Risk Management

Community associations increasingly are installing automated license plate readers (ALPRs) as a way to bolster security. “As people get more used to the technology, I think more associations will go down this path,” says Kevin Hirzel, managing member of Hirzel Law, PLC, a Michigan-based firm that works with community associations, “especially if they’re looking to…

The federal government’s initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic included passage of the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA) — a law that community associations and managers could inadvertently violate if they’re not careful. An association in Florida learned that the hard way when an employee it had terminated sued it under the law. That…

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,…

The federal government’s initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic included passage of the Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act (EPSLA) — a law that community associations and managers could inadvertently violate if they’re not careful. An association in Florida learned that the hard way when an employee it had terminated sued it under the law. That…

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…

Want to help your clients avoid some dangerous territory in terms of both money and reputation? Here’s one easy way — educate them about some of the ostensibly innocent practices they engage in that could land them in court for fair housing violations. Our experts have identified several that might come back to haunt a…

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. (Thompson v. The Diplomat Condominium Association, Inc., L.A. Cty., Sept. 29, 2020) Not only did the trial judge grant the owner…

Managing community associations means dealing with a nonstop carousel of complaints — those that are novel, those that are evergreen and never seem to go away, and those that pop up in new or unexpected ways. Here are some of the issues currently beleaguering association managers across the country. 1. Smoking This classic has gained…

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…