Renters/Family, Domestic abuse and the safety of the neighborhood

I am on the Board of a HOA. We hire and independant management company to handle all of the day to day dealing and accounting for out HOA.

I have a question to pose to you all. I live in MN, and own a townhouse that shares a driveway with 3 other homes. We have 1 house in our cul-de-sac that is a problem property. The house is own by a woman (she does NOT live in the house), and "rent" or lets her daughter, her boyfriend, their baby, and the daughters dad live in the house. The occupants (I don't know a better term because they are not the homeowners) are causing some issues in the neighborhood. In the past 3 months the police have been called to the property for domestic assalt. I have witnessed and even called the police myself on the occupants. I have see the police at the residence 3 times personally, but I assume they have been there more since I am not home 24 hours a day.

My question, what rights do I have as a HOA member to ask our property manager and rest of the board to ask these occupants be evicted? The owner doesn't reside in the home, so by law even though the occupants are family, are they considered renters?

I have asked our property manager (we pay) as a concerned resident that the situation at the house is unsafe for all envolved. The family, the child, and the neighbors. She said that as far a eviction there is not much she can do since they are "family". Is that true? Should I call our attorney we have on retainer and ask her directly?

Our property manager did call and send an email to the homeowner citing that we have signed documents from her (and all residents) saying a peaceful exsitance must be had at all times.

I don't know what we do or don't have in the bylaws on renters or family members living in the property. Seems the new thing is that people rent the homes out because they can't sell. 2 years ago we have no renters out of 256 homes.

Ideas?

Joshua,
First of all let me say that renters are not the problem. BAD renters are the problem. You P.M needs to put some pressure on the owner. It is the owner who has to take care of what goes on inside of her unit. Because it is family, I would think that she can stop or remove this nuisance behavior easily. Chances are that you have no bylaws on renters because stand alone houses rarely do.

Your association cannot police or take care of domestic situations, that is what you have authorities for.

I don't know about Conn. laws on "Renters Rights" but I know that in Florida, the association cannot intitiate or force an eviction. Only the owner of the property can so that is who your Board needs to focus on.

to answer your questions: As an HOA owner, you have almost zero rights to ask the property manager to evict the person. You have every right to ask the BOARD to do it. You also have every right to ask the board to gold plate your driveway, bring you breakfast in bed, and give you an unending supply of $20 bills for pocket cash. Beautiful thing, 1st amendment, gives you the right to ask almost anything. You will have more luck with MY questions, BTW, than getting what YOU want done, because mine are actually within the powers of the board, evicting a person is not.

It is difficult to evict a family member, mostly because eviction is based on a breach of contract: and family rarely a) have contracts to breach and B) are willing to charge their relatives and cost them more money and C) testify against family members in a court. So, your PM is right, eviction isn't likely to happen. Feel free to call your attorney, I am sure in these economic times, she could use a quarter hour of billable time to fill her Escalade with gas at your expense. She will tell you the same thing, charge your for a consultation, and fill her Cadillac.

Good luck with the peaceful existence rule. You can search here for other threads regarding the enforcement of those, it can be done, but it can be tough.

Follow the advice of the other posters: as a board member yourself, you have a duty to know your by-laws. go learn them, and then see what you can do, legally.