Homeowner Association Disputes

If you own a condominium or a house in a common interest or planned development, you are probably a member of a Homeowners Association (HOA). HOAs and their members have many rights and obligations to one another. Legal disputes often arise from conflicts regarding these rights and responsibilities.

In California, HOA and members obligations and duties arise from two general sources: Statutory law, such as the Davis-Sterling Act (codified at Civil Code § 4000, et seq.), which legislates many aspects of common interest development operations, and an HOA’s governing documents, which generally include, Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (“CC&Rs), Bylaws, and amendments to them.

The statutory law and governing documents of a condominium project or other planned development typically address HOA Board of Director governance and operations, finance, assessments and assessment collections, Board of Director and member meetings, rules and rules enforcement, maintenance and repair issues, establishment and enforcement of architectural standards, and resolution of disputes between members (such as those arising from noise, pets and other nuisance complaints.

Members often have legitimate complaints about how a Board of Directors or individual director is conducting meetings, making financial decisions, exercising architectural or maintenance/repair decisions or solving disputes between members. They may also have conflicts with their neighbors over noise, plumbing leaks, cigarette smoke and other grievances.

Due to the personal nature of relationships between those living in close proximity to one another and the tendency of neighbor disputes to negatively affect one’s daily quality of life, HOA-member or resident-resident conflicts often become heated. As a result, legal disputes involving HOAs and owners more often than not involve not only legal and financial issues, but emotional ones as well. For this reason, lawyers often become involved in bitter HOA disputes involving relatively small amounts of money.

I generally represent homeowners rather than HOAs. If you are having a dispute with your HOA or a neighbor, I can help you resolve your matter quickly and efficiently.