Women being harassed in condo building and HOA doesn't care
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Anonymous
| I recently bought a condo in VA and have learned that a number of women in the building are being harassed by a renter in the building -- followed, screamed at, threatened, etc. It escalated to the point of the police being called 2x. Women are complaining to the HOA and the building manager, who initially refused to do anything and eventually agreed to consult with the building lawyer ... 6 months ago. The HOA is still "waiting to hear back" from the lawyer. I feel unsafe, too, and wanted to see what recourse we have. FWIW, the police have told us the HOA absolutely can kick the tenant out. |
Anonymous
| Does your building have cameras? |
Anonymous
| Are the people being harassed just waiting on the HOA to do something? Are they contacting the owner of the unit? Call them, email them, send them a letter, show up at their job. This is not ok and they have the power to stop this. |
Anonymous
No, they're actively refusing to get them. |
Anonymous
Apparently, the owner has been "contacted," per the HOA. The owner's information is being kept private and is not being released to the complainants; Googling home ownership records hasn't yielded any success.  . If someone were able to find it, it wouldn't be weird or creepy to contact the owner, right?
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Anonymous
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1. There's nothing for YOU to do, since nothing has happened to you personally.
2. These women need to go to the police every single time. 3. They need to send a letter certified return receipt to the owner and list each date/time they've been harrassed (screamed at, followed, etc.) by this renter. Ask what action the owner plans to take to rectify the situation and when. End with "If I do not hear back from you within 72 hours I will consult my attorney." EACH woman needs to send a letter like this separately to the owner. |
Anonymous
Re: #1, not entirely. DC lives with me and had some brushes with the renter, mainly witnessing some of the things I described, and is now scared to go out "because of the scary [renter]." So it does affect my family. Good idea re: having every woman contact the owner with explicit dates/times. |
Anonymous
You should have included that in the OP. |
Anonymous
Where are you located? Real estate purchases are public records and should be available from your local government's (city/county) website. It may show that the purchaser is a person/people, trust, or an LLC, but it's a starting point. |
Anonymous
I'm in Fairfax County, and thank you! Just found the owner's name on the iCare section of the site. |
Anonymous
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Consult with counsel. The HOA is primarily responsible for the maintenance of common areas, and not for policing the behavior of residents except to the extent that it affects the appearance or use of individual properties or common areas. The behavior you speak of may or may not be encompassed by the HOA governing documents. There may be provisions in those documents which address the renting of units and when such renting may not be allowed or allowed to continue.
If the behavior rises to a level of stalking or harassment which is actionable by law enforcement, those are the authorities to which you should turn. You may also have civil remedies, which will require you to proceed through your own attorney. |
Anonymous
| This is not an HOA responsibility. It's a police one. |
Anonymous
| +1 to police every single time and also you and as many others as possible should set up your own doorbell cameras. Also consider phone video. |
Anonymous
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Police for sure.
I would also think HOA should be looking into violations of "quiet enjoyment" rules at a minimum and not washing hands of it. |
Anonymous
| I would have an attorney write a formal letter to the condo board. If anything else bad happens the condo board is going to be on the hook for damages, and personally responsible for not taking action about a known problem. |