Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
Repairs On Stairway
We live in a condo which we bought 3 years ago. Our Home Owners Association sent us a Notice Letter mentioning that they were going to repair the stairways at our condo for 3 days and during that time we will have no access to our condo. HOA paid us for our 2 night stay at a hotel as compensation. It later turns out that the repair would take longer, from 3 days to 3-4 weeks; after the stairway was already demolished. First of, the contractor did not apply for the permit before they started the job and the city code enforcement had to put a stop work label. Then, they also found wood rot on the platform, and have to get an engineer to do an inspection. I have demanded a temporary stairway to our condo but our HOA can not afford to spend US$ 300 per day for renting out a temporary stairway so they ignored our request. They provide us a temporary condo to stay until the stairways is completed, but we still experience inconveniences for not having access to our condo to use our computer/internet and get our own personal things. What should we do to enforce them to put a temporay stairway? Can we not pay the HOA's fee during the time they repair the stairways? Can we sue them for our inconvenience?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Repairs On Stairway
Your HOA is not the enemy. It is you and the rest of your neighbors collectively. To answer your questions a qualified attorney would have to look at your bylaws. The problem was caused, at least in part, by contractor negligence. I would discuss the issue with an attorney for your association.
Re: Repairs On Stairway
Here's another way to look at it. Suppose you owned your own single-unit home, no HOA. The same sort of stairway replacement might become necessary. No one would compensate you for inconvenience based upon normal 'down time' while no useable stairway was in place. Then, when the out-of-service time becomes excessive, whose fault is it? Is it the contractor, or the party that hired the contractor? Unless the HOA clearly made a bad, bad decision in hiring this particular contractor, your remedy, if any, is against the contractor whose negligence is causing the loss of use, and not the HOA.
Re: Repairs On Stairway
As a supplement to the other two answers, you cannot withhold payment of the home owners dues to the HOA. There is a code section which prohibits the withholding of the home owner's dues.
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