HOA News Digest 1-12-07

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NC: Walking dogs at Beaver Lake will cost owners A burgeoning dog population is causing problems for the privately owned North Asheville lake. Owners aren’t bagging what their canines leave behind, lake keepers say. So, on Jan. 1, lake owners enacted a $50 dog-walking fee for nonresidents.

SC: Homeowners Association council to be revived Homeowners association board members are small-scale CEOs and elected neighborhood leaders. But few of those volunteers have the political experience or business savvy it takes to manage a community.

NJ: Suit: Condo rules vs. free speech A battle over free speech and assembly took place Thursday in the state Supreme Court as tenants of a condominium complex fought to be able to put up political campaign signs against the wishes of the community's governing association. FOLLOW-UP - - Click here for North Carolina law on flags and political signs.

Checklist of Contract Clauses The content of a contract depends, of course, on the type of transaction you're getting into. This checklist includes items to consider when you draft a contract

Community Essentials: A Proactive Approach to Contracts Prior to beginning construction projects, most boards understand the importance of consulting with engineers, architects and other experts. These consultations help to define the project and shape any bids so that the final product conforms to what the board envisioned. Very few boards think to draft a customized contract before advertising for bids to define and shape the legal aspects of the construction project. This can be a costly omission

Association War Stories Every profession has its war stories. For community associations, these stories increasingly involve owners who, because of age, emotional problems, or both, pose a threat to themselves and to others in the community. Like the woman with Alzheimer’s, who wandered regularly from her complex when her son, with whom she lived, was traveling on business. Or the elderly owner whose toilet overflowed, creating a mess in his unit and a stench unbearable to everyone else in the building, but unnoticed by him.

FL: Briny Breezes' mobile home owners could soon be millionaires Nestled conspicuously amid multimillion-dollar homes and splashy high-rise condos, the coastal trailer-park town of Briny Breezes seems out of place, a relic of Old Florida that may soon vanish. If residents approve the Palm Beach County community's sale to a developer for more than a half-billion dollars, almost every owner of the 488 trailers would become an instant millionaire. FOLLOW-UP - - Click here to read the latest January 10 news on Briny Breezes'.

OH - Second lawsuit filed in sewer collapse Fairway 12 condominium residents Steve and Sharon Kukoleck are suing the city and Insituform Technologies, the company contracted to repair the corroded sewer, for more than $25,000 in damages to their possessions.

ASK THE EXPERT

Paul Mengert, CEO of Association Management Group is a 20 year veteran of the HOA industry. He was commissioned by the US Government to write materials concerning the operations and management of homeowner associations. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, teaches advanced management classes for the Community Associations Institute (CAI) and has also taught in the Harvard Alumni Program at Queens University Business School.

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