eAlerts

Even during the pandemic, short-term rental arrangements continue to plague community associations, with owners and powerful lobbying groups for companies like Airbnb constantly devising new tactics for avoiding restrictions. “With Airbnb and those platforms becoming such a huge percentage of rentals,” says Jennifer Biletnikoff, a shareholder in the Naples, Fla., office of Becker & Poliakoff,…

A Los Angeles condo association received bad news when it recently landed in court after prohibiting a disabled octogenarian owner and her two caregivers who had tested positive for COVID-19 from its high-rise building. Not only did the trial judge grant the owner a preliminary injunction preventing the association from blocking entry, he also found…

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, many community associations have turned to virtual or telephonic meetings, but some have run into members who object. A recent ruling by a New York state court provides some reassurance that your clients have some wiggle room when it comes to strict adherence to annual meeting requirements amidst…

COVID-19 vaccine development is looking very promising. Some high-risk groups may even be able to get vaccinated before the end of 2020. As vaccines become widely available, some of your clients, particularly those with older populations, may start wonder if they can — and should — require residents to be vaccinated. “People aren’t thinking about…

Community association managers can help prove their worth by prompting their clients to tackle an issue many probably haven’t considered — continuity planning. Almost every association and manager have certain board members they rely most heavily on, often long-standing members with impressive amounts of both institutional and practical knowledge. What happens if one of those…

The Fair Housing Act may prohibit racial discrimination, but a surprising number of community associations’ deed covenants still contain racial restrictions — and some of your clients could be among them. With civil rights a mainstay in the media since the death of George Floyd in May 2020, associations with such restrictions should take action…

A Texas Court of Appeals has found that the failure to enforce a subdivision’s restrictive covenants constituted an abandonment of the restrictions as a whole — despite the fact that the covenants included a severability provision intended to protect the other provisions if one or more were struck down as unenforceable. “I’ve defended associations in…

It’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month — are you, your employees, and your boards of directors aware of community associations’ risks from phishing attacks? If not, or if proper precautions aren’t taken, your clients and their owners could lose control of their confidential information. And the risks are even higher if you have staff working from…

A federal Court of Appeals recently ruled that a community association manager wasn’t a “debt collector” for purposes of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), which strictly regulates the conduct of general debt collectors. But managers shouldn’t take too much comfort in the decision because it left open the possibility that the result might…

We're willing to bet that very few of your clients' budgets are on track for 2020, and figuring out how to adjust and plan for 2021 is complicated. “We’re looking at all those odd pieces, the additional costs associations have borne since March,” says Paul Grucza, director of education and client development at the Seattle-based…