5 Rules for Solving Pet Problems in Your HOA: A Guide for HOA Board Members

The Joneses have a very friendly golden retriever named Sparky. But they let it loose in the common areas of the community of owners and the pooch jumps up to the neighbors and jumps on them to greet them. The neighbors like the Joneses and Sparky, but have asked you to remind them to follow the HOA rules and leash their dog.

Or maybe you’re in a condominium association that allows cats, but residents have complained that Mike in unit 249 has 13 of the feline critters, and the smell is becoming noticeable.

If your community association allows pets, but with restrictions, you need a plan to deal with violators. Here are five rules for tackling negligent landlords in your HOA.

1) Enforce the rules. Although you may like pets yourself, people have accepted your HOA in part because they liked the rules governing owner behavior. It is your job, and fiduciary duty, as a board member of your homeowners association to enforce those rules. It doesn’t matter that Sparky is friendly. If the Joneses are breaking the rules, and your neighbors’ ability to live in peace has been diminished, put on your enforcement hat and do your job as an HOA board member.

2) Document the problem. If the Wilson family lets their dogs out at 6 am every day and allows them to bark until they leave for work at 7:30 am, start taking notes. Create a log of incidents and document them in as many ways as possible. Take pictures, record the barking, and ask your HOA’s disgruntled neighbors to write a complaint. Only when you have strong evidence that a problem exists should you approach the owners to resolve it.

3) Ask for compliance. Before you fall like an anvil on your HOA owners who don’t realize the stress their pets cause, try honey first. Either in person or by letter, explain the problem and ask that it be corrected. It’s hard for owners to get angry or belittling if you’re standing in front of them, so a personal discussion may resolve the issue more quickly. However, if you go that route, document the discussion immediately afterward. Be specific in explaining the problem and the actions you need landlords to take, and don’t threaten them with fines or other punitive actions. The time for threats may come, but at this stage, they could backfire.

4) Follow up. After letting the owner know that there have been complaints and requesting a solution, check back to see if the problem has been corrected. If not, get tough. Now is the time to remind owners of the rules and the penalties for breaking them. Review your government documents to make sure you know your options. Then write a letter explaining the problem, your efforts to resolve it, and the fact that it hasn’t been fixed. Explain that if the problem is not corrected within a certain amount of time, the HOA’s process to deal with non-compliant owners will begin. Keep that promise and take whatever steps are necessary to hold the owners back.

5) Be compassionate. If the owners are in a difficult position, perhaps they have too many cats or dogs, but don’t want to give them up because they fear they will be put down, volunteer to help. You might be thinking that it’s beyond the call of duty, and you’re probably right. But if you don’t have the time or temperament to help owners, ask an animal lover in your HOA to speak up. The job may require phone calls to local shelters or posting information about the pets on adoption websites, but the outcome is likely to be positive. If you take that route, everyone wins.