Condo board votes to tent, but ill resident resists
Question: I have a terminal illness and bought a condo in a 50-year-old upscale development on the Westside because the hospital and emergency services are within walking distance. I have a hefty mortgage and large medical bills.
Owners who purchased their condos decades ago are living next to owners who recently paid more than half a million dollars for the same unit. New owners are typically two-career families encumbered with mortgages. Many of the older owners’ condos are mortgage-free.
I am one of the owners who paid nearly half a million dollars for my unit. The early owners dominate board positions and keep raising the monthly fees and control all expenditures.
After trying to force me to move, the board decided to tent all units for termites. Never before have these condos been tented. It wasn’t until the board learned of my illness that they planned to use the chemical pest controls.
The tenting method will seriously affect my immune system. Aside from the tremendous inconvenience and added cost, physicians have informed me if my unit is chemically treated, I could die. Still the board is moving forward.
I can’t seem to get enough of the other owners to understand my plight and support my point of view.
There are many alternatives to tenting, but the board said their decision is final. I tried mediation but it failed and was nonbinding. The board has rejected arbitration and has now accused me of interfering with the association’s business and served me with a fine for “breaking the rules.”
Paying attorneys to fight the board takes money away from my medical care. This seems so unfair. Is there anything I can do?
Answer: The widening disparity between original and new owners, mortgaged and unmortgaged homeowners, financially stable owners versus those on fixed incomes affects everyone in a deed-restricted development. These constantly changing demographics also seriously affect quality of life issues in developments across the nation. Buyers need to take these issues into consideration before they purchase.
Under California’s Davis-Stirling Act, the association is responsible for treating the complex for wood-destroying pests while individual owners are responsible for treating their individual units, unless that responsibility has been delegated to the association.
Spending money in an effort to prevent the association from tenting the complex to treat termites could be costly.
The California Court of Appeals has already determined that the board may choose the method for treating a complex, and the court will defer to that decision and decline to second-guess it. Fining in these circumstances just adds to the burdens of owners whose individual problems make compliance a hardship.
Under Civil Code section 1354, the board has authority to temporarily remove owners from their own property in order to complete pest treatment “for such periods and at such times as may be necessary for prompt, effective treatment.”
Common interest development laws make no provisions for illness, infirmity or financial hardship. If the board decides you are to move out during termite treatment, you move out at your own expense.
Some boards faced with similar problems have chosen to treat the individual units for termites rather than tent because of the health problems of one owner.
As the demographics of many complexes change, so should the board’s consideration for the individual rights and health issues of its occupants.
Other than notice, there are no due process or fairness requirements, only the decision by the board.
Even if notice is defective, there are no penalties for boards that claim they satisfied the notice requirement and no guidelines in the law to ensure they have. Regrettably, the courts and the law are oblivious to your special needs.
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Stephen Glassman and Donie Vanitzian are the co-authors of “Villa Appalling: Destroying the Myth of Affordable Community Living” (Villa Appalling Publishing Inc., 2002). Please send questions to: P.O. Box 451278, Los Angeles, CA 90045 or e-mail your queries to: NoExit@mindspring.com.
