Working with Condo HOAs on Tenant/Owner Communication

[Carol DeFord]

Hi All! I have a tenant in a condo rental, and received communications that the tenant was in violation of bylaws. The letter included notes from another resident who followed, photographed, and "documented" my tenant for months. And had been sending regular personal "updates" to Condo Board members. But neither the property management company nor the Board sent anythging to myself or the tenant about it until now. I understand violating bylaws is unacceptable, but my concerns are two-fold: what is the general timeline to notify someone of said violation? (If the purpose is to correct a behavior, why wait months to do so?) And is it appropriate or even legal for independent residents to borderline stalk/harrass other residents, with or without tacit consent from Board Members? My tenant is one of the few non-white residents of the building, and when discussing this issue mentioned a neighbor following him and muttering derogatory comments on more than one occassion. My goal as a landlord is to offer safe housing for my tenants, and I don't know that I will be able to retain this property if the Board and/or the residents have the authority to single out and target individual residents. TIA for your input! 

[Julie Hartman]

@Carol DeFord I agree with what @Nathan Gesner said, there is always that one guy (or gal) that has nothing better to do than to watch everyone else in the complex and give a daily report to the HOA. We dealt with a similar issue at one of our units; our tenants were an interracial couple who we felt were being targeted - for leaving their trash cans out more than 3 hours (the horror!). We dealt with it swiftly and got the owner involved to put an end to it. We make sure we are copied on all HOA correspondence so that we may act quickly when needed. Your PM should have talked with the tenants as soon as it was brought to their attention instead of sitting on it. How can they fix a problem they don't know exists? We also have tenants read and sign off on HOA rules and regs before they sign the lease, just in case they can't live with what the rules dictate. You can't change the HOA, you can only change how you deal with them.