HOA & Condo Violations: What Homeowners NEED to Know

And here's a common question that comes from both sides: can homeowners challenge the violations? Hello everyone, today we're talking violations, and if you are in an HOA or condo, this is a— this is something we need to talk about because how do we enforce them? How do we handle difficult conversations? Like, it's a mess. Okay, so for that In order for us to do that, we have two amazing guests. We have Rafael Aquino from Affinity Management Company, and we also have Eric. He is an attorney who specializes in HOA. So I'm going to let you guys introduce yourself because you guys probably would do a much better job than me. So why don't— Rafael, why don't you start?

Sure. So my name is Rafael Aquino. I'm the CEO and co-founder of Affinity Management Services. We're a community association management company. Our purpose and what really drives us is helping our community association board members execute their vision. We do it through our proven process: align, execute, deliver. But I've been doing it now for 18 years and excited to be here on the show with Eric Glazer, one of the individuals who I've looked up to for years and was helping me actually get through to all of this. So thank you for being on the show, Eric.

Thank you, Rafael. It's an honor to be working with you today. I've been practicing community association law for the past 32 years with the firm of Glazer Sachs. I'm board certified by the Florida Bar in condominium and planned development law, and I think most importantly, I've certified about 27,000 board members throughout the state to be board members on a condominium and HOA board. That's what I'm proud of the most.

And I'm a simple homeowner who just happens to have lots of questions about violations, and I have a lot of the people from our community give me like a list of people. Like, we're like, we're going to talk about violations with Rafa and Eric. And they're like, oh, are you ready? So are you guys ready to get started?

Ready?

So let me ask Eric, because this is one of those hot questions. What type of violations are legally enforceable?

The answer to that question involves a legal answer. And right. And it means those violations that are found in your governing documents to be violations in the first place. Like, a lot of times, boards will tell me that, "Hey, I went after this person because they committed a violation of this or that." I said, "Okay, show me where it's a violation in your governing documents." "So what do you mean? Because we said it's a violation." Not good enough, okay? It has to be in your governing documents to show that it's— this happens all the time. That it's a violation. In order to make rules and regulations, they gotta be reasonably related to the health, the welfare, and the safety of the community. They can't be arbitrary or capricious. That's one thing. They can't just be made up for the sake of making up rules. And the last thing I'll tell you legally is you can't make a rule that is already spoken about for in your superior document which is your declaration. For example, really quick, suppose your governing documents say everybody is entitled to one pet, but the board says, you know what, we're getting tired of all these pets in the community, we're going to make it a violation to bring in a pet in the first place. No more pets. Can the board do that by making a rule? No, they can't do that. Why? Because the superior document says everybody's allowed one pet. You'd have to amend that. So I know that was a long-winded legal answer, But that's the answer.

The answer is it depends.

Yes. I could have said it depends, I guess.

But what about now from the property management side? How do you guys do this? Because like there's so many different violations. How do you enforce them? How do you coach people into doing it the right way?

Sure, sure. I think I want to touch up— I want to start with one that is common, right, where We take on an association and it's a new board and the board just says, all right, no one has enforced the covenants of the association, no one has followed the rules of the association and we want to go full-fledged. What that means is, let me give it for those listeners that maybe are not on the board. Let's say you had in the covenants that all the houses had to be painted the same. I won't touch roofs because there's been some changes, but let's say landscaping needed to look a certain way, driveways needed to be no more than X, and those weren't followed for years. And all of a sudden, the new board, great intentions, wants to all of a sudden follow these rules. That's where it gets, I think, the most challenging. And the reason is that you have to have a process in order to start to do this. And that process first starts with contacting the attorney and go, look, this is what we want to do. What potential challenges could we face and how should we phase this in? So we want to have that opinion because if anyone comes against the association, well, first challenge you're going to have is, well, this person has that driveway and I have the driveway. They don't know we probably sent the violation to that person as well. So I think that occurs a lot in our industry and it's And it's solvable. It's a process because there's going to be some things that you may need to let go because it's been years of lack of enforcement. But overall, the violation process in itself, it's pretty simple. I mean, the documents outline what you can send violations for, as Eric stated. You're not permitted to send violations for what are not within those documents. And ultimately, when you send those violations, you're now required to put where it's cited in the documents. So what's the actual section of it? From a management perspective of sending it, we use a technology tool that allows us to do it much more efficiently.

That's my question.

Yeah. Instead of, instead of having the manager figure out, oh, I need to— what's this violation? What's the section? What we do is when we onboard a new community, we put it all into the software. These are the 20 or these are the 10 or these are 100. and we already have them preprogrammed in there. And the manager drives through the community, takes a picture, hits the selection, and hits send, and it sends it out to a printer to automatically send it. And the board has full access to what the manager's doing, what's been sent, who has a violation. It gives them a simple green, red, and yellow color so they know red means they have a violation, orange, like a yellow light, means they're disputing it. And green means they're clear of any violations. So we do have a system, we utilize technology a lot to make it simpler both for our managers as well for the board to be able to see what's going on within the community.

That's great, I don't even know you have that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, because you know how it is, Eric, when you get into the architectural— so, so there's a process that if you send a violation, in order to, um, well, there's two processes. In order to find them, you need to go through a certain process, and I won't go into that because You got to read the documents and so forth. That's— there's a lot of legwork that needs to be done to prepare for that meeting. So by using a tool, what we do is now we have screens because everyone has screens now, and we just pop it up and say, okay, this homeowner is coming up, and we could see the violation, and it date stamps the picture of the last time that violation was sent. Same thing goes with the architectural process. So I don't want to bore you with too much of the details.

No, but that's really important because there might be some self-managed communities who don't even know that there's access to to something that can, like, track things and make it easy for them because that's a lot of work.

No, it most, most definitely is. And it's the record keeping because we have a big responsibility in the sense of keeping those records in order because if you do have to go legal, in some instances you do, the attorney is going to ask for that documentation or the other party that's potentially suing you for sending a violation because that can happen. Is going to ask you, okay, where are all the violations? Where are the pictures? Where's the proof? So having to dig through a ton of paper is just, at least for us, for our operation, that just wouldn't work.

Rafael raised something that's so important. Oftentimes you'll take over a new community and like you say, they want to go after everybody right away.

Right away.

Like, wait a minute, that person has that garage that way for 46 years. What do you mean you want to go after them now? Statute of limitations expired a long time ago. Wow. So slow it down, everybody. And it's your job to take everybody down a notch.

That's right. That's right. Yeah. We, like, our initial recommendation in those kinds of situations is, of course, let's consult, but then let's do it in a phased approach. So you still want to send a communication to everyone saying these are the common violations that we've seen. We understand that they may not have been enforced for some time, but this is the process. Warning, it's getting people kind of like, yeah, at the end of the day, these are your neighbors. You don't want to get to create enemies, but you're in a, in a difficult situation because you have a responsibility to enforce those rules. So let's just communicate to them. Let's be human.

Can those rules be changed?

Great.

Like if something like is now outdated because—

so the boards of directors always have the right to make changes to the rules and regulations if it's regarding the common areas in the community. They could always change the rules. However, once something is contained in the declaration, it's the unit owners themselves who make those changes, not just the board. Everybody gets to vote on the major provisions that are in your declaration.

Give me an example, like—

So like I said before, a rule about the common areas, the pool will be opened only till 7 o'clock at night. That's a rule, right? And the board makes those rules. But something that's in your declaration, such as, like I said before, everybody's entitled to one pet, and that's in your declaration. The board can't say, oh, we're going to make a rule that says no more pets. The community has to vote that one down. Okay, big difference between the two. Yep.

So it takes a different vote of the residents, and, and that's— you have to have your— you have to read the documents. So if you want to say, listen, now I heard a stat that there's almost the same amount of humans as there are dogs. So if it's true, I don't know, I heard that stat. But if you want to say, well, I want to allow 2 dogs in the community, you have to amend those documents. So you have to take a member vote, and that member vote is going to be outlined within your documents. You're going to want to consult with the attorney to make sure they draft that amendment for you of what it needs to look like.

You're going to have to talk to an attorney. It's going to be a constant conversation.

Yeah, yeah. No, because I, I say that that way because Many times it's just, why don't we just send the notice? You guys just change 1 to 2. Why do we need to talk to the attorney about that? But there's voting requirements, there are proxies, there's so much that goes—

got to be prepared a certain way, a certain way, right?

And unfortunately, and here's the thing, like, for new homeowners that are coming to this new— they're coming to live in this new place, obviously they were never consulted on the rules and regulations, and there might be rules that unfair or unreasonable, is there anything they can do about it?

Yes. Read your documents before moving in.

That's the answer we always give. We get hammered as an industry for—

That's such a mean question to say.

But it's— look, there's pros and cons to legislation, right? The legislation is only as good as, in my opinion, as the teeth that it has. And many times we pass legislation just to try to fix a problem, but it's just a patch. The reality of the situation, why I bring that up is 'cause there's been a lot of legislation that says, this is what you need to do, this is how you need to do it. But in reality, we didn't need to pass that legislation if the person would've just have read their documents when they were supposed to, which by the way, realtors are supposed to provide that documentation 3 days after the signature of the contract. That unfortunately doesn't occur.

[Speaker] Yeah, that's what I'm coming from is like, Sign here, sign here, sign here, 20, like a pile of papers here. You're like, yeah.

So, so what people don't understand is, and, and Eric, we've blogged about this before, is that they say, well, you're taking away my rights. Well, when you're moving into an association, there's a contract that you're signing, and, and that's unfortunately what happens. And in all fairness to the new homeowner, I understand it's a very emotional decision in a positive way. You're excited, you really want to get in. But when you're getting into a condo or an HOA, you're signing another contract that you need to abide by. And sometimes that does mean limiting certain rights.

Yes, there's, there's cases on point of the Florida Supreme Court that said when you move into an association, whether it be a condo or an HOA, you give up certain rights that you would normally have if you lived in a private home on the street. Sorry, it's not the same thing. You're giving up rights so that everybody plays by the same rules and everybody hopefully gets along.

Hopefully gets along, yeah.

So they got that wrong, but you know.

So good luck with that one.

So I do have a question. What makes a violation fair versus unreasonable?

Okay, if it's not related to the health, welfare, and safety of— just to give you like a stupid example, everybody has to have a black car. Right? There's no reason, there's no rhyme for such a rule. Right? It doesn't make sense. So, the law says that the rules that the association makes has to have some meaning, some purpose. It has to be related to the health, welfare, and safety of the community. So a rule, for example, that closes the pool for the day at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, sorry, that's an unreasonable rule. It's not related to the health, welfare, and safety of the community, and a person in the community would be able to strike that down should they challenge it.

How can they do that?

They'd have to go to court to do that though, or potentially arbitration. They'd have to fight it out.

Yeah, or, or there's also, as a resident, as a resident, you have, for those that are not on the board, you have the ability of changing the board as well. If there's something that you don't agree with, you have. Now, can it be difficult with some of the larger HOAs? Yes, because the requirement in order to get a vote. Eric and I were talking about a very large community that we both know of that is difficult to get a quorum just because residents don't get involved, even though there's technology to help you with that, with online voting and so forth. But yeah, as a resident, if you feel that you want to make a change, you have the right. But no different than our local politicians, you know, you got to start knocking on doors, explaining what your vision is, why you would like to do it, In my eyes, I always say try to do it in a positive fashion, not in a rumor mill. But yeah, you do have the right, and then you still have to go through the process of doing a vote and everything. It's not as simple as I'm just going to change something.

You mentioned like politician. It's exactly like that. You're right.

Yeah, it's quasi-government.

Exactly. Every little association is in effect a quasi-government. Agree with you 100%. Yeah.

All right.

There's the town attorney, right? There's the town city— you're like the city manager. That's right. Right. I mean, that's what it's like.

That's what it is.

That's exactly what it's like. What it's like.

Yeah, I know that some of my, um, friends in the board, they had a lot of questions about the new Florida laws that started July 1st, 2024, that give homeowners more flexibility on things like parking, landscaping, and modifications. Can you guys give me a little bit more details for people who may not know about this?

I'll let you start there.

Sure. This is for— we're talking about homeowner associations, right? Not condos. So if I hadn't just described this set of new laws that came out July 1st, it was homeowners complaining to the Florida legislature that my HOA doesn't leave me alone, they're in every part of my life, they won't let me live. So the new laws that came out this year was basically saying get off the backs of the homeowners, right? Leave them alone. If you can't see something something shouldn't be bothering you, then don't try to enforce something that doesn't— that you really— it shouldn't be bothering you because you don't even see it. For example, let's say the governing documents of a community say you can't have a boat or an RV in your backyard. Okay, let's just say that. It's very common, very common phrase in a lot of documents. Well, this year the law was changed to say, well, even if you have that language in your governing documents, if If someone puts it in their backyard but nobody could see it, right, you can't see it from the front, you can't see it from the side, you can't see it from an adjoining parcel, you can't see it while you're in back of it on a common area, then why should it bother you that somebody has a boat in their backyard, right? So because of many complaints that the legislature received like that, now the law is they can have it in their backyard if it's not bothering anybody, right? A lot of different laws like that. The big ones are a pickup truck, right? For years, for decades, we had no pickup trucks in— on the community. Well, Florida legislature said, yeah, we have them now, right? What about if somebody works for a particular company, right, and on their car they have a little insignia that so shows which company that they work for? A lot of communities said, nope, can't put any commercial lettering on your vehicle. and people were complaining. Wait a minute, I work for, let's say, a real estate company. I have the real estate emblem of the company on the side of the car, and my association's making me park 2 miles away. Is that fair? So the Florida legislature said, right, unreasonable. So that's where all these new laws focused on this year. And now, yes, you are allowed to park in your own driveway. It's basically make life easier for the homeowners. That's what— that really was the focus.

Yeah, and to add to that, it's important for the board members as well as residents to, to understand, and this is why education is so important for board members. Now that they're required to do a 4-hour course, they'll learn a lot of these things in courses such as Eric's that he puts together. But it's also important to understand that even while statute may have changed with certain laws, there's certain things that you, even if the statute changed, they may not apply to you. So Eric's smiling because I'm bringing them in. It's important. It's what we call, and I know you're going to be like, what is that? The Kaufman language, right? Does your documents, do they have the language as amended from time to time? So I'm going to pass the buck over to Eric because he could give a little understanding.

This came up last night, as a matter of fact, with Affinity.

Yeah.

Okay, it's a case I argued in front of the Supreme Court in Florida in 2011, but just on this issue. What is it about? To try to do this really fast is, just because the legislature passes a new law in Florida for condos or HOAs, would you think it— you would think it automatically applies in your condo or HOA, right? Brand new condo or HOA law. Well, you may be surprised to learn that it doesn't. It may apply in your condo, but not in the condo next door, or vice versa. It may apply in the HOA next door, but not in your HOA. How does it work?

Yes, my brain is like—

So you have to take— right, doesn't make sense, right? Well, if the Supreme Court would have bought my argument, we wouldn't have to talk about this today. But what— so what does it mean? It— if you have to take a look at your governing documents, okay? So does your govern— let's say your condo was built in 1980. So does your governing document say that your condo adopts the laws that exist in 1980, or does it say we're adopting the laws as they exist in 1980 and as amended from time to time? If it does not say that, right, if it does not say as amended from time to time and a new law comes out that changes your declaration, changes your contract, right, that would be considered and really changes the rights, privileges, imposes new penalties, then that would be unconstitutional to apply this new law in your community because you don't have the "as amended from time to time" language. So what you're getting at is a lot of these new HOA laws, right, even though it gives these unit owners all these new rights, a lot of boards are coming forward and saying, We're not applying them in our community because we don't have the new— we don't have the as amended from time to time language. These new laws say that we have to let commercial lettering on cars. We're not doing it. These new laws say we have to allow pickup trucks. We're not letting it in. Nobody's challenged it yet in court. Yeah, but somebody will.

Yeah. Yeah. It's just a matter of time.

They change that law that said that. Is it possible? Like, are they just gonna die with that?

Is it— oh, that's interesting. No, so I— I— can you, can you now all of a sudden change your documents to have the as amended? Yes, you can.

Yes, you can.

Yes, but you have to have board members that are willing to go there and residents and residents, right?

And residents, you have to have both. That's right, that's right. So it's a little bit more— whenever you're going to change, I guess, whenever you're going to change the core documents, I guess to keep it simple, everybody, the rules and regulations are typically the ones that the board change as they need to change. They still have a process that they need to follow. It's not as simple as new rule, here it is. But yeah.

I can't believe you made me explain that. We got to be out of time now.

I think it's so important because we had the situation with the new changes and we have both sides of the story where let's go with it, we want to give people this freedom, and we have other board members that we kind of understand their position. Look, when I bought here, This is what I wanted. But again, as we said, we say all the time is we have to read the contract that you bought into and let's have it reviewed. Because if it does save them from time to time, you need to permit it. Because if you don't, you're going to find yourself in a difficult situation, in a pickle.

I know. But let's be for real. Like, who actually reads those documents?

That's what—

that's so funny that you said that. I argued that.

I argued that to the Florida Supreme Court. And still lost 7-0. It was close.

No, I'm kidding.

You probably should take a course of like your documents before you accept the whole thing.

No, I understand that. I guess the way we've— our society has fallen into a culture of who really reads that, and I think even more so with technology because you're just private policy accept, no one reads that, but then later we're complaining why are these phones tracking me. Do you read your documents? I don't. Well, I don't I don't live in an association.

Okay, good. I'm like, like, don't even say that. You have not read your documents.

But to be honest, knowing what I know, knowing what I know now today, anyone that buys an association— only one friend didn't call me and they bought in the wrong building, and I would have warned them, right? But I tell them, read the documents, because you're, you're getting into it. Eric, what's your phone number?

I'm gonna be like, um, How much is an hour of your time?

But no, back to, I guess, the violation portion. I think what's important on the violation portion of it is just being consistent. It's no different than you have so many new communities that are being built throughout South Florida, on the West Coast, North, all over Florida. And whenever we have the privilege of serving a community that either was with the developer and we take it over, We tell that board, you are the one that are going to set the tone for the length, for the life of this community. Maybe not necessarily their life, but we're giving them that picture because if they start doing the violations, if they start putting detailed architecturals, what that means is these are the specifics of what we're looking for. If it's a fence, the developers will tell you it's just a fence, not a knock on them, but that's just what they keep it simple. All right, what kind of fence does the board want? Are we going to allow staining, no staining, shadow box, aluminum? Why that detail? Because if you don't have that in your doc, in your guidelines, what's called your architectural guidelines, you as a resident can apply and say, okay, I'm going to put in a fence, I'm going to put in a similar fence, but I'm going to stain it black. You can't stop them from that if it's not in the documents to say that that's the guideline. That's why, especially for the new communities being done in Florida, and hopefully those that are listening to us are in a newer community, It's important you set the tone from the beginning and it's important to have the right management partner to help guide you through that because you'll see that the community's aesthetics will remain pretty similar. If you're in a situation where you're newer to the board and that's what it is, it doesn't mean it's over. It's just, okay, it just has to be a slightly different process and a more patient process because you're going to have to reeducate the community of the new expectations that now exist.

Yeah. And I think over the years, with, you know, the internet having access to all the Florida statutes and cases and stuff, people are much smarter than they ever were.

Great point.

They know that they can paint their fence black if the rule— if it's not in the rule.

If it's not in the rule.

People are much smarter than they were.

Yeah.

And we have ChatGPT.

Yes. Oh yeah, 100%, right? That makes life much easier.

Exactly. Exactly.

So yeah, that people So those are the little things that I believe that just get missed is on the architectural and on the sending of the violations. It's just the details. It's a very detailed process.

I heard something about roofs in the new things. What is that about?

So I don't know why, but some associations just don't think it's a good thing for people in their community to have metal roofs. I don't know why. Fantastic product. It's great on the market. I think it's a great thing that it came out. Oftentimes I think it's a jealousy factor. I really do believe that.

I agree.

Yeah, but unit owners— homeowners, I should say— were being prohibited from installing a metal roof for whatever reason. Now the law says, well, as long as it meets a certain standard— I think it's called ASCE standards— which a metal roof is, you got to let them put the metal roof on. And I still have people fighting me that I'm not gonna let them in. Like, let them on. Yeah, you are, or you're gonna wind up getting sued.

Yeah. So. I've dealt with that ground from the ground. Like we've dealt with it. We had a community that all the roofs were barrel tile, your typical, your traditional Mediterranean style, clay color barrel tile. And you had an owner fighting before the law that wanted a metal roof. And at that time it didn't exist, the barrel tile metal roofs. Now they exist. So it was a battle. It was a battle. I believe the person lost the issue because a new law wasn't in place. But now it's made it much simpler because now—

This person was ahead of its time.

Yeah, you have the burial time. And I felt honestly in thinking about it, it was a tough decision. As a management company, we don't try to take sides, but we talk about these situations at the office. And it's tough to take sides because we completely understand the metal roof, much longer longevity, hurricane chance of it popping off, rare, very rare, because that's bolted down. Barrel tile, super easy to become an object. But when you see, let's say, uh, aesthetics of the community. Yeah, but you got to remember, like I said a little bit earlier, some people fall in the love of the aesthetics of the community. But fortunately enough, technology has advanced. We now have the new law. And now, you know, you can allow metal roofs and say, okay, we have them now. There's barrel metal roofs, even though now you could put a metal roof no matter what. But now there's barrel style.

They can compensate a little bit. You can—

the board still has the authority to say, wait a minute, you're going to use this color as close to possible. No problem. They can still say that. But just saying a blanket prohibition on metal roofs, you can't do that anymore.

Yeah.

Yeah. And that doesn't feel really friendly also for technology.

Yes, of course.

Of course. Helpful. But then the next hot topic inside of violations is what is the right way to enforce them?

I'll start on the enforcement piece. I think at the end of the day, you know, many certain board members or residents or committee members— because you should have a committee in place— is again, I go back to the whole neighbor concept. At the end of the day, these individuals are your neighbors. So if you haven't done it in a while, let's just start sending communication Um, let's let them know what's, what's to come. These are the common violations that we're seeing. Uh, this is what we want to give everyone a 30-day window to at least, let's say, simple things like pressure washing and so forth to get it done. Roofs are— take a little bit more time. Um, but the process should be just notifying the resident. Just a first notice should be just, this is your violation of this. Ideally, you have a platform that shows a picture so that they know whether in violation. Obviously, if the roof is broken, that's an easy violation. They know what it is. But if it's The wall needs to be painted, you know, like letting them know what needs to be painted. Some documents are very precise on the notices and how they need to happen. Many are not. So you should have a process at least documented of what you're going to do, the steps you're going to follow before you take it into any potential fining. At Affinity, we try not to fine. If we have to fine, we have to fine because we have to follow it. But our goal is really just to get individuals to take corrective action. You're always going to get that one or two that don't, but there is a bit of—

and those are the ones that I'm interested in because then what happens— like, the people who comply, it's fine, but what happens with those people who are just so difficult?

Yeah, so, you know, you get a little bit technical, and I'll let Eric jump in here now, but, you know, the documents— again, it depends for HOAs and condos. What we're talking today is HOAs. You have to read your documents. HOAs don't have a strictly outlined process, step 1, 2, and 3. You have to read your documents, get that process outlined by the attorney so the managing company can follow that process. But if you've gone already to a point where you have a committee and you can actually find— is to find— if you have a person that's like that, most of the times they don't care about the fine because the fine is maximum $1,000, $100 a day. Yeah. In my experience, if you're going there, most likely that person is going to the attorneys. Office? Like, you're going to move them into the attorney, and then I'll let Eric jump in now.

Yeah, well, if someone has something dangerous on a property, you can always go to court and have them remove that. You can always, you know, something in this emergency, you don't have to start out immediately with the finding process. Like, for example, yeah, um, they have, uh, something that attracts children that's dangerous. They have a pool with no water and a broken fence where kids sneak in, right? We've had that type of a situation before. Well, kids can die jumping in that pool, so you can go to court, get an emergency order against them, right? Something like that. But that's an extreme situation. Most of the time, if someone doesn't comply with a rule, you can go through the fining process. But everybody gets confused on the fining process. You have to have a committee, like you were saying, made up of at least 3 people who aren't board members. And it starts off at the board of directors level. The board says, okay, let's say Unit 102 has been parking in guest parking for 7 days. So somebody on the board makes a motion to say, I say we fine Unit 102 $700, $100 a day for the 7 days that they parked in guest parking. All in favor say aye. Aye. So the board votes for it. Is it over? No. Now it goes in front of a fining committee. And the finding committee hears the story all over again, and they get to decide whether to keep the $700 in place or bring it down to zero. There's one or the other. And under the new law, it gets very strange. Do they have a— it seems like if the violation was corrected before it gets to the finding committee, the finding committee has no jurisdiction anymore. That's right. Very weird.

And you have to provide notice. I don't remember the exact time.

You have to provide 14 days.

Yeah, 14-day notice before you don't provide provided, then, then you're, you're, you're in a situation. So even though we've always provided notice after a hearing because you want to notify, but now, yeah, now it's become a little bit more—

it's weird because can they— now the argument says, can they keep parking in, in guest parking, keep committing a violation, and as long as you— as long as you do it before the finding committee, you know, that they can never find them? It's weird.

Yeah, there's been, there's been a lot of changes. Like, for instance, a garbage can was a common one. Like, we have, we have one particular community, very high-end community, And, and I get the board's, uh, position, which is if your trash can's there for 24 hours over, you're getting fined. Like, there's no way around it. So now that's gone.

I'd be in jail for that one.

Yeah, but that, that was that. Now that, now that's gone. So there's been a lot of changes. And again, what you'll find is, at least what we find, is it's, it's really dependent— and I use that word a lot— uh, vision of what the vision of that board is. And if as a resident you're not happy with it, then that's where you, you have to take the necessary steps to either, you know, get elected or get the board changed. And that's a total process.

And here's a common question that comes from both sides: can homeowners challenge the violations?

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

How do they do that?

Do it at the— remember we said a minute ago that they get to appear in front of the board at first, so they can challenge it at that board meeting. They can challenge it at that finding committee meeting. They get a couple of shots to actually challenge it.

They get invited to those?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they'll get, they'll get a, uh, if I recall correctly, it's 14-day notice for that hearing. They'll get a 14-day notice, and that notice will— I can speak at least for our procedures. It's, it's, okay, this is the violations, this is the date that you need to be here. Um, typically our protocol is a day or 2 days before the hearing, take a picture Because imagine it to be like a small court case. You're not there. Some residents will have an attorney representative, but in most cases, that's not the case. We try to tell, at least train our committees and our boards to, look, let's just hear them out. Because ultimately, what you want is correction. What value are you going to get of fining them $200? Look, can you get it done in the next— you have to be consistent though. Can you get it done in the next 30 days? I'll get it done in the next 30 days. Okay. Done.

Move over.

We don't need to find them. But you do have the situation where you have to find them. But yes, you do have an opportunity as a resident to have that one-on-one discussion with the committee. But I would recommend is go there with facts. So if you're having a common one, let's say is painting of the home, right? You don't know if someone's been laid off. You don't know the financial situation of that family. So maybe that individual comes and says, "Look, I just got laid off. Unfortunately, here's the pink slip," even though no one does pink slips anymore, but I just aged myself. But, you know, just, these are the facts, this is what I have. And the board can be reasonable and say, "You know what? We'll give you 45 days to be able to do it." And that's reasonable. Ultimately, again, I always say these are your neighbors, but you have to be consistent.

Be kind.

Yeah, you have to be consistent with what you do. Because just 'cause you don't like Anna, your next-door neighbor, you can't say, Anna, you have a week to paint it. If you gave other people 30 days, you have to give Anna the same amount of time. So you have to, you do have to keep that in mind.

Anna can claim what's called selective enforcement if they did that to her, and Anna would win. Yeah, yeah, Anna would win in that situation.

And that's common.

A lot of times we have to tell somebody, what are you doing? You can't go after them because she didn't go after them. Yeah, so it's, it's pretty common. Yeah.

What are your recommendations to de-escalate something that is getting now a little bit too dramatic?

Yeah, look, we've, we've had boards that ask us to call, um, the resident, and in certain situations, you know, we may do it depending on the community, depending on how it is. What, what we find is easier to send a notice, try to be, uh, kind in the notice. Hey, you're getting a violation, It just needs to be simple. You're getting a violation for this reason. This is the section. These are the steps that we want you to do to correct it, which, by the way, for our listeners, now the statute does require to put how do you need to correct it, which in some cases it's obvious, like you need to pressure wash the driveway. Okay, you need to pressure wash the driveway. Um, but, uh, but how do you de-escalate it? It's providing just the notices. I think it's just keeping it simple and, and looking at your notices, because we've seen notices where they're just, you know, the language is just rough. Again, these are your neighbors. Look, you're in violation of this, this is what we want, this is how we want you to correct it, here's your final notice. After this notice, these are the steps that we would follow, so that the expectation is there. At the hearing, that's where, if, you know, we're coaching with the committee, is important, is just letting them know, let's just hear them out. This is not fight and you're an idiot. No, let's just hear them out and just explain. Look, this is difficult for us, just as it is difficult.

I find that that's when like a company like Affinity is a really good neutral place because you're not in like you, you just want peace and love. Like you guys don't have the, oh, she's the neighbor that did this to my kid or, you know, whatever. For those of you who know what I'm talking about. But you kind of don't have an agenda with those things, so it's easier. Do you guys have any resources for maybe communities that are self-managed for tips how to do this?

Yeah, we definitely— we have a simple one-pager that gives them an idea of what the violation process looks like. So I'm sure we can include a link below on, on for them to be able to, to download that. Ultimately, it's just really, it's just trying to have empathy, you know, with your neighbors. Now, that doesn't mean let people push you over everywhere you go. That's not what I'm saying. But, you know, just through communication, I think, is where things happen much easier. What I will tell you, it's easier for me to say it, you know, at my level as well. Like, I try to coach my team members a lot. But with the residents, don't take it personal. I know people do get insulted when they get a violation. Unfortunately, we're all human. But the board is really just following the rules of the association. That's what they're supposed to do. So our managers do get hammered a lot. So sometimes if they're a certain way, it doesn't excuse it in no way. In no way does it excuse it. But it is very challenging space.

You must have really fun stories about people and violations. Can you share some fun?

Is it a violation to blow somebody's car up? Because I had that situation before an election. Is it a violation when someone's in their unit to go over with, uh, what's it called, when you take some tire off Lug nut, what is it called? Somebody scream it out, whatever, and loosen up their wheels so that when they're driving their tire comes off. Yeah, that happens. Yeah, things like that happen.

That is a violation.

I would think it's a violation. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a violation. Check the docs on that.

With the safety, like well-being.

You'd be surprised what can happen when you put people together in a small community sometimes. Times and elections come up, or they get violations that they don't think that they're supposed to be getting, it can turn violent. I mean, we turn on the TV and every once in a while somebody gets shot or worse in an association. It happens.

No.

Yeah, it happens.

And yeah, like political signs, is that like— that does have— is that supposed to be in the documents?

Like, the association may be able to prevent you from putting signs up And then people scream, that's my First Amendment right to put them. No, it's not. Not in your associate. So, but it could be a dangerous place to be sometimes. Yeah.

Yeah. Look, you used to have— this was a while ago, but this got changed in laws. You had residents that didn't like police vehicles within homes. That was a while. Remember, we spoke about that for years. I never understood it. I don't think Eric as well. We never understood. I go, If you had a police vehicle in front of my— as my neighbor, I would be happy.

Me too.

I'll be like, don't be very happy. Um, but you had individuals that were trying to— or committing their chores that would say send them a violation for it being a commercial vehicle. And you— there had to be legislation about it that no, you could park your commercial vehicle, just like you used to have about having a flag. Like, we had to get to that point of flags as well.

So Yeah, but there are funny stories over there, crazy stories over the years. If you can even put this on, I had situations where they were shooting, let's just say, adult movies in a certain unit, and the board didn't want it there, so we had to go after them for that, and I made sure to investigate that thoroughly.

How did they know that?

They watched those videos a couple times.

Crazy stuff happens. You name it, anything and everything. People that need 4 emotional support animals. Do they really need 4? You know, I mean, anything could happen in an association. You know, the stories over the years.

Correct, correct. A pro tip that I like to give, you know, if you're going to look to make these difficult changes, is you have to get an alliance with your residents. So how do you do that? We try to do that through a lifestyle component. So what that means is, as a board, it can't just be you, the 3 to 9 members, whoever it is. So host a community event and just a quick little town hall explaining like, this is the vision that we have. What are your thoughts? What do we like to do? Host a meet the manager event, and then you can showcase the positive work that you've done within the community. And all of a sudden you have a group of individuals that are supporting you. And when the gossip happens, because it happens in every community, it happens everywhere we go, you know, that those individuals—

that never happens—

those individuals are going to support you. They're going to support you and say, no, look, they're sending violations because we want— everyone wants this to look the way it's supposed to look. But it's the unfortunate circumstance that, you know, you get that 1 to 3% of individuals that just go way too far. The media covers it and it becomes something much bigger when in reality many associations aren't necessarily going through with that.

You hit a great one, gossip, right?

Yeah.

What's a great way to kind of tone gossip down? I think newsletters for the community are a great thing. Yeah. You know, what's actually going on rather than, you know, what people think is going on.

Yeah, you need to control the messaging. I think as a board it's important that you control the messaging, and that goes by just at a high frequency, ideally on a weekly basis, at least providing even if a newsletter, because you're a smaller community and you don't have a staff, even if it's just a bullet-pointed email Residents will appreciate it. They may not say thank you, but trust me, they will appreciate it.

Something a property management company would do for the community?

Oh yeah, 100%. For, for all our on-site communities, we do weekly management reports to the board. And on— I would say probably 90% of communities, at least on a bare minimum, biweekly resident reports. Some are— some do get weekly because they have a bigger team, so it's easier for us to produce. But yes, you want to be able to communicate it. What I tell the manager, because many times they're like, oh, we put all this work in and no one tells us anything. I was like, trust me that they're reading it and they're reviewing it. Maybe not everyone, but we need to put the communication and the board's narrative of the work that they're doing out to the community because it creates that support.

Yeah, and consistency.

Yeah, the consistency of it. Yeah, yeah. If you're doing a newsletter, You need to be consistent with what you're doing. So if you're doing it Friday, okay, you do it every Friday. Like, I already know I get Eric's emails for his blog or his videos on a certain day. Oh, I got to write my blog.

That's your reminder.

That's just the way that it goes. If you're consistent with what you do as a board or as a leader, then everyone knows what to expect from you. But if you just do one random newsletter and then another one random newsletter there, they're not going to appreciate it.

I think the biggest complaint that we hear is probably My board is not being transparent.

Yeah, that's right.

The more things you could send out to them, the better the transparency is. I think they appreciate that, especially from the management company.

Yeah, yeah, correct. Especially if you could load that information into websites and so forth. It's just making sure that when you're providing them the information, it's of value, because if it's not of value, you're going to lose them. So if you're launching a website, don't rush into, I want to get the website off the ground. The website should have enough information that when they go once, oh, you know what, I now, I know where to go get the information.

Got it.

Yeah.

One last question before we close shop is, how should boards ensure consistent enforcement? Do you guys have any tips for that?

Yeah, I, I would say on the consistent part is, you know, check in. If you're getting a weekly report from your manager as a board, then at least you know what's happening. That's why, that's why we like those weekly reports to, to the board, so that way the board's up speed. You have micromanaging boards and you have boards that are super laid back. Micromanaging definitely doesn't help anybody, but you don't want to be too laid back either because you have a responsibility to check in on the staff. It's like the saying, go the mice— the, what is it, the mice— the cat's away, the mice will play. So you have to have enough supervision. So I would say in your reporting, if violations is an importance to you, which it should be, especially If you're in an HOA, ask for a section. Like for us, we have a section that says just a simple number. We sent 10 violations for this week and we have 3 that were corrected. So we provide a simple report and then that way they can see it. They have their online, online portal, sorry, where they can check in and see which are the violations. So just being consistent and just checking in with your, with your staff or that association staff if you have one. To ensure that that's happening. I would say that that would be the key to success.

And that's the consistency that attorneys rely on 100%. We look to you for that, and you guys are doing it.

Yeah, yeah. It's important because the attorneys will need that information in order to do— to send them.

When they fail to have things documented, that's when you guys have to know.

It's a loser, right? I have to say, next, sorry, I'm not taking that case. I can't prove it up.

Next.

Yeah, bottom line.

Wow.

Yeah, yeah. So you have a significant responsibility.

Yeah, significant responsibility on that piece. But you can't negate the fact that it all starts by understanding where you are, what your association's requirements are, and then getting the process started if you haven't had one started yet.

All right, awesome. So there's a lot to learn here. One of the things that I heard at the beginning, you kind of touched it, but we didn't I didn't kind of like push it a little more, is the trainings that you give. Sure. So it seems that to get people on the know-how to handle this or to give them more deep knowledge on this, taking the course— can you give us a little bit more detail?

Sure. So this is something I worked my whole career to actually have passed, and the legislature passed it. Now, if you're in a condo or an HOA, you have to get board certified by taking an educational class within 90 days of getting on the board, and if you don't, you're automatically off the board. Not only that, every year thereafter you got to take continuing education classes just like we do. So I think it's a wonderful thing, and you know, I, I teach them all throughout the state. If you don't mind, I'll just tell them where they can find it. If you want to take a class, even if you're not a board member and you just want to learn what the law is all about, just go to condocraysandhoas.com. Again, condocrazonhoas.com.

We, we'd love to teach everybody, and there's no excuse to not take the course. Uh, of course, he offers it online. We've done, uh, in-person as well. Uh, so those courses are, are very important, I would say, especially for board members. And if you want to understand consistency, trust me, that's going to teach you of the importance of consistency, not just in the HOA violation process part, but in everything else that needs to be done within the condo or HOA.

So what I learned from this is definitely know what's on the documents, because if you don't read your documents, you're screwed.

Lawyers say it a little better, but we don't say screwed in court.

But, you know, people know what I'm talking about. Definitely have a partner to help you through all the technicalities. There's a lot of optimization that can be done with technology. So you kind of help with that. And to be kind. Correct. I kept hearing you say they're your neighbors.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, everybody is fighting a battle that maybe we don't know anything about.

That's right.

So being kind and mindful, it's kind of what makes this whole thing go around. So thank you guys for being here. Thank you, Eric.

Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it, Rafael.

Great. Thank you so much, Eric, for being on. Greatly appreciated as As always, thank you.

And for those of you who may be looking for a community management company, check Affinity out at managedbyaffinity.com. And as always, have a legal team in your pocket. So until next one, thank you so much. Have a nice day.