Legal Compliance for Community Associations

Your clients no doubt know that they may need to reasonably accommodate various protected classes, but it may not occur to them that their efforts to empower one group could result in discrimination claims from another. A New Jersey condo association learned this lesson the hard way. The association has a large Orthodox Jewish population.…

A New Jersey condo association with a community pool thought it was bending over backward to accommodate its religious owners with the pool schedule. But its efforts to work with one protected class ended up inadvertently discriminating against another. Read on to learn how the association landed in court. Pool Rules Make a Splash The…

Who doesn’t love dogs? When they’re barking all day, defecating in common areas, or worse — lots of people. This week’s article provides community association boards and their managers some valuable guidance for handling dog-related issues. Dogs can get the neighbors’ dander up in numerous ways. “The handling of dog waste is probably the number-one…

Even the most ardent dog lovers can get fed up with their neighbors’ pooches, and no one knows that better than the boards of directors and managers who must field the resulting complaints. With so many dog owners thinking of Fido as a member of the family, the proper response calls for a sensitive touch.…

Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires, and thunderstorms, hail storms, and other kinds of freak storms — no community association is immune to disasters these days. Most boards of directors recognize this, but they may find the very idea of disaster planning and response intimidating. This week’s article explains how managers can help their boards reduce the…

While few doubt the importance of disaster preparedness for community associations, boards of directors can find it daunting. And rightly so — well-intentioned boards can make emergency planning and response mistakes that ultimately cause more damage and even leave them open to liability. It’s up to association managers to provide some critical guidance and help…

You’ve probably seen it before — an owner adds some type of restrictive endorsement in the memo portion of a check in hopes of pulling a fast one. This week’s article explains how a condo association in Ohio has now spent years in court as a result of such an endorsement. The case provides some…

Attorney Daniel Miske, of Milwaukee, Wis., firm Husch Blackwell LLP, calls them “professional debtors” — the kind of people who try to evade their financial obligations by, for example, getting cute with the endorsements on their payment checks. An owner in Ohio dragged a condo association through years of litigation because of such an endorsement.…

Many communities are developed with detention ponds, and associations rarely give them a second thought. When they do, they probably figure any problems are the developer’s problem. This week, we explain why this kind of thinking can lead to some unpleasant, and costly surprises long after an association might think it could be held liable.…

Do your clients have ponds on their grounds? If so, they could be subject to liability related to overflow for much longer than they might expect. In fact, according to a recent court ruling in Pennsylvania, every overflow incident could re-open the door to litigation, regardless of when the pond was built or the owner…