Our condo Board squandered over $25,000 in a lengthy legal battle against me, demanding that I remove my beloved pet. I was a whistleblower over mold in the common areas. The Board action was a blatant attempt to silence my warnings.
After 18 months, the Board caved in, and I was declared the prevailing party! I then documented lessons learned during this grueling battle in Defend Your Condo & Homeowner Rights: What You Must Do When the Board Turns Your Life Upside Down!
A condo or HOA legal battle is often emotionally and physically shattering. The owner is trapped in a choking fog, disconnected from reality, and can’t see a way out. One feels alone, helpless and exhausted.
Fear of being forced to part with a beloved pet is especially devastating. Few understand what you are going through.
A condo owner living in Atlanta contacted me recently with a pressing problem. His condo Board alleged that his 14-year-old female dog exceeded a 30-pound pet-weight rule and eventually imposed fines totaling more than $2000.
The condominium documents permitted pets and made no reference to this weight restriction. The Board president insisted that the Board had a right to impose the rule without an Association vote. However, he was unwilling or unable to provide official Board minutes or public record documenting a Board vote on the matter, nor approval by the Association attorney.
The board didn’t weigh the dog, and they didn’t ask the owner to provide proof of the dog’s weight. The action was apparently based on hear-say and/or eye-sight alone.
The condo owner rallied his neighbors. Within four months, association members voted to repeal the so-called pet-weight rule. The owner immediately requested that his fines be repealed. After all, the Board never weighed his dog, and the so-called pet-weight rule had been rescinded.
The Board held firm. To make matters worse, a Board member stated at an Association meeting that a portion of the owner’s monthly assessment payment had been applied each month to the late-fee account (or shall I say, the Board member publicly acknowledged that the Board “commingled” the two accounts).
Failing to pay one’s assessment fees, as many condo owners are aware, could result in a lean on your home. The Board did not tell him how much of his monthly assessment payments had been “reallocated.”
I shared this story with our own condo property manager — admittedly an enlightened individual. He was shocked. “Board members must realize that they are human beings first,” he said. “In this case, the only neighborly thing was to immediately drop the fines.”
The moral of the story: Condo Board members (trustees!) often forget that they were elected by association members to serve the community. Serve, not dictate, is the operative word.
The condo owner has now taken specific steps to defend his rights. And by the way, his beloved dog’s name is Bean. He says she is a real Human Bean.
Copyright 2007 by Dr. Joyce Starr. All Rights Reserved.
Dr. Joyce Starr is author of Defend Your Condo & Homeowner Rights: What You Must Do When the Board Turns Your Life Upside Down! She is also publisher of the first Homeowner Defense Kit, a trilogy of works dealing with condo and homeowner rights. She also provides Homeowner TeleConsultations.
