On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 17:02:48 GMT, Norminn
wrote:

mm wrote:

Why don't you call the city and ask them?


I don't think I could find someone who could answer the question.

But I did post to misc.legal.moderated, and I'm reviewing the one
answer I got so far. It's moderated so it takes at least two days to
et an answer.

If they meant it was a violation of a criminal law, I could call the
prosecutor I guess, but they probably mean it's a civil wrong, and no
one at the city is going to want to answer such a question.

A judge might know the answer, but he'll want to hear both sides of
the case in a hearing with witnesses. But I don't think he would
talk to me at all. His secretary will tell me to consult a lawyer.

I think the customary way to learn how to run a HOA or condo assn. is in
learning from mistakes! Typical board members are those who want to
control every detail to conform to their own idea of what is "right",
and go overboard in rules enforcement...generally are poor planners and
make issues "personal".

We have two like that, at this time counting the management company
rep. The reaosn one is not defeated is that she is also willing to do
work that really does have to be done, year after year after year. I
certainly have other things to do, like read and write to Usenet.

I would NEVER approach an owner to ask about overdue fees or
assessments, no matter what .. that makes it personal. Your management
company can send a letter, certified mail, whenever there is a

That's how we do it.

delinquency or rules violation. The cost can (or should) be added onto
the amount due. That matter should be in your bylaws. A HOA is not a

That's how we do it.

club, it is a business. In Fl., condo associations are "corporations
not for profit" (usually) and are governed by rules pretty close to
those for corporate boards in business.

There is very little HOA law in Md. Last I looked maybe 8 pages, and
that included the annotations (case decisions). The rest of it is
standard corporate law.**

If your units have water meters, why is the HOA collecting the fees? If

They don't.

they don't have meters, why not get them?

A lot of money to install them after the fact. Digging up, cutting
into plumbing. Residents don't want to be without water. Putting in
new grass and maybe repairing sidewalks because many valves are under
plates in the sidewalk. None of this applies when the houses are
under construction.

In addition, and probably most important in fact, the agreement 29
years ago was that every unit pays the same. That includes the
apartment building, where no one has a yard to water and fewer people
on average per unit than the average house. So less water used for
everything.

Even though I don't water my lawn, and I live alone, I only pay 11.66
a month for water. I gather that is very cheap. If I had a meter, I
would pay more, plus all the wasted effort reading about 400 meters of
all the units involved. (The water bill is going up this summer,
because Baltimore City is going to charge Baltimore County 15 or 20%
more for water. It was in the paper.)

It's like when there was a draft, the army couldn't force you to have
surgery so you wouldn't be 4F anymore. But if you chose to have the
surgery and ended up 1A, you might be drafted. A lot of people
postponed their surgery until they were over 26.

Then the city can collect and
shut off the water if not paid. Too many other things to **** about
than to go for years with unpaid bills )

I was sleepy today, but this week I hope to check on why placing a
lien and foreclosing hasn't collected all t he money owed.

It's not because the Board is nice to people. I think they are
usually verging on heartless, so I'm getting more and more curious why
they never afaik foreclosed. Generally just starting to is enough to
get the money. Or telling them about the one house that was
foreclosed on.

Not even because some people don't know they need to move to someplace
cheaper, and aren't willing to sell their house, but because there are
thousands of dollars of extra charges when the court does it.


**(The HOA once had a lawyer who once gave me an answer based on condo
or coop law, but he called an hour later to say he'd made a mistake.
No harm done. I had called him on the phone, so he was not in our HOA
mode. It's not like he was at one of our meetings and forgot we were
an HOA. Next time I call someone, if I ever do, I will remind him
that we are an HOA, but this time I had just called to remind him when
our big annual meeting was, and meant only to talk to the secretary,
but I got him instead and he asked me something and I ended up asking
him a legal question. That's was the basis on which the other board
member accuse me of "illegally going to their lawyer" This is
probably libel, and accusilng someone of a crime, in NYS at leaset if
not in Md, iirc entitles one to damages even if he can't show actual
damages. But I didn't sue anyone. I didn't even bother to tell him
what he had done wrong. I only asked him if he was accusing me of a
crime.

When I had called the lawyer's office, it's true that I identified
myself as a board member, but that was accurate. I didn't say the
board had asked me to call. I wanted to know a detail about the
proper format for an election proxy (if it had to name the candidates
to be voted for if it could be blank and the proxyholder decided who
to vote for at the last minute.) I think it is not out of bounds to
ask that question of the HOA lawyer, but that isn't why I called him.
I called him to remind him to come to the meeting, which he himself
had insisted on doing, but it turned out he had the wrong date. I
wanted him there to make the election run right, but I only intended
to talk to his secretary.