Are you doing what they say your doing? No? Then move on and ignore. Let them talk. People soon will find out the truth by actions not by talk...

Believe me I was accused of so many things as President it was not worth reacting. That is what they want. A reaction. The second you give them a reaction is the second you lose. They will pounce and run with it. So keep head held high and don't play their games.

The Ex-President had to deal with was a con-man lying scumbag. Those were his "Good traits". He was those type of person whom would take the words of others and then act like he did/said it. Actually heard the SAME quote from other people. It was my queue that I knew he had talked to these people behind my back. Caught him in so many lies. Plus he tried to manipulate people including myself. However, he was the President prior me moving in. He had built a "Trust" with some of the people. Others knew better or learned better. I learned/knew better...

What I learned is if I went around telling people how much of a liar this guy is, it made me look bad. It made me look like I had a grudge against him. It was my personal problem against him. This kept him in a "good light" as if he was the victim. This was so frustrating as I wanted to prevent people for falling for his lies. He ripped off elderly people with Alzheimer's. He was NOT a good guy. hat

I changed my approach. It was NOT my place to set people straight. I wasn't responsible for someone else's opinion. Matter of fact that is where I learned that usually what people say about others, is what that person is or does. They have the value system where they believe that in your case "cable payback" is okay if they did it. So the more that they claim about others, it revealed MORE about themselves. This will give you some more insight into their actions and not your own. Realize this person most likely would be the one whom would take a kick back. They would be the one doing exactly what they accuse others of. Once you look at them in that light, then you can look at the situation differently. Get yourself out of the guilt and realize where the guilt lies...

If your Nextdoor is mainly association members, it probably wouldn't be considered libel because it's not a public forum.

Incorrect. John could whisper to Enrique that Sally has sex with 9-year-olds, and if false, that could be defamation/libel/slander.

We are not talking HOA rules. We are talking the real laws. Which still includes saying false things about others that causes harm or damage.

If you say your HOA board President sucks at their job that may be criticism. You say the President sleeps with the Secretary and they are not married to each other then that is slander. Plus their spouses are not members. They are married to members.

Then you probably have a case. It’s nice to be able to defend yourself.

It is not illegal for a board or director to sue on behalf of the corporation or him/herself when the corporation/director is defamed.
You missed the qualifier "expose" below. In addition you are misinterpreting the meaning of "public." A communication on Nextdoor may very well "expose" a person to public hatred et cetera.

In addition if it's not libel per se that's being claimed, then the plaintiff has to show damages, meaning that he or she lost money due to the defamation directly.