Many condominium unit owners experience water damage from leaks in pipes, walls or other common elements managed by the unit owners’ association. This happens in both new condominiums with construction defects and older associations with growing maintenance problems. Condominium associations have the privilege of controlling and the responsibility for maintaining the common elements. Unit owners […]

Many owners want to know what options they have to overturn bad board decisions without using litigation and when waiting to the annual director election isn’t an option. This raises the issue of what legally binding results “community organizing” can accomplish when the board majority appears to have already made up their mind. Many try […]

According to trade association data, approximately 1,980,000 Virginians live in 778,000 homes in more than 8,7000 community associations (HOAs, condominiums, etc.). In the District of Columbia, approximately 111,000 residents live in 48,000 homes located in more than 1,300, community associations. The “common interest” community model of land development is particularly prevalent in the national capital […]

Condominium and HOA leaders usually expect the owners and tenants to do what they tell them to do, and often struggle to back down when their authority is questioned. At the same time, boards and committees like to make decisions that affect others without being monitored or disclosing what was done. I recently published an […]

            Before Jaime Harrison ran for U.S. Senate or became chair of the Democratic National Committee, he was a director on the board of a condominium in Alexandria, Virginia while I was an owner-occupant. We had annual elections for board positions. Sometimes there was an election, other times we left without voting because there was […]