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Dealing with D&O
Enforcing House Rules
Pool Closing
Snow - How to plan for the inevitable
What is a Management Company?
What Your Manager Should Know
Self-Management: Risky Scheme?
Why Bother to Budget?
Review Your Record Keeping
What Are You Getting for Your Management Dollars?
Article: Enforcing House Rules
By: Alvin Wasserman
From Habitat Magazine
Alvin Wasserman is director of Fairfield Property Services in Commack, N.Y.
Enforcing House Rules is one of the most difficult jobs
in condominium governance. Homeowners are generally
independent in their lifestyle decisions. Condominium
homeowners purchased a home in a community for the
benefits derived from communal living. Along with
those benefits come compromises that require
surrendering certain personal preferences to conform to
the will of the community.
The will is expressed in the house rules, a living
document, formed by the board of directors to reflect
ownership preferences. Periodically, boards need to
review the house rules to determine if they adequately
reflect ownership interests.
House rules can be enforced in many ways. The
effectiveness of enforcement will vary with individual
owners. The following alternatives may be used
singularly or in combination:
(1) Send warning letters. Clearly state the
consequences of non-compliance. Disadvantage:
Generally ignored by hard-core offenders.
(2) Impose fines.
(i) Once a resident is in arrears,
common area services may be cut off. Anything paid by
the condominium i.e. water, electric, heat, gas
service, elevator may be discontinued. Hi-rise
buildings that have card access for elevators have
significant leverage for enforcement of rules.
Disadvantage: An owner may sue the board for loss of
services.
(ii) Repeat the fine every month until arrears build-up
sufficient to place a lien on the property. The owner
will eventually have to pay when they sell their
apartment.
Disadvantage: Legal fees will be incurred in the
interim.
(3) Rescind parking, pool, exercise room privileges, and
other amenities. Restrictions can be imposed if the
owner is in arrears for any reason. Otherwise, the
house rules must specifically state that these services
will be revoked if the house rules are broken.
(i) Blocking access to a building leased parking space
is immediately effective. Concrete pylons, or
something similar, may be fabricated to block access
to parking spaces. Installing and removing the pylons
can be difficult since they must be heavy enough that
the owner cannot move them. I do not recommend
towing since this may lead to claiming damage to a
vehicle, and once an owner retrieves their car, they
still may not comply with the house rules. Multiple
infractions can lead to reassigning the parking space.
Disadvantage: Will only work if an owner leases a
parking space from the condominium.
(ii) Lock out of pool, exercise room, and other
amenities.
Disadvantage: Effective only if the owner
cares about using these facilities.
The greatest deterrent to breaking house rules is a
financial penalty. One major weakness of condominium
governance is that boards have minimal clout to use
financial leverage to enforce rules. Condominium law in
New York State does not give associations teeth in the
enforcement of house rules by imposing fines, since an
owner in arrears is not immediately at risk for losing
their property. Cooperative boards have greater
enforcement ability since they can terminate the
proprietary lease for infractions of house rules, even if
the owner is current with their maintenance payments.
There is ongoing discussion on the State level to revise
condominium law since associations have been
complaining for years about difficulty collecting arrears.
Lending institutions do not want to diminish their
rights and will have say in any changes in the law.
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