I dont know what to do! Help!

Same board for many years now. They have a rule that states floors in the upper level need to soundproofed. Units also need to get a city permit with approved materials by the board before installation. Neither were done by the unit above me. I called and email the board on the day of upper unit installation. The board doesn't check materials. The flooring goes in. It is hardwood. I can hear the slightest of footsteps. When I emailed the board that day, I received a email that was sent to me by mistake, stating that I am a pain! Fast forward..the board gets sued by another owner, for the same problem on the other side of the building. The board is now in arbitration with that homeowner. I email them again as the unit above now is even louder, with parties, moving furniture, etc. They aren't from this country and refuse to talk to me in English! The board is still ignoring me, any ideas?!

Civil Code §1354. Enforcement Rights, Attorneys' Fees.

(a) The covenants and restrictions in the declaration shall be enforceable equitable servitudes, unless unreasonable, and shall inure to the benefit of and bind all owners of separate interests in the development. Unless the declaration states otherwise, these servitudes may be enforced by any owner of a separate interest or by the association, or by both.

(b) A governing document other than the declaration may be enforced by the association against an owner of a separate interest or by an owner of a separate interest against the association.

(c) In an action to enforce the governing documents, the prevailing party shall be awarded reasonable attorney's fees and costs.

The day of construction is very late in the process. Perhaps there was no way to know beforehand. Perhaps it came up at a Board meeting. Perhaps if you had been elected to the Board, you might have had more warning. I have no idea.

But, now, your options seem limited: (1) sue somebody or (2) live with it.

There are other less extreme steps that you should start with first, but these will require action by you and then action by a board with a backbone.

You state that there is a rule that states that floors on the upper levels need to be sound proofed. Check your documents to see have the language for that rule is there. If not, ask the board for a copy of the rule. You need to know exactly what the flooring and/or sound proofing requirements are.

Even though there is a rule, do your documents require an approval by the board? Was this done? If so, request a copy of the approval letter and the specified requirements.

You state that a city permit is required before a floor can be installed with approved materials. This information is public. Go to your town hall building department and request a copy of the permit and the materials approved. I would bet that no permit was issued, but don't do anything yet.

Of course, you have no right to inspect the flooring in the unit. However, the sound in your unit gives you reasonable evidence that it was improperly constructed.

There is no way that I would live with this disturbance.

I would take to approaches.

First write a letter documenting your noise complaint, along with copies of all the email messages. Request a hearing with the board and the property manager. The folks upstairs will naturally need to attend, so it may get a little ugly. Send the letter to the board, the property manager, and the folks upstairs.

At the hearing, your objective needs to be to resolve the noise by having physical changes of some sort made. If the floor is not in complinace with your rule, or if required permission was never obtained, then board can impose a daily fine until the problem is fixed.

Second, if you determined that no permit was issued by the city, write a letter to the same people listed above, but stating your findings and that you don't really want to lodge a complaint with the city permit department, but will do so if the problem has not been fixed by a certain date. Request a written response by a date and if you do get it, then send a certified letter to the city that files your complaint and requests the city to take action to have the flooring removed or brought into compliance with the requirements.

Sue, might I suggest you stop sending emails and send certified letters?

Emails are easy to dismiss. Not that they should be, but many boards don't treat them as legitimate, formal communications.

You found that out when you accidentally received the comment by the one board member that you were a pain.

A board should never EVER make personal comments about residents in ANY communication, especially email.

Not only is it inappropriate, but it could get the board into legal hot water, too.

Obviously you need to save all correspondence, which you are doing, but I would also take a meeting with the correspondence with an attorney well-versed in HOA (especially condo-type) and see if he/she can get you started in a productive direction.

But, again, I would make sure all my correspondence with the board and/or management company is by certified or registered mail.

That alone will give them the heads up that you are not playing around. They need to take your concerns seriously.

Keep in mind, though, they may already be well into Cover Their A** mode.

Hi Richard, thanks for the response. I had renters next me last time. We went to arbitration with the board as the renters were throwing cigs unto open land and there was a small fire, the owners live 2 hours away, and never were around. The board didnt do anything to help. The renters who were in a band, were also playing loud music all night long, the board didn't even send a complaint letter. So finally, we got an attorney and the board started to send out fines! That part is ok now and the renters are quiet and well behaved. But, it took legal action for the board to do anything. They are just as ineffective this time by allowing hardwood floors to go in. Another unit is suing them and his lawuit which was given to all of us to read by the board. It states the board is not enforcing the CCRs. I can't believe the board gave us the lawsuit to read. I have contacted my attorney and amazingly the board emailed me tonight about investigating the hardwood floors. Thanks to all that helped me. I probably will not be using the board in the furture due to responses like Roberts.

Sue,
You have a inverted sense of humor. No, I mean perverted, No, I mean your sense of humor is perverted, you are probably not a pervert, no, I mean you are definitively not a pervert. Anyway you are funny!

LOL!!! Thanks again Rob..

Thanks Glen. I actually cut and pasted it to the board. I sent them my first email a week ago. They didn't acknowledge me until tonight when I sent them those codes. I also told them I am being represented by an attorney too. So thank you!

Hi Michele,

Thanks for asking. Today, after the borad received a call from my attorney, they told us that the unit doesnt have wood floors but something else? OK, I said, since we are supposed to submit the materials before installation, please send me a copy of the flooring materials that were installed. The people have lived above me for 9 yrs and the sound was fine until the new installation. I also asked if anyone acutally viewed the flooring when it was going in? What's funny is that they were unaware of the installation until I told them. Waiting for the board's response. I will keep you posted. Thanks for your concern and help.

SueL7,
Clear this up. You hire a lawyer to represent you, he calls your Board (How do you call a Board?, They, meaning the Board (clarify)told us (I assume at some point your lawyer called you or was this some kind of conference call?) Some one told us (meaning you and lawyer)that the unit didn't have wood floors, it was something else. You say (to them), "ok, I said, since we (meaning homeowners) are supposed to submit materials before installation (to the board for ??), then you asked to get a copy of the flooring materials that were used. Next relevant point is you asked (the Board?)if anyone (who would that be?) had inspected the installation when it was going in. Then you say it was funny because they were unaware of the installation until you told them. I think I recall you notified the Board about the installation when it was going in, what was their response at that time?

Now what is not jiving here and I am sure this is a communication problem, is, why you are talking to these people at all if you hired an attorney and he was aware of the chain of events? Why would YOU want a copy of the materials used? I suspect, either you got a slow attorney or you didn't commit to a purpose when you hired him, and he has done what he got paid for and is gone. I don't know? And you are back to square one. Certainly the Board is well aware of this other litigation going on over a similar issue, and all you and your lawyer came up with was the floor that went in was not wood. Don't you plan to address all this in writing through your attorney to the Board. Does the attorney you hired have an opinion, I don't need to know what it is just if he advised you of how to conduct yourself in regard to this issue? You are waiting for a Board response, is this how the board told you to proceed?

Good questions Robert! I did hire an attorney. The BOD's attorney will talk to him, but hasn't yet. I am gathering all the research for my case. I am trying not to acutally sue the BOD, so I email my attoney with information and copy it to the board. The BOD sent me an email late night. But they will not tell me what the material is? The problem remains, I can hear every footstep, it is like they are walking on my ceiling! The only reason they sent me this is because my attoney called them as they requested with his info. Now they know I am serious. All they would have to do is come over and listen to the footsteps. They won't. I asked them.. They have ignored me for 8 days, until they got a call from my attoney.

Dear Ms. Sue XXXX,
We are investigating your complaint regarding the floor installation in unit #319. Though the Board was not informed of the remodeling until notified by you, we did contact the owner immediately. We received (and approved) the installation specs provided by the installer/contractor and were given samples of the materials used for the installation. In addition to using cork, foam padding was installed under the cork to further insulate the noise.

We are further investigating the issue of the City Permit and will notify you of the outcome.
We would like to know if you are currently represented by an attorney. If so, could you please provide us with his/her name, so that the Association’s attorney can deal with him directly?
Thank you
Board of Directors

E Mails can be a certified document. Go to readnotify.com. I use this software in business and it is very effective and quicker than snail mail. Also cheaper. I just put the certified notice in the subject of the E Mail so the recipient knows it is certified.

What an interesting site/feature!

Thanks.

Oh, like the sig line. Fits me now too!

Robert1,
Here is the rely you got from readnotify.com.
Sounds good to me.
************************************************
Hi Robert,

Yes - you can use our certifications in courts of law. When you send a certified email, it is digitally signed and time stamped by our servers. These certificates use cryptographic algorithms - which can be verified using a number of public sources. If the email is altered in any way, the verification will fail. So, in short - sending a certified email proves that you sent what you did, when you did. Even if the recipient chooses not to open the email, you can prove that you did send it.

We also track delivery of your emails, so you can also find out (via your recipients own mailserver) whether the email was delivered or not. This is very useful; as the recipient may claim they didn't receive your email - but you can prove it was delivered.

The best way to see how it works is to send some tests. First, register for a Free trial, then send an email to a third party (not you or your computer though please) by appending their email address with .certified.readnotify.com (eg; [email protected]) If you want to turn Delivery Service Notifications on (so you get a receipt when the email is delivered): Log in -> My Account -> Notifications and Reports.

All the best!

Regards,

If you testify, you can testify that you received or sent these e-mails and the readnotify or similar system. The court is then going to have to figure out whether or not it's proper to consider the e-mails or not. Other considerations affect their admissibility; in particular, what they are being introduced to prove. It is impossible to say one way or the other whether the Court is going to admit them or not until they are proposed to be admitted to evidence to prove something in particular, the other side makes its objections, and the court decides how to rule.

Other sites similar to readnotify:
http://didtheyreadit.com/
http://www.spypig.com/
http://sneakemail.com/
http://www.mstag.com/
http://whoreadme.com/

Me? I'll stick to good old certified mail. Its low tech, and everyone understands it. Keep it simple stupid. (wink)