Condominium Insider

MEEB’s Condo Law Newsletter

Governance and Board Operations, Collections and Lien Enforcement, Construction Defect Litigation, General Litigation, Insurance and Risk, Fair Housing and Accomodations, Maintenance and Repairs, Rules and Enforcement, Lending and Finance, Landlord Tenant, Legislation and Regulatory Updates, MEEB Case Results, Resolutions and Amendments Mark S. Einhorn, Esq. Governance and Board Operations, Collections and Lien Enforcement, Construction Defect Litigation, General Litigation, Insurance and Risk, Fair Housing and Accomodations, Maintenance and Repairs, Rules and Enforcement, Lending and Finance, Landlord Tenant, Legislation and Regulatory Updates, MEEB Case Results, Resolutions and Amendments Mark S. Einhorn, Esq.

HOW TO DEAL WITH A ‘BAD’ CONDOMINIUM TENANT - CONTACT THE OWNER

If a condominium owner regularly plays loud music, rolls golf balls across an uncarpeted floor, otherwise disturbs other residents or violates association rules, the board’s response is clear: Notify the owner that he or she is violating the rules and fine him/her if the violations continue. But what if the annoying resident is a tenant, not an owner? 

The response isn’t quite as straightforward. The board has no direct relationship with the tenant, no authority to enforce the association’s rules against him, and certainly no authority to evict him, unless the governing documents specifically grant that authority, which most do not.  The board’s relationship is with the owner of the unit, who is the tenant’s landlord, so any actions the board takes should start there.

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Construction Defect Litigation, Maintenance and Repairs Seth Barnett Construction Defect Litigation, Maintenance and Repairs Seth Barnett

BEFORE YOU SUE CITY HALL

When a condominium board or an individual unit owner discovers a construction defect that should have been caught before the building was ever occupied, the instinct is understandable: Someone should have seen this coming, and the town's building inspector was standing right there with the plans and the authority to stop the project.

Clients often come to counsel already convinced that the town shares the blame, sometimes more of the blame than the contractor who actually built the defective condition, and they want to know why their attorney is not filing suit against the city or town as well. This is often the point where an attorney has to deliver news the client does not want to hear. In Massachusetts, a condominium board or unit owner generally cannot recover from a municipality for failing to catch a construction defect during permitting or inspection, no matter how obviously inadequate that inspection turns out to have been in hindsight.

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Maintenance and Repairs, Governance and Board Operations Mark S. Einhorn, Esq. Maintenance and Repairs, Governance and Board Operations Mark S. Einhorn, Esq.

DEFERRED MAINTENANCE

We are working on the association’s annual budget and it is clear that our anticipated expenses are going to exceed anticipated revenues. Some board members have suggested that deferring some scheduled but nonessential maintenance projects would reduce expenses by enough to close this gap without increasing monthly dues. Are there other alternatives we should consider?

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Insurance and Risk, Maintenance and Repairs William F. Thompson Insurance and Risk, Maintenance and Repairs William F. Thompson

SNOW AND ICE LIABILITY RISKS

An owner sent the board a letter complaining about the association’s  snow-removal contractor.  He says the contractor waits too long before beginning to plow and doesn’t do an adequate job of clearing the snow and treating the ice.  The letter says the owner is putting the board on notice that if anyone slips and falls, the association will be sued for negligence.  This is the only complaint about snow removal the board has received.  How should we respond?

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