Tag Archives: Russell

Kicking Kids Around

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guest blog by Dave Russell

How to ‘legally’ discriminate against children in HOAs…… It’s pretty simple, and it only takes one word!

A Fair Housing case was just settled in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Six families in the Greenbrier Village Homeowners Association won a settlement agreement in a federal lawsuit. The feds say the HOA was violating the law when it banned children from playing in the grass.

The Greenbrier Village Homeowners’ Association and Gassen Company had to establish new nondiscrimination policies, pay a $10,000 fine to the federal government and $100,000 to six families for their illegal discrimination

How to legally discriminate? Just use one tricky word

Shortly after the Minnetonka settlement, HOA lawyers started sending notices to every HOA in the land warning about discriminatory rules and policies relating to children and families.

The legal advice was: “When drafting rules and policies, it is in the best interest of the community to use the word ‘All’ during the rule drafting process.” In other words, if you have a rule against ‘children’ riding bicycles in the common areas, you should replace the word ‘CHILDREN with the word(s) ‘ALL’ or ‘EVERYONE.’ Example: ALL residents are prohibited from riding bicycles in the common areas.”

The arrogance continues

Apparently, the Villas of Summerfield HOA, in Hilton Head Island South Carolina, took those HOA attorneys’ advice but added their own sneaky twist.

2Q==The sign says “No Rollerskating, No Skateboards, No Bicycle Riding, No Scooter Riding. Even though 99% of anyone doing those things are kids, the sign doesn’t specifically discriminate against children, at least according to the HOA lawyers. Still, is this keeping with the spirit of the Fair Housing Act?

This Hilton Head enclave may soon be another one that learns a very expensive lesson.

 

Disabled and living in an HOA?

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guest blog by Dave Russell

Each day I’m alerted to scores of cases where folks living in HOAs are denied reasonable accommodations for their disabilities. Some of these HOA denials are blatant violations of the Fair Housing Act, while some are not. I’m going to compare two recent cases that have grabbed the attention of the media. While both sound like truly legitimate cases, one homeowner did it right, and the other homeowner technically did it wrong.

Build it and they will come. The HOA that is!

After Michael Broadnax suffered a stroke late last summer, his wife became the head of the household. Charlotte Broadnax retrofitted her house with a small ramp so her husband could come home for rehabilitation. Now, the homeowners association for the Woodlands of Copperstone is threatening to sue the homeowners over the ramp.

Sounds like a clear-cut-case of a fair housing violation? The answer here is NO. Fair Housing allows for a reasonable accommodation, but you must ask your housing provider first. Yes, under the Fair Housing Laws, HOAs are considered ‘housing providers.’

“A resident is not entitled to receive a reasonable accommodation unless he/she asks for one.” (Nolan v. Starlight Homeowner Association)

In this case the homeowner just put up the wheelchair ramp and didn’t inform the HOA first. Of course the HOA will claim they had no idea Mr. Broadnax had become disabled. For all the HOA knows, the ramp could have been placed there just for the hell of it. Well, that’s what they’ll probably claim.

(link to KPHO story on wheelchair controversy)

Doing it right

Shawn Seekings has a disabled son, and he needs a fence to accommodate his boys disability. Unlike Charlotte Broadnax, Mr. Seekings made a reasonable request to the HOA to accommodate his son’s disability. Shawn Seekings did everything right, he asked the HOA for a reasonable accommodation and even backed it up with a written request from a neurologist. Mr. Seekings was smart-enough not to put up the fence first and then ask his HOA for the reasonable accommodation.

The HOA in Mr. Seekings case will probably face a Fair Housing violation for denying the fence. Not only is this my professional opinion, it’s also the opinion of Florida attorney S. David Cooper. I can almost guarantee the Esprit HOA and their management company, Melrose Property Management, are going to get slapped with massive fines and settlement costs by HUD.

(link to story on fence battle over autistic child)

Knowledge is power! Especially when battling it out with your HOA over Fair Housing Laws. Make sure you fully understand your rights under the Fair Housing Act.

(your rights under federal housing law)

 

Child Discrimination in HOAs Illegal!

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guest blog by Dave Russell (community association manager)
Last week Minnetonka residents of a condo complex won a massive settlement agreement in a federal lawsuit contending that a ban on playing in the grass illegally discriminated against families with children.The settlement agreement, announced last Friday, by U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, means that the Greenbrier Village Homeowners’ Association Inc. and Gassen Company Inc. must establish a new nondiscrimination policy and pay a $10,000 penalty to the federal government and $100,000 to six families.  We all know well who is going to foot the bill for this one. Don’t we?
 
Just days after the Minnetonka settlement another HOA in California was making headlines for smacking homeowners with $50 fines for basically the same thing.  It appears that the Agave and Saguaro HOA in Chula Vista , California prohibits a number of kid-friendly activities in their development. This HOA prohibits their resident children from riding skateboards, bicycles, roller-skates or anything with ‘wheels’ on their driveways, common areas, sidewalks or streets. So what gives with these kooky rules?
 
Well the reporters down at ABC 10 News went to Prescott Management (the management company for Agave and Saguaro HOA) to ask that very question. The HOA manager claimed that some of those rules were for the ‘safety of children.’  Are these ‘safety concerns’ really legitimate?
 
While I completely understand the need for kids to be able to play in their communities, what happens if something goes terribly wrong? Hypothetically, let’s say this HOA changes their rules and a child gets mowed down by a car in the driveway. Whose fault is it? Well that’s the question the parents attorneys will be asking.
 
The argument can easily be made that the HOA should have adopted rules restricting children from playing in dangerous areas, such as driveways. One has to remember, attorneys are always searching for the deepest pockets when it comes to lawsuits and settlements. Unfortunately, those deep pockets always belong to the HOA and their insurance carriers.
 
HOAs and community managers seem to be in a real pickle here. If you restrict child-friendly activities, even if they may be dangerous, the HOA could be sued for a fair housing violation. If you don’t have safety rules in place, and a child gets hurt, the HOA still gets sued if something goes ‘terribly wrong.’ When it’s all said and done, and dust settles from the lawsuits,  it’s the homeowners who will foot the bill once again. Well, don’t they always?
 
So what’s the solution to this seemingly new legal issue of Children vs. HOA’s? A large part of this problem was actually created by the developers themselves, who poorly designed these communities, and without children in mind. Very rarely do you see a developer put in a kid-friendly area where kids can just be kids. And for some reason if the developer does build a kid-friendly area, it’s always across a busy road like the development in the Minnesota case.  It’s all about jamming in as many units into one confined space as possible for profit.
 
There’s no doubt we’ll be seeing a magnitude of new lawsuits from homeowners and federal agencies like Fair Housing. These lawsuits are going to cost homeowners billions of dollars and make HOA insurance premiums skyrocket!  In my opinion, the best solution to this newly found problem is to stop building these damn liabilities!
 
If you ever needed another reason not to buy into an HOA……make sure that you add this one to the top of your list!
 

What do you do with a Naked Neighbor?

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guest blog by Dave Russell (Arizona community manager)

While HOAs are usually the most disastrous organizations ever created, can they ever really be useful? Well the residents in the Cardinal Glenn Homeowners Association, in North Charlotte, NC are hoping their HOA will soon come to the rescue.

Seems this HOA has a major issue with one of their kookie residents and can’t get any help from city leaders or the police. It seems that one of Cardinal Glenn’s residents likes to wear his birthday-suit while standing outside of his home talking on his cellphone. This, according to the neighbors.

           Edited version of photo neighbors took of the man standing at his door.
Unfortunately, North Carolina law doesn’t prohibit neighbors from running around in the buff, as long as they stay on their own property. That’s right, it’s perfectly legal to expose yourself to the children in North Carolina.

But City Councilman Gregg Phipps, who has to be an HOA board member somewhere, came up with a great solution. The esteemed councilman says the HOA should go after the cell phone streaker because they can enforce some nuisance provision in their CC&R’s. Have I mentioned that the naked guy has been doing this for ten years? This HOA is fully aware of the situation.

Now, depending on how receptive the HOA is to the councilman’s ‘solution,’ it’s going to cost the homeowners plenty of money to take their nudist to court. With NC saying it’s perfectly legal to display your ‘goods’ on your own property, it’s going to be a stiff fight.

I’m now thinking that Councilman Phipps is just as big a nut-job as this naked weirdo. Does Phipps even know how much those legal fees can add up to? When the dust clears, homeowners could be hit with a huge special assessment.

You’d think a problem solving councilman could have come up with a new ordinance prohibiting naked cellphone calls.

 

StoneGate Gets Its HOA Butt Spanked

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guest blog by Dave Russell

For those of you who know me, messing with sick or disabled children is my biggest pet peeve. So when I heard the story about the StoneGate Homeowners Association, in Raymore MO and their board president Stacy Bayers, I did a little research. Now according to the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office, the StoneGate HOA was actually ‘dissolved’ back in 2009. I’ll get back to this later. For now, let’s take the story from the top.

Ella Schultz is only 6 years old and she’s battling cancer. The Make-A-Wish Foundation heard that little Ella wanted her very own playhouse. They contacted construction giant J.E. Dunn and that company agreed to build one in Ella’s backyard in Raymore, Missouri. They even used shingles to match those used on other homes in the neighborhood. .

What a touching story — a sick child and some awesome people who wanted to help out. That is until the HOA board officers reared their ugly little heads and threw a wrench into Ella’s playhouse. “I’m not at liberty to discuss that,” Bayers said Tuesday night when asked why it’s difficult to make an exception for Ella. “The proposed plan they’ve given us is a violation of our covenants.

KCTV 5 News (CBS) in Kansas City, has reported, “The StoneGate Homeowners Association is not in good standing with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office and hasn’t been properly registered for four years.” If you pull up the information on the Secretary of State’s website, it clearly shows that this HOA’s status is “Admin Dissolved –nonprofit.” Oh, say it isn’t so! I wonder how the reporters found out about this. No doubt one of those crazy anti-HOA people called them up.

So did the StoneGate HOA really have the legal right to deny the playhouse in the first place? You know, considering the HOA appears to have been ‘dissolved.’ Can this HOA legally enforce any of their governing documents? Has this HOA been illegally operating as a not-for-profit corporation? Are they illegally collecting assessments, fines and placing liens on properties within their Association? As one would imagine, it’s probably going to take a lawyer and judge to figure this one out. This also makes one wonder if the HOA dues they took in over the past four years should be considered taxable income.

I guess you could call this a bad case of HOA KARMA. Now StoneGate HOA president, Stacy Bayers, is doing a little backpedaling. She issued this unbelievable statement last night. Really, it’s unbelievable.

”The board has met for the better half of the day and at this time we would like to release the following statement:”

“Our hearts are with Ella Schultz and her family as they battle this terrible illness. Our homeowners’ association board is committed to working with Make-A-Wish Foundation and J.E. Dunn to see if we can figure out a way to make Ella’s wish come true. The initial request from Make-A-Wish to place a barn-style shed was not accepted because the board did not have enough information to grant an exception to the subdivision’s covenants. In hopes of getting enough information, we are requesting an immediate meeting with Make-A-Wish and J.E. Dunn Construction to work out a solution in the most expeditious manner possible.”

Oh, how nice of you Stacy Bayers, president of the StoneGate HOA, working so hard to make this little girl’s wish come true. I’m personally not buying a word of it! Neither is the rest of the world.