HOA fines and assistance animals
Answers
An association that fines instead of deciding has usually made its position worse.
Fining while a request is pending
An association subject to the Fair Housing Act has to decide a reasonable accommodation request. Levying fines under the pet covenant while the request sits undecided is enforcement of the very policy you have asked to be excepted from, and it tends to look like pressure rather than process.
What to do
- Write to the board, refer to the date of your request, and ask for a decision.
- Say plainly that you consider the fines to be levied under a covenant you have requested an accommodation from, and ask that they be held pending the decision.
- Keep paying anything not in dispute. Assessments and fines are treated differently, and non-payment of assessments has consequences that have nothing to do with the animal.
- Ask for the decision and its reasons in writing.
If the fines continue
Unpaid fines can become a lien in many states, which is a serious escalation and a reason not to simply ignore them. This is the point at which advice is worth paying for, and at which a complaint to your state fair housing agency becomes the proportionate step.
Boards are volunteers and frequently have not encountered this before. A short, calm letter that explains the accommodation duty resolves a surprising number of these before anybody involves an agency.
Common questions
- Can they foreclose over animal fines?
- In some states unpaid assessments and fines can become a lien with serious consequences. Do not let this run; take advice early.