The six signs you have a troublemaker in your strata building

Are you a criminal, a rebel or a know-all? Or is it your neighbour who’s one of apartment living’s permanent pests.  Strata lawyer Amanda Farmer, founder member of Women in Strata, has compiled a list of the six main “difficult residents” in unit blocks, ranging from the troublesome to the tragic.  Read the article………

Incoming! When A Disruptive Resident Bombards Your Board With Complaints

Every co-op seems to have at least one: the disruptive resident who never stops bombarding the board with complaints. Unfortunately, co-op boards can’t dismiss the impossible-to-placate shareholder as a whiner and a mere nuisance. Boards need to determine if all complaints are legitimate, and then act appropriately. It sometimes requires the skills of a psychiatrist, […]

How Condos Can Deal with Difficult Residents (NY)

Difficult residents? In New York? Get outta here. Unfortunately, it’s a fact of life for cooperatives and condominiums. Difficult residents come in all sorts: they may make noise at all hours or, even worse, not pay their maintenance, common charges or assessments. How co-ops and condos deal them varies.  Read the article……….

Accommodating mental illness in condos (ON)

Accommodating mental illness in a condominium setting is no trifling obligation.  Just like physical disability, both the courts and the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal require that mental illness be accommodated up to the point of undue hardship. This is, by all accounts, an onerous standard.   Read the article………..

Does Your Community Association Have Your Current Contact Information?

If you live or own property that is located within a homeowners, condominium or other form of community Association, you will want to be sure to provide the Association or responsible management company with your current contact information so that they are able to reach you with important information and notices. While it may seem […]

Surviving Each Other in an HOA

Communication is a lost art in some HOAs due to lack of basic people skills. Board members often get more criticism than praise and then along comes an abusive owner who makes unreasonable demands. But it works both ways. Sometimes it’s an owner that suffers at the hands of a domineering board.     Read the […]

What We Can Learn From Dispute Between Brentwood HOA & Homeowner

The story that broke on Channel 4’s WSMV about a Brentwood elderly homeowner, whose Homeowners Association (HOA) threatened to sue over a wheelchair ramp installed without permission, brings to light something that most of us don’t think about, until we have a problem.    Read the article………..

Ask Atty Pat: How To Deal With Bedbug Issues In Condos

The tenant or unit owner may complain to the landlord or the condominium association. If the occupant complains to public health authorities, bedbug infestations are a violation of health codes so the Health Department will contact the Association and the landlord for correction. The position of the Connecticut Health Departments is that the “owner” of […]

Why is Managing an HOA So Hard?

Seriously. Managing an HOA is not an easy job. I’ve been an association manager before and it didn’t take long before I gained a high admiration for those in this profession.  Don’t get me wrong, managing a community can be very rewarding, but it’s definitely not for the faint of heart. Why is that?   […]

4 Tips for Homeowner Participation in your HOA

We often come across HOAs that are struggling to handle disagreements, complaints, or controversial topics that are voiced by homeowners.  This is normal.  Just like a big family, there are going to be disagreements – many of them, in fact. The trick is how you deal with it. Sometimes the problems can even seemingly be […]

5 Reasons There’s a Disconnect Between the HOA Board and Homeowners

The success of a homeowners association is based on the members and Board working together. If the community is not taken care of, it will catch up with Association, affect property values, decrease the quality of living, and create a disharmonious environment.       Read the article…………

5 Reasons There’s a Disconnect Between the HOA Board and Homeowners

The success of a homeowners association is based on the members and Board working together. If the community is not taken care of, it will catch up with Association, affect property values, decrease the quality of living, and create a disharmonious environment. If there is a disconnect between the Board and homeowners it takes action […]

Listen First, I Mean Truly Listen

This morning as I was driving to work, I was thinking about the interpersonal conflict I have recently been observing in some HOAs. While it may be convenient for folks to blame all of the nastiness on a full moon, I truly believe much of the conflict in associations simply comes from folks not listening […]

Foundation Problems – Not In Your House But In Your Community

Your community is like your house. If you lose a homeowner’s trust or belief in your community’s leadership it’s like a small crack in the foundation of your house. And, if you continue to lose trust, sooner or later floors will start to sink, cracks will appear in the walls, and before you know it […]

How Would You Encourage Someone Complaining About HOA Rules?

As a board member in your homeowners association, you probably hear your fair share of complaints against the rules in your Association. Not only that, but you also have to be a part of enforcing them for the good of the community. Even though you know they are there for a reason, more often then […]

Manager’s Wisdom: How to Deal With Angry Residents

This is the fourth post in a series of monthly posts called Manager’s Wisdom – a compilation of ideas and thoughts from Campbell’s best and most experienced managers on specific topics.  We asked our managers – What is the key to dealing with angry residents?   Read more……..

Quelling the Quarrel in Your HOA

“Quarrel” has been defined as “the minimum number of people required to hold an argument”. One of the many challenges facing homeowner associations is resolving disputes between neighbors. Noise, parking, garbage, pets, trees, fences and other territorial based conflicts can erupt any time. Most conflicts result from false assumptions and, according to the prison warden […]

Tying Up Loose Ends in Your Homeowner Association

As homeowner associations age, certain illegal “additions” to the common area tend to creep in like storage sheds, fences, patio roofs, awnings and gardens. These add ons flourish when the board is asleep at the wheel or disinclined to challenge the offenders. Eventually, a board is elected that understands things have gotten out of hand […]

Four Types of Bothersome Homeowners Conduct

Q: I serve on the board of directors of a homeowner association.  There is one particular owner who monopolizes board time with antics and actions that I think are way out of bounds, but the other board members tell me there is nothing that can be done about it. Is there a line that can […]

The Board and Homeowner Struggle

One of the most often asked questions we hear from disgruntled homeowners is “who gave the board the right to tell me how to live my life?” This is a question we hear almost every day, and it is one you’ll oft hear repeated in the media and at homeowners associations all over the United […]

HOA and Community Gardens Take Root

Setting up a garden club within your community association provides for resident engagement. Having a group with a shared interest builds community and provides opportunities to grow future leaders.       Read more………

Arizona HOA Battle Over Finances Turns Ugly

The last thing that any homeowners association (HOA) board member wants is a problem that lands them in court—particularly someone getting hurt at a meeting. However, sometimes the unwanted happens, as it did recently with the homeowners at a condominium complex located in Mesa, Arizona. It was a situation that escalated, got out of control, […]

Dealing With the Disruptive: How to Handle Problem Residents

The vast majority of condo and HOA residents are regular folks who wouldn’t dream of disrupting life in their community by harassing their neighbors, bombarding their board and manager with endless complaints and threats, or filing lawsuits at the drop of a hat for every little thing. That being said, the unfortunate truth is that […]

Aging In Place: How Co-ops and Condos Can Address Their Aging Communities

When we think of the challenges of overseeing co-ops and condominium associations, we might think of late payments and aggressive pets. But another challenge has been waiting in the wings: the aging of America’s baby-boomer generation, many of whom are choosing to live out their golden years in their homes. There’s even a term for […]

“Aging In Place” – How can community associations address aging communities?

When we think of the challenges of overseeing homeowners’ associations, we might think of overgrown lawns, late assessment payments, and aggressive pets. But another challenge has been waiting in the wings: the aging of America’s “baby boomer” generation, many of whom are choosing to live out their golden years in their homes.   Read more….

Dealing with Difficult People

Being elected to the Board might have seemed like the hard part, but now that you are behind the wheel expect a lot of ungrateful backseat drivers. Congratulations on your election or appointment to the Board of Directors. Now that you are in charge, everyone will see the wisdom of your policy suggestions, pay their […]

Do You Know What Your Community Association Volunteers Are Doing? Do They Carry Guns? Maybe You Need To Better Supervise

After the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida last year, I posted a blog article highlighting the need for community associations to supervise their volunteers. Follow this link for that March 2012 blog article. If you have been following the George Zimmerman trial at all, you would understand how important it is for community associations to […]

Dealing with Unruly Homeowners at Board Meetings

What a touchy topic!! I have been on both sides of this issue — as the homeowner and as the attorney representing the association. Maybe I have too much leftover pixie dust, but I believe these situations can be resolved amicably.  Read More……

Effective Steps Co-op / Condo Boards Can Take with Disruptive Members

The managing agent remembers it well. There had been an incident in a co-op she managed that caused some damage to the building. She advised the board that, based on her experience, it would not be to the property’s advantage to file a claim with the insurance company. “It was not significant enough, and if […]

Difficult People: How Do You Deal with Them?

How do we as humans deal with people who yell and scream at us or refuse to be rational? You know the type, adversarial, manipulative, inflexible, unreasonable, irrational. For most people, the answer is “We don’t”. If given the choice, most of us choose not to work with people like this. We don’t socialize with […]

Vacancies in Your HOA Neighborhood – What Can You Do?

Living within a homeowners association (HOA) has several benefits that lead people to move into these neighborhoods. Common areas are kept up by the HOA and these neighborhoods often also have shared amenities like gyms, tennis courts and walking trails. Unfortunately due to the current state of the housing market, some homes are left unoccupied […]

So Now You’re On the Board

The first steps to superior board performance are clarifying your board’s job and then following through with appropriate plans, actions and evaluation of results. The checklists presented here are intended to assist you in those tasks. They cover a significant number of your responsibilities. The checklists will apply to virtually any association. To use them, […]