THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 3, 1994 TAG: 9409010443
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Common Ground
SOURCE: G. Robert Kirkland and Michael A. Inman
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Does a condo owner have any recourse to the association management groups who have taken my condo fee and not enforced the rules and bylaws, or abided by the Virginia Beach Code, Section 23-47?
The intense bad feeling with my neighbor, who, for two years has broken all these rules, has escalated to the point where, with no help, I am afraid to live here and am being forced to move. I am retired and and can hardly afford moving expenses, but my health required me to relocate.
No, a condo owner does not have any direct recourse to the association management groups whom you believe have not done their job. But we must quickly point out that it is not the association management groups who are necessarily responsible for enforcing the rules. It is the duty of the board of directors to run the organization, including rules enforcement. Association management companies contract with associations to support the efforts of the board of directors in whatever way required by their contract. Rules enforcement can fall under the purview and responsibility of the association management company, but it is ultimately the responsibility of the board of directors to make sure that the management company is doing its job and for the two entities to be mutually supportive, especially in the enforcement role. The board of directors and the architectural control committee members are living in the community and observing the community on a daily basis, whereas most management contracts call for weekly property inspections. Even then, it's not practical to think that every violation is going to be observed by the management company employee.
Therefore, we recommend the following course of action for you to get the results you want:
1. If the correspondence you have received from the board has directed you to call the management company in order to get enforcement action, then you should, in fact, contact the appropriate representative of the management company to report the violation. You should give the management company abou two weeks to react to your complaint.
2. If you do not get a satisfactory response, then you should talk to a member of the board of directors about your problem, and/or appear at a board meeting in order to report the problem. In light of the apparent longevity of your problem, it might be wise for you to attend a board meeting soon, especially if the management company involved is same one with which you have experience problems in the past.
3. Ultimately, if you do not get an appropriate response from the board or the management company, you have the right to enforce convenants that are set forth in the declaration and bylaws on your own if you so choose.
The other longer-term solutions to your problem are to go on a campaign to get the board of directors replaced because they're not doing their jobs, or, as you have said in your letter, move to another residence. We wish you the best in your efforts to get consistent enforcement of the rules and covenants. MEMO: G. Robert Kirkland, president of a Virginia Beach property-management
consulting firm, and attorney Michael A. Inman specialize in Virginia
community-association issues and are affiliated with the Southeastern
Virginia chapter of Community Associations Institute. Send comments and
questions to them at Real Estate Weekly, 150 W. Brambleton Ave.,
Norfolk, Va. 23510. To submit questions by phone, call 446-2033; fax:
446-2531.
by CNB