By David Swedelson and Sandra Gottlieb, Condo Lawyers and HOA Attorneys, Senior Partners at SwedelsonGottlieb On October 9, 2011, Governor Brown signed into law several new bills impacting California community associations as well as their managing agents who are employers. These new laws include the imposition of penalties for “willfully…
By David C. Swedelson, Senior Partner SwedelsonGottlieb, Condo Lawyer and HOA Attorney We are often asked to include confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements with owners, as the board often wants to avoid other owners hearing that the association settled. The concern is that these other owners will think it is…
By David Swedelson, senior partner, SwedelsonGottlieb, California condo lawyer and HOA attorney “Homeowner Associations Are Not Required to Create Reserve Accounts?” This was the title of a recent Los Angeles Times column on community association law written by two individuals who I do not believe are really community association legal…
By David C. Swedelson and Sandra L. Gottlieb, California Condo Lawyers and HOA Attorneys It’s fall, and that means that most community association board members and management are busy finalizing their budgets (this applies to most community associations that have a calendar fiscal year). Unlike the old days, the budget…
By SwedelsonGottlieb, Community Association Attorneys So, your Association has a homeowner who is delinquent on his assessments. Before you are able to make any progress on collection and before a lien is recorded, you receive notice that he has filed for bankruptcy. What happens next? The moment a debtor files for…
By SwedelsonGottlieb, Community Association Attorneys We have all heard the terms “Senior Lien”, “Junior Lien”, “First Mortgage”, “Second Trust Deed” and whatever other variations of those terms are out there. Here we are going to explain exactly what those terms mean and how they relate to a foreclosure action. A…
By Sandra Gottlieb, Senior Partner SwedelsonGottlieb; Condo Lawyer and HOA Attorney We know that there is a tendency to classify some condo and HOA staff as independent contractors rather then employees. Some community association boards want to do this because they think that such a classification will mean that their…
By David C. Swedelson, Senior Partner SwedelsonGottlieb, California Condo Lawyer and HOA attorney Interesting article in the October 23, 2011 edition of the Los Angeles Times regarding recent rule revisions by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Follow this link to read the article. We have been reporting on this issue,…
Blog posting by David C. Swedelson, Condo lawyer and HOA attorney; Senior Partner SwedelsonGottlieb Amazing story out of Florida involving an attorney/owner of a condominium who asked her condo association to place a trash receptacle in the mail room so she could have a convenient place to dispose of her…
Blog post from David C. Swedelson, Condo Lawyer, HOA Attorney and Senior partner SwedelsonGottlieb We are often asked how a building contractor’s poor workmanship was approved by the City’s inspector from the Department of Building and Safety. Now we know one reason; some inspectors are taking bribes to look the…