Departments

Inevitably, for one reason or another, a community association board member gives up his position. When this happens, the association has the sometimes difficult task of replacing the outgoing member. But the challenging part of replacing a member comes after the new member is found and elected to the board. That's because, depending upon the new member's experience with your association, or associations generally, there may be a lot of information for him to quickly get up to speed on—especially if big decisions are in the process of being made.

From time to time, members of the association you manage may have financial trouble and get behind on their assessments or other amounts that are owed, such as costs for things like a storage area or parking. And that can be compounded when fees, fines, and interest are added due to delinquency. Sometimes, late payments aren’t because of financial hardship—a member may be upset about something in the community and feel that he’s “taking a stand” by not paying what he owes.

Q: My association publishes a community newsletter and hosts a community website. I’m worried that at some point there will be a situation in which a disgruntled member or someone outside the community falsely accuses the board of defamation for something that may be published in the newsletter or on the website. What are the defenses against defamation lawsuits?

Facts: Homeowners sought to invalidate a covenant adopted by their community association prohibiting the rental of their homes for less than 30 days. A trial court ruled in favor of the homeowners without a trial.

Facts: A townhome owner in a planned community didn’t pay his annual assessments for seven years. The association sued him for the delinquent amount. A trial court ruled in favor of the association and awarded full payment of unpaid annual assessments plus attorney’s fees and costs.

Facts: A homeowner reported to the New Mexico Department of Agriculture an incident of hazardous environmental exposure to an employee of a landscaping company that had been hired to do lawn maintenance by the association. The employee was African American. According to the homeowner, the landscaping company used “unsuspecting” African-American employees to apply toxic pesticides without any training or knowledge.

When a Durham, N.C., association told a homeowner she needed to paint her handicap lift to match the new paint color of her and her neighbors’ porches or face fines, she refused. The owner argued that prior to the repainting of porches in the community, the lift didn’t match the original paint color of her porch, so it shouldn’t be a problem now. The owner told the association that the installer of the lift didn’t recommend repainting over the factory paint because it would interfere with future repairs.

by Jim Slaughter, Esq.

There are more than 320,000 community associations in the United States, according to the Community Associations Institute. Think of all the membership, board, and committee meetings that take place! Since statutes and governing documents often require such meetings to follow certain rules, it’s important for managers and board members to know about parliamentary procedure, which, when used properly, can also serve to streamline meetings and make association life easier and more productive for everyone.

Q: Our condominium’s documents state that members can rent their units for a one-month minimum. Some members believe if they rent for one or two weeks in a month, and they don’t rent for the rest of the month, they’re complying with the documents. But the board and I feel that this is “cheating” the system and renders the restriction—which was put into place because short-term renters seemed to be less serious about respecting members and our building—useless.

Facts: An association’s governing documents prohibited the use of homes in the community for commercial purposes. Two homeowners announced their intention to open a drug rehabilitation facility in their own home in the community. They asked the association for a reasonable accommodation, but didn’t specify what kind of accommodation they wanted and didn’t provide any supporting documentation that they were entitled to an accommodation.