Building improvement battles

Hello,

Over a year ago, our HOA decided and sent a vote general membership to replace the old corroded aluminum single paned windows with sound retardant double paned vinyl windows. We held a meeting and handed brochures out to every homeowner, and even had the window guy come out and give a presentation. We offered several payment plans and ways to come up with the money for the windows. Two homeowners showed up in the first 5 minutes and screamed and yelled at all of us, then left the meeting. After the tyrade was over, everyone present voted (we counted the 2 as "no's") and there was an overwhelming majority vote for the windows. The CC&R's say that each homeowner is responsible for the maintenance of the glass, doors, screens, etc...leading to the common area. The old windows have a outdated termite infested wooden frame that doesn't match the new white vinyl windows.

Everyone paid for their windows and had them installed accept for the two who threw a fit at the meeting. We held a special assessment to pay for the windows and the two people mentioned above didn't pay it. We have proceeded to start the lien process due to the special assessment (being above $1800, could send their condos into foreclosure), and unfortunately one of the 2 people have a lawyer friend who says he is going to fight this every step of the way. We don't have much money left in reserve for a legal fight. What can we do? How do we get the windows installed so the place looks uniform and nice again when one of the parties said he will sit on his couch with a shotgun and no one is going into his home to install the new windows?

Thanks

Hello Roger,

The old windows look nothing like the new windows. The HOA has already ordered the windows as it was agreed by the majority of the owners that we wanted to upgrade the windows. Currently the building looks bad because two of the units have the old corroded aluminum windows with crumbling brown wood around the outside and the rest all have the new clean looking vinyl windows with white trim. The outer wooden border around the windows is considered common area, but we can't make them all match without having the same windows. Correct me if I'm wrong, but we all have to maintain our doors as well, but if we want to change our door out with another one, it takes a majority vote and we all do it at the same time. One homeowner couldn't paint one of our doors another color or swap it out for another door even though it is technically maintained by each individual homeowner. It leads out to the common area and affects the look of the building. What are the appropriate channels for this type of thing? Any suggestions would definitely be appreciated. Are our hands tied and we can only replace the window surround? I don't know how we can make them match or look decent that way.

We have spoken with an HOA attorney...and she thought we are okay going forward with the lien, but we wanted another opinion. I don't know how knowledgable she is. We have sent the letters of intent for the liens, but haven't put the liens in place. Are there any cases I can look up to do further research on this before we put a lien on their places? We don't want to do anything that would be wrong to do.

Thanks

The attorney needs to look at the documents to see if the windows are common area or limited common area. Some documents I've seen describe them as "limited common area" with the owner responsible for the maintenace, but the association responsible for replacement (in order to keep uniformity). You need to look at the building drawings in the documents and at the description of the common areas to decide this.

Also, your documents only describe the glass as the owners responsibility. The frames are probably yours. You're probably OK, but it sounds like your going to have a battle anyhow. Going to a vote showed that the vast majority of the owners were behind you and your documents probably give the board the responsibility for the condition and appearance of the buildings.

Having said that, you probably still want to go with an attorney familiar with community association law.

Joe