As an attorney, I read cases from all over the country on various HOA and condo topics and I’m always on the lookout for interesting or noteworthy decisions that might have an impact in North Carolina or South Carolina where I practice.
In a recent case out of California, several neighbors got into a fight and their HOA was sued by two of the participants in the fight.
Quick note 1—this case is not a NC or SC case, and is not binding on any community in North Carolina or South Carolina. However, there are important takeaways from the case that boards and managers of communities in NC and SC should remember.
Quick note 2—this ain’t legal advice.
Eric Smith and Stacey Thorne were residents in the Greenhouse Community Association in Santa Ana, California, as were Eric Woolard and Breonna Hall. The team of Smith and Thorne got into a fight with the team of Woolard and Hall (not sure who “won” the fight). Later, Smith and Thorne sued Woolard and Hall, but in the process, the management company and the HOA were also sued.
Woolard and Hall argued that the HOA and the management company should have prevented the altercation and should pay damages as a result. The HOA and management company filed motions for summary judgment (a decision without the need for a trial), which the trial court granted. On appeal, the California Court of Appeals had some important things to say:
In sum, there is simply no law to support Woolard and Hall’s contentions that [the HOA and management company] had some unspecified duty to do something to prevent what turned into an allegedly violent dispute. Imposing a duty on homeowners associations or their managing agents to intervene and attempt to resolve disputes between homeowners (or their tenants) would place an untenable burden on these entities. Run by volunteers, they already have enough . . . responsibility. Associations do not have police powers or subpoena power. They cannot compel owners, much less tenants of owners, to sit down and work out their differences, and they cannot adjudicate differences except in the limited context of violations of the association’s governing documents. There was evidence here, in the form of Griswold’s declaration, that the association properly responded to complaints about violations of governing documents that it received.
Imposing a duty under these facts would leave associations liable for the outcome of such disputes without the tools to prevent them. This would leave ordinary homeowners holding the bag when special assessments were needed to pay judgments or attorney fees. [The HOA and management company] played no part in the physical altercation at issue here and should never have been dragged into this dispute.
If you want to read the full case, here is a link to Woolard v. Regent Real Estate Services, No. 328 Cal. Rptr. 3d 439 (Cal. Ct. App., Dec. 3, 2024).
Important takeaways for NC and SC boards and managers:
- Generally speaking, HOAs and condos in North and South Carolina don’t owe a duty to keep owners safe or protect them from harm or criminal conduct.
- Unless there is some language in the HOA’s governing documents that requires the association to intervene (which would be unusual), disputes between neighbors should almost never involve the HOA or management company. As the Court of Appeals said, associations don’t have police powers and can’t force people to get along. HOAs should not be required to interject themselves into these types of situations.
- The HOA’s job in these situations is to enforce the covenants. If no specific covenant is violated, then there is really nothing for the association to do.
- As a best practice, associations should respond when a resident reaches out with concerns (which is what happened in this case), but the response is usually to inform them that they need to contact law enforcement or retain an attorney as it is a neighbor to neighbor dispute that doesn’t involve the association.
- If there is a claim of discrimination, the HOA may have some limited duty to do what it can, but again, that will depend on what language exists in the governing documents.
If your community has questions about an association duty when it comes to disputes between neighbors, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our attorneys at any of our offices.