Departments

Facts: A condo community has 20 units and 30 parking spaces. At the start of the association, one parking space was assigned to each condominium and 10 spaces were unassigned. A provision in the condominium's declaration permitted the developer to sell the unassigned spaces to members or to third-party non-condominium owners. Under the declaration, no person other than the developer could sell or lease a parking space to a non-condominium owner.

Facts: A member repeatedly engaged in outrageous communications and conduct with his association, its managers, and members of its board of directors, which included vulgar and harassing letters, disruption of association meetings, and a physical assault on a board member.

A Philadelphia municipal judge recently ruled in favor of a condo association against a member who refused to pay his cable TV bills. The member claimed that the association violated the FCC ban on exclusive cable deals. He argued that the association gets bulk billing from Comcast, forcing all owners to pay for “basic” cable, whether they want it or not. The judge ruled that there was no FCC violation—that the association's cable contract doesn't prohibit a condo owner from getting another cable provider—although he would have to pay two cable bills.

Be sure to review the terms of your association's insurance policies after purchasing them. Somewhere in the purchasing process, an agent may have entered a wrong number, and your association may be getting less coverage than it expected.

This happened in a recent case in which a member suffered substantial water and mold damage to her condominium as a result of Hurricane Katrina. After the hurricane, the member notified the association and made claims under the applicable policies for damages sustained to her unit. These claims were either denied or only partially paid.

The cold weather has arrived in many parts of the country, bringing with it the increased threat of fires due to the improper use of electric space heaters. According to the National Fire Protection Association, space heaters account for one-third (32 percent) of home-heating fires and three-fourths (73 percent) of home-heating fire deaths.

An increasing number of associations are dealing with weakening finances because a percentage of their members are unable to pay their assessments on time. The economic situation is grim. According to data from the Equifax Credit Bureau, high U.S. unemployment keeps pushing up the rate of mortgage delinquencies, which in turn drives personal bankruptcies and home foreclosures. August marked the fourth consecutive monthly increase in delinquencies, and the report showed an accelerating pace.

Q  Over the years, we have had issues with association members who have made modifications to their homes without obtaining the necessary approval from the association. Also, as a result, suspicious members regularly make calls to the management office to ask if particular neighbors have been granted approval by the architectural review committee for whatever project the neighbor happens to be working on. Can you recommend any efficient way to put association members on notice of approved projects in the community?

Facts: A member obtained the approval of the association to build a house, a retaining wall, and a barn on his lot located in the community. The governing documents require that work on any construction projects must be completed within a year of approval. Even so, two years after approval, the member still had not begun construction of the house, and the association gave the member notice that it would begin mediation proceedings to resolve the construction delays.

Facts: A member was injured as a result of exposure to unsafe sanitary conditions in the community swimming pool. Specifically, the member contracted a viral infection from contaminants in the swimming pool's water. The viral infection was identified as the coxsackie virus, which was contracted from ingesting the community's swimming pool water. According to an expert's report, proper chlorination of swimming pool water is an effective way to kill harmful microbes, including the virus that caused the member's injury.

Facts: A few months after an association completed a roofing project, a member wrote a letter to the association board stating that she had a water moisture problem inside her second-story bedroom window as a result of the new tile roof. She also reported several broken roof tiles. Six years later, the buildings in the association suffered numerous roof leaks. And the following spring, the association hired a roofing consultant who found multiple causes for the leaks and multiple types of roof defects.