Departments

Facts: A homeowner in a planned community that was situated on a lake witnessed an employee of the community’s hired landscaping company spraying fumes without wearing protective clothing or a face mask. The homeowner complained to the association and also made a report to the state’s department of agriculture, regarding “an environmental and public health incident.” According to the homeowner, the board of directors and management staff had willfully failed to take any safety precaution to prevent this incident.

Facts: Two homeowners with a townhouse in a planned complex sued the association for making alterations to and performing work on a protective berm located in the complex’s common area near their lot. They alleged that the alterations to the berm resulted in a loss of seclusion and privacy for their lot, thus lowering its value. The homeowners asserted six causes of action for: breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, intentional damage of property, negligence, trespass pursuant to state law, and an accounting.

Community Associations Institute (CAI), the leading authority for community association education, governance, and management, has awarded the most prestigious and respected designation—Professional Community Association Manager (PCAM)—to 86 community association professionals. The PCAM designations were earned between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2016, and the recipients joined the more than 2,800 total managers who have earned the prestigious PCAM designation. For the first time, the PCAM case study was administered outside the United States—in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Finances are a huge consideration for community association boards and managers. It takes money—and sometimes lots of it—to keep a community or condominium building up to high standards and running smoothly. If you manage an association or serve on your association’s board of directors, you already know that almost everything you do depends to some degree on whether you have a budget that you can work with realistically.

Unfortunately, since the presidential election, there have been several incidences of graffiti in community associations that have been featured on the news. The messages refer to some of the politically charged campaign sentiments. Besides being unsightly, graffiti leads to other problems. It annoys members, diminishes curb appeal, lowers the quality of life at your community, and invites additional crime. But a community that’s clean, well maintained, and free of graffiti sends the message that the association enforces its rules.

Finances are a huge consideration for community association boards and managers. It takes money—and sometimes lots of it—to keep a community or condominium building up to high standards and running smoothly. If you manage an association or serve on your association’s board of directors, you already know that almost everything you do depends to some degree on whether you have a budget that you can work with realistically.

Q: A weather disaster has severely damaged many of the homes in the planned community I manage. The local government is determining whether the community should be demolished. Several board members want to do this, but homeowners are protesting. The board members are worried that if they take action, they’ll be held legally responsible. What are the chances of this, and are there any recent cases that address this issue?

The Coalition for Community Housing Policy in the Public Interests most recent national survey has uncovered higher dissatisfaction with associations from their members. A whopping 81 percent of community association residents cited a lack of transparency and poor communication as the top concerns among those who live in planned communities and condominiums.

Facts: A woman moved into a condominium with her mother, who was handicapped, to help with her daily activities. The woman asked the condominium association to provide an unobstructed path between the member’s front door and driveway.

The nature of condominium buildings—that is, units stacked on each other—means that occasionally an accident in one condo will affect the adjacent unit. Flooding is a common cause of damage to multiple units, and it can happen from appliances like dishwashers and washing machines that leak. So when an adjacent unit is affected by a leak in the original unit, who is responsible for fixing the damage? Does the association have a duty to get involved?