Real Estate & Property Law

Should HOA or Condo Board Communicate with Tenant or Owner?

Here is a question I received from a tenant:

"Is it normal for the HOA and Property Management company to send somewhat intimidating and ?threatening? notices of violation directly to the renter?"

"Normal" is a moving target and not definable. I prefer to speak in terms like most, some, a few, etc, as relates to the way HOAs and Condos tend to act.

Some HOA boards and some Condo Association boards prefer to communicate with owners rather than tenants because owners are responsible for the actions of tenants and also subject to disciplinary action for rules violations by tenants.

Other boards prefer to first communicate with tenants in order to (1) see if they will correct whatever behavior needs correcting without bothering the owner and/or (2) to "envelope" the tenant into the community rather than making them feel like an outsider.

There is nothing abnormal or inappropriate about either approach.

Full post as published by California Condo & HOA Law on November 03, 2009 (boomark / email).