WHEN
THE SCREAMING AND THE SHOUTING RISE TO THE NEXT LEVEL
By
Eric Glazer, Esq.
Published
September 24, 2012
No doubt that many of us have been to a board meeting or two
where screaming breaks out, the decibel level in the room is
raised, tempers flare and little gets accomplished as a result.
The overwhelming majority of these shouting matches are
non violent, and end up with each side muttering a few curse
words at the other at worst.
But sometimes these arguments rise to the next level and
suddenly you may find yourself in a serious and dangerous
situation. Just two
weeks ago in Kentucky, a man opened fire at his homeowner's association meeting
killing two people. Apparently,
the association had a long running dispute with an owner over
the height of his fence. The
association said that last year, they received a threatening
letter from this owner about the ongoing dispute.
By the way….there is no evidence that this owner turned
murderer ever did anything worse than get a speeding ticket.
He worked in nuclear medicine.
Over the years, I have watched violence in communities
grow. I've seen
senior citizens with walkers and canes throw them at each other.
I have seen cars of residents literally blown up.
I've heard threats from residents to set fire and burn
down the entire property, unit owners threatened with death,
unit owners actually beaten up, board members threatened with
death……and the list goes on and on.
Once a threat is made, the threat often turns real very
quickly. The threat
cannot be ignored and if the Board believes that the maker of
the threat is a danger to the community they have a fiduciary
obligation to the unit owners to do something about it.
The instant any type of a threat of violence is made the
police must be called and the incident documented.
That's just for starters.
There are also other remedies the association may wish to
consider such as arbitration proceedings, lawsuits, restraining
orders and even orders kicking people out of their homes.
Two years ago Scott and I represented a large association
in
South
Beach. One owner was a
man in his mid thirties that simply terrorized many of the
residents by letting his giant dog run unleashed, he tased a
person, struck another with a fire extinguisher and stole the
association's golf carts. The
association was able to get an order against him removing him
from the property. The
decision was upheld by the appeals court who didn't take kindly
to his lawyer's suggestion that the court has no business
kicking people out of their homestead property.
The court made it clear at oral argument that the courts
certainly have the power to preserve the peace and if kicking
this guy out of his home did just that, then mission
accomplished. By the
way, the story ended with this man being found in the truck of a
car in
New York
with a bullet in his head about two months after oral argument.
DO NOT TAKE THESE
THREATS LIGHTLY. Many
people are going through difficult times right now and fighting
with their association may be the one thing that puts them over
the edge. It's not
worth it to scream and shout about bushes being to tall or
whether or not an owner's truck is a vehicle that doesn't belong
on the property. Let
the courts or arbitrators figure it out.
Don't turn your argument into a spectacle for all to see.
That's why I basically laughed when the Florida
Legislature passed a law that allows the association to prevent
delinquent owners from using the common areas.
Should a Board member risk a fist fight or worse by
approaching a delinquent owner and order them out of the pool in
front of the other members of the community?
Maybe it would have been safer if the Legislature
approached the banks and asked them to pay more money to
associations when they foreclose and take back a property.
Bottom line; Take
all threats of violence seriously.
The one you don't take seriously may be the one that
unfortunately leads to the worst result.
