HOA Required to provide common area boundaries?
According to the Assessor’s plat map one of the homeowner’s has a portion of her property being watered and maintained by the community which is paid for by the association from our annual dues. She is the former President and she was instrumental in hiring the management company, Cadden. The HOA has allowed her to plant trees & plants in the common area yet the association waters and maintains. Recently, I was walking my dog in the common area, her dog went after my dog, her dogs were not on a leash. The plat map shows I was on common areand she screamed at me to get off her property. I reached out the President of the Board and Cadden regarding knowing the boundaries of the common area.
Here was their response:All areas within CDON (owners and common areas) are platted and recorded. Survey stakes of where individual owner and CDON ownership lines run are not in place. Any owner who wishes to dispute a boundary, may, at their own expense, have such property surveyed. CDON and Owners will respect and accept the results of such a survey and not assert any claim of Adverse Possession.
We consider this matter closed.
What can I do?
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Mary Lou,
Have you seen a plat for the community? Everyone I’ve ever seen is very detailed and you can clearly see the boundaries of the common area. There is seldom any dispute between common property and privately owned property. If you were attacked and, in any way, including your pet, harmed on common property the association can be held liable for the issue. What I would do is first is file a claim for damages to the association’s insurance company, that should get their attention. If not hurt, then I would start with the governing documents especially the Articles of incorporation most have a clause that state that no association money can be used to benefit a single homeowner. if you have that clause and association resources are being used to water private property than the association is violating the articles of incorporation and the association can be reported to the Arizona Corporations Commission. They approve all Articles of incorporation and enforce their provisions.
Stupid answers like this happen far too often from management companies and attorneys they actually say nothing and just avoid the question because they know that something is wrong and hope you simply go away. This has nothing to do with your property but everything to do with their property and how they are using association money and resources to benefit a single homeowner. You never have to pay a surveyor to define the common property.
Dennis