I LIVE, ALAS, IN A COMMUNITY RULED BY AN IRON HAND OUT-OF-STATE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION.
The management association’s manager du jour is a harridan1 the worst of many that have been foisted on us..
It is not that she does her job; it is the way she does it.
SOME HOME OWNERS’ ASSOCIATIONS (HOAs) are people interested in maintaining the neighborhood.
That’s fine.
If a neighbor has an issue, an HOA representative will contact the person and politely suggest something needs attention.
So it goes with my son’s HOA on Florida’s west coast.
If the HOA has the authority and if the “whatever” that needs attention goes unattended, then — and only then — the HOA will commence action, beginning with a formal letter — preferably certified to “CYA” the HOA — stating the problem and the consequences if the issue is not resolved within a reasonable, season-dependent, period.
MY HOA starts off with the formal letter informing me that I am in “violation” of this or that matter — and, since I am paying for the postage, it sends separate letters for each “violation”; each letter also lists the very stiff penalties if compliance misses the short time-to-complete date.
Apparently the HOA that controls my neighborhood behaves the way far too many HOAs in my state — Florida — behave: total disregard for the people who pay them; the people who are supposed to work for the community.
- Interestingly, the letter, which came by regular mail, tells me I should be notified by certified mail. The out-of-state management association doesn’t even comply with its OWN rules.
I admit I am a curmudgeon. Moreover, I am an old curmudgeon who was raised in an era of greater civility; a time when “please” and “thank you” were common and sales people actually called customers “sir” or “ma'am” and never addressed a customer by his or her given name until invited, by the customer, to do so.
When I have an (indirect) employee — the resident management association representative — who tells me I need to make an appointment to collect some forms, that is beyond my ken. The association rep is not all that busy; previous persons in this position always have been available — when they are on site. They may not have done every resident’s bidding — the on-site person is, after all, a management association employee, albeit we, the home owners pay the association to pay the on-site person’s wages. Still, previous on-site association employees for the most part have been at least civil.
The current one doesn’t know the meaning of the word “civil.” Indeed, it seems the on-site person is on a personal power trip.
A neighbor reports the person even fails to return calls.
Unfortunately, the management association’s on-site person has several problems.
First, statements are made that simply are false.
- Example: I was informed that my city has an ordinance with which my residence was not in compliance. It does have an ordinance, but it applies only to commercial buildings.
When this was pointed out to the harridan, she replied that the association does not go by the city’s ordinances.
So why did she cite it in the first place?
Second, the resident manager lacks a command of English — still the main language in the Several States — and apparently also lacks knowledge of email spell checkers and grammar checkers.
This scrivener is hardly a great speller, but I DO know how to use spell checkers that seem ubiquitous with all software for written communications. My email applications have it. My word processor applications have it. My spreadsheet applications have it. Even my cell phone applications alert me to a misspelled word.
To be fair, I have read horribly worded missives replete with spelling errors penned by college students (and some college graduates, too).
The neighborhood is a mix of young and not-so-young, of native English speakers and those with English as a second (or third or fourth) language. Correct English use, therefor, is incumbent upon the management association’s on-site person.
Granted, English can be difficult. Its vs. it’s; to, too, and two; there, they’re, and their; lay vs. lie; and many many more words that can snare a writer with limited English skills.
Given that, the management association ought to assure that its — our — employee has either a good command of the language in which that employee will be communicating with the “customer” (residents) or, failing that, utilizes the utilities available to check spelling and grammar.
I’m not certain if the local residents’ board has any control over what the out-of-state management association does, other than the ability to replace the management association (which has been in place for a decade — was the job ever put up for bids?).
I know I am not the only person unhappy with the out-of-state management association's heavy handiness and the association's on-site representative's arrogance, but I wonder how many will (try to) do something to end this tyranny.
Sources
1. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/harridan
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.
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