Condo Association Management Blog

Perhaps you could send us more detail. You mention many places that she "has taken over." How could she be in all these places at once? Maybe she has a problem with authority--if so, a small group of residents (no more than 2 or 3) might speak to her personally. Or, perhaps she is bitter, friendless, and angry. Someone should be delegated to smile with her and converse once a day.

We feel your pain! We have a woman who destroys our property and that of others, blocks the plow truck with her car, leaves her trash cans in front of our unit, verbally attacks contractors and other owners, hangs signs on the property that attempt to restrict public use and has not paid her condo fees in 16 months as well as not paying any assessments. She has made so much noise in her unit that our tenants left. She calls the police for no reason in turn wasting city resources and damaging the reputation of our property. Our association has tried everything and basically the law protects her and not us. We are only a 3 unit building and she has succeeded in depleting our reserves as we have had to pay legal bills trying to get her out. We too have had to abide by the law. We are seeking help from any city and state resources that might be able to assist us. I have read many articles regarding these unbalanced owners and a lot of associations remove parking privleges and restrict use of things like swimming pools and workout areas. Good luck in your pursuit of removing this person.

Most CC &R's provide the express right to enforce the Associations governing documents to homeowners as well as board members. It might be worth the cost of an initial consultation with an attorney ( especially if you can get several homeowners involved) and a few hours of your time to see what is available to you to assist in shutting these types of people down. When an out of control person suddenly starts getting invited to arbitration, mediation and a plethora of other actions, they often wake up, especially when combined with action taken by the Board.

If you conduct your board meetings under Roberts Rules send her a registered return receipt letter. In this letter advise that such rules are in effect and only will she be permitted to speak when she is recognized by the chair. Further when recognized she will be restricted to a single topic and not be allocated more than 5 minutes. Failure to adhere to these rules will on first violation bring a reminder from the chair. On the second violation she will be warned by chair of epulsion if happens again. On third violation ask her to leave meeting but be prepared to have a security officer remove her should she fail to leave. 
Als in the letter advise her she has bo authority to correct what she deems improper action by other residents or unit owner. She shoukld be instructed to put such observations in written correspondence addressed to the board of directors. Remind that penalties can be assessed by the board if she does not comply.

If she is such a nuisance in all the places she disrupts. then call the police each and every time she acts out. Insist on the police writing a written report for your records, in a word, start a paper trail. Once you have documented her adverse behavior and have that written documentation (with dates), then taken her to court. Additionally, if she is not paying her dues, have your association's attorney send her demand letters. If this doesn't work, then have him place a lien for unpaid fees. Then have him foreclose on her property if need be and evict her. If , as you say, she has attacked persons within the complex, have her arrested and press charges for her assault. In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. Battery is when the person actually touches or injures you. Finally, if you have been harassed as you say for 3 years by this same person and no real legal action has taken place, then I highly suggest you find better legal representation for your association; obviously the attorney you have is incompetent. Oh, one other item, do you have a management company for your association? If so, fire them and hire one with backbone to do the job that needs to be done.

Mayor Spencer's idea of delegating people to befriend her is the best of all the comments so far. It is unique, cost-free, and would benefit both the harasser and the delegated "friend" too.

I hate these stupid initial postings. But I see that it is posted under a subheading of "Condo Humor." Accordingly, I first must say, you have 184 condo units in ONE BUILDING? What's it called, The Pentagon Condos? 
 
The author of this initial posting has got to start thinking straight. That is, fight fire with fire. Start yelling at her!! Call her nasty names to her face. Criticize her body, her clothes, her hair. Kidnap her pet. Bang on her door when she's sleeping. Light a paper bag of doo-doo and ring the door bell. Think how Dick Cheney would handle her. Just get off your deadass butt and figure something out that doesn't involve wasting MY time in responding to your ridiculous posting.

what a strange and angry reaction to a real need and a common one too. If you are annoyed by a posting then skip it, and certainly you don't need to reply.  
 
You may need to apply Mayer Spencer's advice to yourself.

Dead Eye: drag your living eye up to the top of the page where it says "Condo Humor" in bold letters. To me, that must mean the posting is some kind of joke. Kidnap her cat!

To those who have made light of the situation I would say that I would love to ship one of our homeowners to your community. Maybe you would see things differently if you had to live with it. We have an owner in our community who has been in prison most of his life. He is now nearly 60 years old. Among his crimes are assault, attempted rape (of a child), robbery, forgery, intimidating a public official (police officers), intimidating a witness, and telephone harassment (of police and prosecuting attorneys). No district court judge in our county will hear any case involving him (because he threatened to kill a judge and his family), so the cases involving him are referred to another jurisdiction. When he arrives at court the security person at the door calls out "x is here" and an armed bailiff appears before x can enter the court and the bailiff keeps his eyes on x until he pulls out of the court parking lot. When the police are called on him, a minimum of three police cars arrive together as he threatened to kill some police officers and their families.  
 
He is considered by the police to be a sociopath, and I (a psychotherapist until I retired) concur. He is extremely paranoid and delusional, often talking about secret committees, an evil elite who are all conspiring (with the help and support of the police) to stop him from revealing the truth about the secret committees, the evil elite, and an undefined "they". I could go on and on, but I think I have conveyed the idea of what is occurring.  
 
When he does not get his way, he threatens to kill people - and so on and so on. Due to his threats through the years a number of people have orders of protection against him, which he ignores.  
 
To date the police have not been able to do anything in our community because his actions are always without witness, so it becomes a he said - she said situation. Unless he carries out one of his threats, he can function as he pleases. I have spoken to the Association's attorney and she said she can do nothing. My attorney has said the same thing, and suggested that rules be created that if he breaks them he would be fined, but our Board is afraid of him and the lawsuits he threatens them with personally.  
 
People have received anti-harassment orders, and he violates them without consequence. 
 
The only way to insure your own safety here is to vote for him in his bid to be elected to the Board. He has lost the last 2 elections. The more he looses, the more he intimidates people to do as he says. People are just too afraid to do anything he does not want them to do.  
 
The company that manages our Association recently resigned because he threatened the managing agent and his family. Our maintainance person has also resigned due to threats to him and his family. Both of these men are big, strong muscular men. If they are concerned what is a disabled senior citizen to do? On October 1 we will have no maintenance or management. To date no managing agency will take us on.  
 
If you have not experienced someone like x and do not understand what living in a community with someone who is psychotic (insane) or otherwise disturbed is like, please at least say nothing. PLEASE DO NOT MOCK PEOPLE WHO MAY HAVE A SITUATION ON THEIR HANDS WHICH YOU MAY NOT UNDERSTAND. Please keep in mind that situations like the one in my community are few and far between, but they do exist.

Another perspective on this issue. 
 
People with mental illness act out in this way, especially if they are not taking their meds like they are supposed to and are spiraling downhill. If there is paranoia or irrational thinking, this might be the cause. That said, the only way they can get the help they need to get back on track, is to have the police called in, especially if there is hostility and threats. The family or loved ones cannot do anything to help them any other way sadly.

Lynn, while I took a humorous approach to the initial post that was tagged as "Condo Humor," the turmoil you describe as to owner x deserves a serious comment. 
 
My thought is first, determine whether the guy is currently on parole or probation; if so, Mr. x's behavior is being supervised and he has to answer to that person - and my second thought is that your group should try a combined approach by arranging a meeting with a strong, responsive local politician who represents your district and/or someone from the Mayor's staff, the local supervising prosecutor, a police representative - from the chief's office, and the probation/or parole officer if applicable. Maybe someone from the Judicial Branch. 
 
There's no question that threatening is a crime, as is harrassment. I would think that the prosecutor's office would be helpful in advising your group as to the tools he/she needs to convict mr. x again, and to send him back to prison or at least keep him on a short leash with probation. 
 
Prosecutors I know do not want dangerous people on the streets in their jurisdictions, so they have a special interest in locking up those elements. Evidently, this guy is well known. You're describing a situation in which innocent citizens are being terrorized by an ex con. This cannot be a horror movie plot.  
 
Based on what you said, and I appreciate the depth of your comment, you guys are living in fear. And you know, you just can't live like that. Your group must decide that enough is enough, and that you're not going to take it any more. You just have to conquer the fear and find a way to prevail. 
 
I also like the approach of adopting appropriate and necessary rules that addresses and prohibits his conduct, but I think ultimately you're referencing criminal behavior in your comment. Good luck.

Creating a set of Rules and regulations and/or Policies regarding conduct is great, if not already done. That should be a normal set of documents. However, that only sets the stage…you still have to enforce them. Creating Rules and Regs are only as good as their enforcement. The owner should be politely reminded that the staff is there for the assistance to all residents and that if an owner isn’t happy with that assistance then they should bring it to the Board’s attention. They should also be reminded that the Board are volunteers and are interested in the greater good of all residents. If that doesn’t work, the Board should have this owner in hearing with the Board each and every time with relevant fines per statutes and governing documents.

To avoid future problems our condo bylaws prohibit felons from buying a condo. We do a background check on all applicants. Ask your attorney if a background check is done on ALL residents, after you change your bylaws, could they evict all the felons that are identified. You can lookup many criminal records in counties for free. Look up where they have lived on Intelius and then check criminal records. It takes about 3 minutes per person to check county records.

There are usually 2 or more sides to a conflict. Have the rules about use of facilities such as the pool changed? is theis person asking that rules be enforced and has reached the point of losing her temper or is she in fact mentally ill? My condo is supposed to have no children in the common areas but we now have young families who ignore those rules and the noise makes it impossible to work, meditate, rest, pray, etc in ones own home with windows shut. 
 
I am sure the parents I have complained to about the noise think I am a wicked witch, but I want peace and quiet. One has to respect the rights of those who want things cleaner, quieter etc. especially when the written rules are on their side. Moving is not an option due to the poor housing market or I would have moved.

Call the police . After a few times she may stop harassing others. It hasn't worked here though, not in all cases. I get a lot of complaints regarding these kinds of issues and try to calm the person down and deal with the offender who claims it is the other persons fault. No one ever takes blame.I do my best to see both sides of an issue and usually things are better for a while. Just cope the best you can. We are dealing with many different personalities.