My HOA Stories
When I was a newer manager, the real estate economy tanked, and luxury amenities that were in the process of being built on some of my properties got shuttered, mid-construction. Buyers of these homes were living on half-developed land with very few neighbors, and started attending board meetings asking what they were paying for. It was a great time for me to learn, because the reality was, they weren't paying for any of those amenities yet. The community was operating under a DRE budget that increased with each phase, and the rec center wasn't a listed expense as of yet. Homeowners wanted refunds on their houses and endless extensions on installing their front yard landscape because everyone - including the developer - was out of money.
When I served on the Board of my HOA in 2012, the carports were falling apart, the plaster was peeling off the spa surface, and sauna in our clubhouse had been closed for years, the wrought iron fencing was totally corroded and rusted out, you name it! I had already worked in HOA management for 8 years and I decided to join the board so that I could make a difference in the quality of maintenance of our community. I served one term, and my "Beverly Hills" standards were too much for two of the other board members, so they took up a campaign to ensure I didn't get on the board again. They stapled notices all over the trees in our neighborhood begging their neighbors to vote me out because I was going to be the one to raise their assessments, and it worked! After I was unseated from the board, I put my condo on the market. I walked with $100 grand in equity, and it was just in time. Within 3 years the balconies had been red-taped by the city and everyone had been special assessed thousands of dollars.
My downstairs neighbor in that community complained to me for all 4 years that I lived there about the hard floors in our unit. The flooring had been put in by the prior resident, and I wasn't made aware of any open violation when I purchased the unit, so I didn't consider it a problem that we had to formally resolve. We liked our floors. We did have rugs laid out through much of the house, and never wore shoes while indoors, but nothing seemed to help. Strangely, my baby was born in that house and always put up a fight at bedtime, and he never once complained about the baby's crying - only the flooring!
When I managed a master plan community in OC, there was a movement to make all the common area landscape pesticide-free. The movement was led by "concerned moms" and spearheaded by people who just weren't educated about what organic maintenance looks like. They presented a petition to the board and I was committed to helping the board fight them off. Since there's no way to effectively manage weeds, changing to organic maintenance involved dedicated labor - man power - to remove weeds from 100 acres of landscape hillsides, parks, and open spaces.
One man in that same community had violated the architectural approval requirements and installed all kind of things in his backyard that weren't allowed. He put a finish on the stucco wall he shared with his neighbor, mounted a fireplace against the same wall in violation of the setback requirement, and mounted cameras all over his second story exterior that could have been pointed at his neighbor's rear yard. He had been called to multiple hearings with the board, fined multiple times, and even had the HOA's attorney go to his house for an Internal Dispute Resolution, where he basically told us all he wasn't going to change a thing in his backyard. Meanwhile the impacted neighbors behind his unit knew he was in violation for all his backyard improvements, and kept complaining their privacy was being invaded because of the cameras. Management and the board were caught in the middle of it all. We had to go to mediation to finally get him to agree to make certain changes in the rear yard and he was slow to comply but when he did, it finally closed the books on the whole matter.
Lifeguards are not often used at our community pools, because industry guidance from trusted attorneys has long indicated they are more of a liability than they are worth, not to mention very costly for most associations. When we do hire them, we call them pool monitors (just in the same way we call "security personnel "roving patrol"). One year my community hired a pool monitor for 4th of July, expecting a big crowd and wanting to respond in kind. The pool monitor company was specifically told not to wear any "lifeguard" attire, and to ensure their lunch break and other breaks were covered by a supervisor. Unfortunately, the pool monitor showed up in "Lifeguard" shorts, and when his lunch break arrived, he strolled over to the BBQs and grilled himself a hamburger. Meanwhile, a woman from Canada who was visiting her sister, tragically drowned. Of course a lawsuit followed and the HOA was named in it despite our best efforts to advise that vendor of the risks we wanted to avoid.
I once had a homeowner call for my resignation during a board meeting. He was upset that his car had been towed while another car that he thought was just as guilty of breaking the rules was not towed. Now, enforcement matters are handled in executive session, so I didn't have any obligation to explain to him how the board handled the other homeowner, but he could not accept that. He attended one board meeting after another complaining specifically about me, saying that I had been duping the homeowners and couldn't be trusted, and demanding that they get a new manager. Our management company finally assigned a new manager, and I left the company shortly thereafter. Months later, he was on the board and wanting to fire his management company. He came to my new company to bid. By then he had turned a new leaf and he no longer viewed me as his arch enemy - who knows why!! We won his business and never had a problem again. Go figure!