Be Reasonable! How Community Associations Can Enforce Rules Without Antagonizing Residents, Going to Court, or Starting World War III

asked by caramel on November 1, 2006 2:21 PM

Community associations enforce rules and restrictions to ensure a high quality of life for residents and to preserve property values - not to harass residents. Rules are there to prevent homeowners from painting their houses pink or storing washing machines in their yards - but those same rules should not become overzealous or inflexible.

"Be Reasonable" shows you how to write and enforce rules that won't get your association in trouble and won't cause residents to hold recall elections.

"Be Reasonable" is a compendium of expert opinions from over 30 leading community association attorneys, managers and directors combined with information from CAI's award-winning magazine Common Ground. You'll learn effective strategies for drafting and enacting reasonable rules, identifying unreasonable rules and restrictions and working with owners. You'll also find out more about reasonable enforcement procedures -- from making exceptions to providing due process. Practical applications are illustrations through discussion of court cases and real-life controversies.

Some of the topics covered in "Be Reasonable" include:

* Writing Reasonable Rules

* Understanding Rules and Restrictions

* Reasonable Enforcement Strategies

* Mediating Disputes

* Levying Fines

* Controversial Rules and Restrictions

* Children

* Holiday Decorations

* Satellite Dishes

* Vehicles

* Eliminating Unreasonable Rules

Buy this book

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Reviews

The title of this book is misleading, as it does not offer much in terms of helpful advice rather a sampling of horror stories from various misguided community associations. The book is also disappointingly short, I almost felt like I was reading an edition of "Reader's Digest". The author compiled the book mostly though articles published by the CAI which are available to any member and it is pretty obvious that the author is more of a scholar then someone with hands on experience in dealing with the problems of troubled homeowner associations. This book is also more focused on homeowner associations, not condo associations so all the urban dwellers might need to look elsewhere.

reviewed by maxmill on November 11, 2006 7:38 PM

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I was veary dissapointed as were other board members. From ad on your web site we thought it would give us some help in enforcing the rules and regulations ands all the book does is tell you how to make the rules easier and nothing about how to enforce them. VERY DISSAPOINTED & do not believe I will believe your web site again.

reviewed by vladi on November 13, 2006 1:24 PM

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add a new book!