Common Ground Magazine Article

After numerous complaints, one Florida homeowners association board decided it had had enough of two residents’ abusive behavior toward others in the community. The Lake Dexter Woods Homeowners Association in Winter Haven recently filed suit against Daniel F. Connors, Jr. and Delbert Watson, claiming they “verbally threatened, cursed and harassed Lake Dexter’s homeowners and their guests, including minor children.”

The harassment has caused homeowners to move out of the community and has scared away would-be home buyers, according to the complaint filed in Polk County Circuit Court. Watson threatened to beat a woman’s head in when she walked to her mailbox in December 2005, the suit alleges. In September of 2007, he yelled and cursed at a potential home buyer looking at a neighboring house. Since October 1997, almost 40 calls have been received by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office about disturbances in and around their home, the suit says.

The Lake Dexter Woods board is seeking an injunction against Connors, who owns the home, and Watson, who lives with him, to stop the harassing behavior. “The homeowners association only wants them to do what they’re supposed to do in the first place, which is to be good neighbors,” the association lawyer, Robert C. Chilton, told the Orlando Sentinel. Stephen F. Baker, the attorney representing Connors and Watson, denied the allegations. Both attorneys declined further comment.

Such cases are every board member’s worst nightmare. Unfortunately, homeowners aren’t always neighborly. Sometimes, they can be just plain mean. While association shouldn’t jump into disputes between two feuding neighbors, they need to intervene when a homeowner’s bad behavior affects a large number of others in the community, several attorneys say.

Because of the cost and time involved, associations should only go to court in the most egregious cases, says Stephen M. Marcus, an attorney in Braintree, Mass., whose firm represents 2,500 community associations. If the judge grants an injunction and requires the homeowner to pay the association’s legal fees, it can be a deterrent to continued misbehavior. If the homeowner violates the injunction, court sanctions can be imposed, adds Marcus, a member of CAI’s College of Community Association Lawyers (CCAL).

In most cases, however, the simplest way for an association board to address problem homeowners is by citing them for violating the nuisance clause contained in most governing documents. Lake Dexter’s declaration states: “No noxious or offensive trade or activity shall be carried on upon any lot, nor shall anything be done thereon which constitutes a public nuisance.” Associations should have a procedure in place for enforcing the nuisance provision, including a method for individuals to appeal a board decision. If the behavior continues after the individual has been notified of the violation, fines cab be assessed. Legal fees can be added if the case is referred to any attorney for collection. If those can’t be collected, the association can move to foreclose on the property.

If the individuals disturbing their neighbors are mentally ill or disabled, association should move more carefully – and as always with advice from legal counsel – because of protections granted those individuals under the federal Fair Housing Act.

“You have to make sure you’re not jumping into a fray purporting to have facts when you have no facts. You pretty much have to stay neutral on these things until you or a member of your board has personally seen and/or witnessed the activity in question,” says attorney Mark F. Makeower of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., who also is CCAL member.

However, there also are situations in which an association can be held liable if the board doesn’t step in to protect residents from harassment, Marcus notes. A federal district court in 1997 ordered a condominium association in Washington, D.C., to pay $550,00 to an African-American woman who was the target of racial and sexual harassment, including a threat of lynching, by another unit owner. The board and manager took no action despite her repeated complaints.

Individual homeowners also should be encouraged to take action on their own. “Those individuals who have been threatened are the victims of assault, and they can and should be contacting local police,” says Fort Lauderdale attorney Donna Berger, a CCAL member.