The Proper Way To Handle Conflicts With HOA Residents

As an HOA board member or a property manager, it is inevitable that you will have to deal with conflict at some point.  One homeowner might approach you with a complaint that their neighbor keeps playing loud music.  You know that is against the HOA rules but you may not have laws clearly defining the way to deal with such issues.  Here are a few tactics you can apply to handle conflicts among homeowners.

 

When a complaint is brought to your attention, you might be tempted to take action immediately.  For instance, the other person could be fined but that only leads to the start of grudges and resentment.  Instead, call the other person and have both of the individuals give their side of the story.

Listening is the key to efficient conflict resolution so be sure each party is given enough time to speak.  Focus on the facts and the events rather than the personalities when resolving the issue and don’t make it personal as that only leads to one party getting defensive.

 

In every HOA, there are certain areas that are more prone to disputes than others.  Perhaps the people are in disagreement about the right to use the clubhouse or to manage the homeowner association website.  Once you identify the conflict areas, come up with a plan to handle any potential issue.  If residents would like to use the clubhouse for personal events, you should have them go through an application procedure.

More often than not, people get into a dispute due to a lack of rules or they simply fail to get informed about the rules.  For that reason, consider reviewing your HOA laws and start a motion to create laws for conflict areas that the current laws haven’t addressed.  Aside from that, use the homeowner association website so all homeowners know the latest laws and stress how important it is to obey them!