It started with a few violation notices from The Trowbridge Company Inc., the firm managing her community. First, it was dry grass. Then a minor dent in her garage door — barely visible from the street. After that, it was mildew on her mailbox, which she said was caused by moisture from a nearby tree.
The final straw was a cargo van parked in her driveway, not unlike several others seen in the neighborhood.
“If you drive around my neighborhood, you’ll see there’s plenty of yards not up to par,” Green said.
The HOA took Green to court in Hillsborough County. Green represented herself and provided photos and explanations for each violation. Still, the judge wasn’t convinced. At a hearing last summer, she was given an ultimatum: fix the issues within 30 days or face jail time.
One of the bugaboos of FL law is “selective enforcement”.
A COA / HOA can be quite forceful in demanding owners comply with the deed restrictions they agreed to. But they damned sure need to be equally aggressive with everyone. Picking on unit 123 while ignoring the problems over at unit 456 can result in a very expensive lawsuit in return. And pretty well destroy the respect for the rules from most of your residents. With chaotic to catastrophic results.
I wonder how much that issue is present here, and how well it was articulated?
A common problem with people representing themselves in court is they don’t understand that the court is there to decide the specific question set forth in the complaint according to fairly narrow guidelines. Not to resolve the entirety of the larger situation. So they mostly end up arguing things that might well be true, might well be relevant to the larger situation, but are, legally speaking irrelevant to the topic at issue. Then they lose and are duly mystified.
I endorse the theory that certain HOAs are especially nasty because the people who run them have gotten disproportionately intoxicated with petty power.
Sort of like that old saw about fights in academia being vicious because the stakes are so small.
What exactly do you mean by home rental and real estate sales contracts being regulated by something other than contract law ? Or are you talking about something different , such as required discosures about lead paint, and known issues with the roof, plumbing etc? Which as far as I know also apply to a house/unit in a condo or homeowner’s association.
There are lots of provisions that even if they are included in residential rental contracts would be void or unenforceable. Tenants get all kinds of help fighting these.
If you want to fight an HOA, you’re likely paying both your legal fees and theirs.
I’ve been a member of two HOAs and a board member on a third (in three different states) I’ve seen both sides of the equation. Bad homeowner behavior and incredibly arrogant, vindictive and discriminatory behavior by boards and management companies.
If @Alessan had said rental contracts ( which I believe are the same thing as a lease) are regulated, I wouldn’t have any questions. There are loads of issues - security deposits, the ability to have guests or roommates, required notice for a rent increase , even the obligation for a landlord to provide a written receipt for rent that the government might regulate in a landlord-tenant relationship. But those issues in particular don’t apply to real estate sales whether they are in an HOA or not , so I’m not sure what he’s talking about - even a requirement that real estate contracts must be in writing to be enforceable is part of contract law.
In the same way that – despite the fact that Law Enforcement Officers are also citizens, and sometimes live in the communities that they serve – their Unions really aren’t looking out for the interests of the community at large.
Remember,
HOAs are governed by state law. As in, these stories vary widely by state. In most states HOAs have some power to take civil action to enforce a contract, which is what the written rules are. The problem is that if the HOA doesn’t enforce a given rule consistently, the rule becomes unenforceable at all. Letting small violations get by means that big ones can’t be stopped.