Articles

Sports courts, such as basketball, volleyball, and tennis courts, are a great amenity for a community. But they can also lead to problems—for example, members arguing over how much time should be allotted on a court—or serious injuries. Creating a set of rules that govern the use of sports courts is a smart way to avoid liability for injuries and to head off member disputes.

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.

Many associations hire lifeguards to reduce the likelihood of accidents at the community pool. But if you hire an unqualified lifeguard, you could increase your liability for accidents. Your association can be held legally responsible if the lifeguard you hire lacks the proper training and somebody drowns or gets hurt in the community’s pool because of the lifeguard’s incompetence.

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.

Illinois homeowners who are unhappy about their community association cannot stop paying their assessments, according to a recent Illinois Supreme Court ruling—a decision applauded by the Community Association Institute (CAI) and its members.