Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

I live in a small condo complex of only 10 units. The complex used to be one apartment building, but was converted to condos a few years ago The hoa is largely self managed and nobody seems to know what they are doing. One of the people in one of the units decided to cut a hold in the wall of our structure to install a few A/C units for their unit. Without asking anyone, they punched through our siding and installed these ugly air conditioning units that now hang off the structure. Nobody really knows much about them, and everyone is mad and wants the owner of the unit to get rid of these things and put our building back together the way it was originally intended. Isn't this an issue that code enforcement would want to take care of? How are we supposed to sue the violating HOA member who does not want to cooperate and gets angry? What kind of documentation do we need to get to drag this owner into court? Is anyone interested in helping us with this on a contingency?


Asked on 10/08/14, 10:34 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Anthony Roach Law Office of Anthony A. Roach

1. Condo units have recorded covenants. No attorney can advise you without reviewing the recorded covenants.

2. Individual owners can enforce the recorded covenants if the Home Owner's Association cannot or will not do it.

3. Any attorney who took that kind of case on contingency would be a fool. The end result is an order from a judge asking the offending owners to restore the property to conform to the rules. Since a contingency fee means a lawyer obtains a portion of the award as a fee, how in the world would a lawyer split a court order with you?

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Answered on 10/09/14, 8:07 am


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