Published By: Michael A. Inman, Jeanne S. Lauer, Gregory J. Montero, Robert V. Timms, Jr., Matthew J. Weinberg
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Mike Inman

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Michael A. Inman is a partner at Inman & Strickler focusing his practice in the areas of Community Association Law and Business and Real Estate Law

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Recently in a Fairfax County case involving the Shadowood Condominium Association the Court examined whether or not the board could assess charges against an owner for failing to submit a unit owner status report required by the Association and for violations of rules by the unit owner’s tenants.  It appears that this association’s documents had not adopted the provisions provided in the Virginia Condominium Act authorizing the assessment of charges for rules violations. In fact the Master Deed provides that “no common expense or other sums shall be assessed….other than for the maintenance, repair, replacement or improvement of the general common elements….”Continue Reading Virginia Supreme Court focuses on authority of Association Board to impose charges or suspensions

QUESTION: 

I understand that at this time all associations are required to have a complaint procedure in place in order for their members to be able to let the CIC Board know of issues they have with their association. I also know that the Annual Report form requires an Association to state whether or not it has a complaint procedure. What is the consequence if an association fails to comply after getting the DPOR’s letter about non-compliance when they have checked “no” on the Annual Report?Continue Reading Mandate from the Legislature-Complaint Procedure

Q:      We are a self managed association and members often ask for copies of records such as financial data and minutes of meetings. Often they ask for minutes before they are approved. One request is for our contract with the landscaper. We don’t feel that all these requests are appropriate. What do we have to provide to our owners?Continue Reading Requests for Association records – What are the rules of the road?

A couple years ago a new state law was passed requiring that associations have an internal complaint procedure once the regulations for such are issued by the Community Association Ombudsman under the Department of Professional & Occupational Regulation.  The official responsible for prescribing an internal complaint procedure for all associations proposed the regulations for it and they have been approved by the Governor. All Associations should have a procedure in place NOW to be in compliance with the law and regulations.Continue Reading State Regulations for Internal Complaint Procedure – Regulations Now in Place

Question:

I have a contract on my Virginia condo to close next week.  After the contract was signed, a special assessment was voted on and passed. The first due date for the assessment is after the closing.

The contract says "Unless otherwise agreed to in writing, Seller will pay any special assessments and will comply with all orders or notices of violations of any county or local authority, condominium unit owners’ association, homeowners’ or property owners’ association or actions in any court on account thereof, against or affecting the Property on the Settlement Date."

The title agency is saying that because the special assessment was passed before the closing I must pay the whole assessment.  Is this the correct interpretation of the above language from the contract?   I will pay it if I have to, but as it is not even due until after the settlement date; I would like to confirm.Continue Reading Who is responsible to pay special assessment?

     Consider the situation where the Board of Directors has decided that they want to upgrade the appearance of an aging townhouse style condominium and they are talking about requiring all the unit owners to replace certain areas of vinyl siding with Hardiplank or similar high grade exterior product which is a much more expensive material. They are also going to require solid wood decorative shutters on some of the windows. The plan is to get bids, enter into a contract, and assess the owners because the association doesn’t have any money in reserve for this project. Some owners consider these improvements to be upgrades and say that the Board shouldn’t be able to require the owners to pay for upgrades as opposed to replacements.   This article can also apply to some degree to townhouse communities which are not condos but where the association has the responsibility to maintain the exteriors of dwelling units and common facilities.Continue Reading What to do when the Board wants (or needs) to upgrade the condo exterior

Yet another example of the risk involved in deciding not to make a requested accommodation in a prudent manner in light of the requirements of the Fair Housing Act.  This often stems from board members and managers not knowing that "handicap" is a very broadly defined term under the Fair Housing Act.  Handicap is defined as follows: 

 

"Handicap" means, with respect to a person, (i) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of such person’s major life activities; (ii) a record of having such an impairment; or (iii) being regarded as having such an impairment. The term does not include current, illegal use of, or addiction to a controlled substance as defined in Virginia or federal law. Continue Reading ASSOCIATION FINED BY DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FOR FAILING TO MAKE A REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

IS BOARD MEMBER EMAILING A VIOLATION OF THE OPEN MEETING REQUIREMENTS?

        With more frequency I am being asked whether, and to what extent, Board Members are entitled to communicate with each other by email.  A typical questions that is asked is: "After a solicitation of bids, we received a couple of bids for a major project in the community and the board members have been given a copy of the proposals.  There then ensued an email exchange amongst the board members analyzing and discussing the bid packages.  In order to get the project going before the next board meeting which is three weeks away, the President wishes to poll the board members on which contract to accept in order to move forward with the project.  is this permissible?"    

        The answer is clearly no, but the subsidiary question is, if that is the case, how much discussion can be held by board members via email (or telephone conference call, for that matter) without violating the open meeting requirements?Continue Reading Board Member Emailing