As managers sometimes we feel like we are trapped between unit owners that refuse to comply with the rules of the Association, and Boards of Directors who think they can solve the problem by themselves.These Boards of Directors refuse to take the necessary legal action when owners fail to comply with polite requests and violation notices to cease-and-desist in breaking the rules.
Take for example the board member that called the other day complaining that a resident / owner was out on their patio playing loud music till all hours of the night. This board member reminded me that this was not his first complaint about said unit owner. He wanted to know what as managers we were going to do to force the unit owner to comply with the rules and keep the noise level down at night.
Now this unit owner had already been sent multiple violation notices and had refused to comply with any of them. In fact in a not so friendly conversation he had explained to the property manager “that he was an owner and he would do what he damn well pleased”.
Unfortunately as condo managers we cannot force owners to comply with the rules and must rely on the goodwill and cooperation of owners to do what is right and to abide by the communities rules. When you receive your manager’s license they don’t issue a gun, handcuffs, club or even a mean looking dog which you can use to intimidate owners into complying with the rules. As managers we have only one weapon with which to enforce compliance on a wayward owner, this weapon is legal action and requires the approval and direction of the Association’s board of directors.
Without the board’s cooperation we can do no more than send toothless violation notices. Unfortunately legal action is neither fast nor inexpensive and we understand that boards of directors during these tuff economic times loathe the idea of adding additional expenses to the already expanding costs of operations. So what’s to be done, for failure to take action sends a message that the violator does not have to comply and the management and the board of directors are toothless tigers with the inability to do much more than growl.
A tough choice for any board of directors, authorize legal action against the offender and pay the legal bills (maybe you will recover some if the cost from the unit owner and maybe not) or allow the wayward owner to continue to violate the rules and disturbed others in the community.
Just for the record in this case the board decided to authorize legal action (it may have helped that the offender was keeping a board member up at night). As to the outcome of said legal action well so far we have nothing to show for it but legal bills; however the association’s legal counsel does feel that they can force compliance and recover the cost from said wayward owner. What they won’t say is how long before things quite down or how much this quite is going to cost before it’s all over.
