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50 SMALL CLAIMS ACTIONS
AGAINST A PROBLEM OWNER
QUESTION: Our homeowners association has
a few owners who are constantly suing the HOA. Even though we end up winning, it
costs our association many dollars as well as hours of manager and staff time to
fight these issues. Is there some way we can take the sue-happy owners to small
claims court? If we had numerous complaints against them,
it might deter their continuous lawsuits. I know of
over 50 homeowners who would be excited to file in small claims against them.
ANSWER:
A lot of associations share your frustration. A few disruptive, litigious owners
can create a lot of turmoil. They also drain the association's resources. I like
the idea of giving them a taste of their own medicine and making them defend
against 50 small claims actions, but you need a reasonable basis for 50 owners
to file 50 actions. I’m not sure
you have one.
MANAGER ON THE BOARD
QUESTION: The association I live in
would like me to be on the board and manage the association. Can I do this?
ANSWER:
The plan is fraught with peril. You should do one or the other but not both.
RECORDING MEETINGS
Dear Adrian, We own and operate our own TV
station. All open meetings are video taped for multiple delayed broadcasts to
any resident hooked to our cable system. This benefits those who cannot attend
the monthly meetings. Now, some of our more technologically savvy members are
talking about webcasting the meeting. As long as we adhere to the practice of
calling the minutes the official record of the meeting and those minutes are not
rife with errors (a board responsibility), I don’t see the value in worrying
about tape and video recordings. -Mel Standart
COMMENT: I
fully support broadcasting open meetings and keeping those tapes on file.
Doing so makes it much harder for rogue
directors and unethical dissidents to misrepresent what was said at meetings. Moreover,
broadcasting the meeting may
moderate the behavior of bullies, whether owners or directors, since their actions would be on display for
all to see. My objection is to individual owner recordings being made of the
meeting. That recording can then be altered or portions taken out of context and
put on the internet. Without a master recording to expose the tampering,
refuting the distortion becomes very difficult. -Adrian Adams
WIFE'S FREE SPEECH RIGHTS
Regarding
your response to the
wife's
free speech, her actions or
communications may touch upon tort law. She should be advised (1) if the [board
member] husband
has communicated to her any board trade secrets or confidences, she may not be
free to communicate them without liability to her and/or her husband; (2) If she
has acquired the information through theft or snooping into her husband's
confidential documents, that will also be a problem, for her and/or her husband
(he may be liable for failing to secure the confidences, etc.); (3) although she
may have some fair comment, she needs to be careful not to defame the board of
directors and/or the management company, or disparage the management companies'
goods, products, or services. My own experiences dealing with condominium owners
is that they tend to, perhaps understandably, become over-zealous when dealing
with issues impacting their own property. -J. Drudi
Very truly yours,
Adrian Adams, Esq.
Adams
Kessler PLC
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