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"The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Cleveland alleges that various barriers at the Windham Bridge property in Hartville deny persons with disabilities equal access to 52 condominiums and the associated public and common-use areas at the property that are covered by the FHA. Such barriers include inaccessible building entrances; no accessible parking spaces; insufficient accessible routes into and through the units; and kitchens and bathrooms that are inaccessible to persons in wheelchairs."
“The Fair Housing Act’s accessibility requirements have been on the books for over two decades. So, today, when a person with a disability cannot enter the front door of a condominium complex, or find accessible parking there, it sends the message: ‘You are not welcome here,’” said HUD’s Acting Assistant Secretary Bryan Greene for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. “HUD and DOJ are committed to enforcing the nation’s fair housing laws to make certain persons with disabilities have the same access to multifamily housing as anyone else.”
... I wrote a letter and stated that my handicapped daughter gets picked up by a van and it's too far for her to walk alone. She's mentally challenged and fine physically.
Maybe I missed something but why can't the van drive into the community to pick up your daughter?
I live in a garden condo. I have a disabled neighbor who gets door to door service from a van that takes her to adult day care. Another neighbor has a special needs child - a small schoolbus picks him up and delivers him back home door to door every day.
Do you have your plat from the sale? If the suveyor didn't put in stakes, call him back out to add those to the survey. That might do the trick. Oh, and make those holes noticeable so that you can find them even if those stakes stangely disappear overnight.
The OP says this is a condo (not to be confused with an HOA). She owns her unit (townhouse) from the walls in. Everything else (grass, sidewalks, roofs, outside walls, etc) is common property. Her fenced backyard may be considered a limited common element... that is an area outside her condo unit which is dedicated to her own use. Outside the fence is probably common property for the use of all condo unit owners.
I live in a condo. In my case, I have a patio out back behind my unit. It is part of the condo common property (not mine) but is set aside for my use. It is called a limited common element.
The idea of a plat showing property boundaries outside the townhouse does not apply. The plat for a condo is the outline of the condo unit (in the OPs case, the townhouse building), not the land around it.
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As an aside: I would bet the gates were installed by the builder for the original owners. During construction of a condo, the builder IS the condo board and can do whatever he wants to make a sale. After the condo is turned over to the residents, whatever is written in the covenants and bylaws would apply. For some reason, most condo boards take it as gospel and don't think about changing things that were originally written for the builder's benefit. Ever wonder why you can't put up For Sale signs in most condo developments? Because the builder didn't want competition while he was still building and selling units.
Last edited by ansible90; 04-15-2014 at 10:04 PM..
I am purchasing a condo/townhouse. The parking in the development is horrendous and I am assigned one parking spot. If I get company they need to park outside the development and walk through it at least a half mile to get to my house. My backyard borders on a main road with lots of parking. I noticed that many of the houses in the development bordering that road have gates in the fence and park there. My children all have babies and when they visit the have a lot of bags, carriages,etc.
I think in another post you mentioned a limited number of visitor parking spaces. I have a suggestion. When you know the children are coming over, try to park your car in a visitor spot before they come. Then the children can park in your assigned spot.
Another suggestion: If you notice the same car ALWAYS parked in the same visitor spot, you can complain to the board that the visitor spot is being used regularly by a resident and is not being left open for visitors. I'm sure you can find something in the condo bylaws or covenants to support this complaint.
As an aside: I would bet the gates were installed by the builder for the original owners. During construction of a condo, the builder IS the condo board and can do whatever he wants to make a sale. After the condo is turned over to the residents, whatever is written in the covenants and bylaws would apply. For some reason, most condo boards take it as gospel and don't think about changing things that were originally written for the builder's benefit.
The reason the Docs are never changed is because is is incredibly difficult to make any changes. Generally based either upon the Docs themselves or state law it takes 2/3 - 3/4 affirmative votes to make a change.
Those familiar with a medium to large HOA community realize even if a vote was taken to refund every owner $200.00 plus cut the HOA fees 20% you would get:
40% affirmative (maybe at best)
20% no's
40% not responding.
Apathy is a common element within HOAs.
The OP started this chat with wanting a gate as a convenience as there is limited parking near her. She even mentioned how convenient a gate would be when her family came to visit. This approach got her no where she decided to throw in the handicapped daughter issue to try and force them to allow the gate.
The OP started this chat with wanting a gate as a convenience as there is limited parking near her. She even mentioned how convenient a gate would be when her family came to visit. This approach got her no where she decided to throw in the handicapped daughter issue to try and force them to allow the gate.
That doesn't make the issue of reasonable accommodation for a disabled daughter any less relevant.
Sometimes when a condo board is being unfair or petty, you need to use what you can legally use to oppose them.
The reason the Docs are never changed is because is is incredibly difficult to make any changes. Generally based either upon the Docs themselves or state law it takes 2/3 - 3/4 affirmative votes to make a change.
Those familiar with a medium to large HOA community realize even if a vote was taken to refund every owner $200.00 plus cut the HOA fees 20% you would get:
40% affirmative (maybe at best)
20% no's
40% not responding.
Apathy is a common element within HOAs.
Or you could be a Board Member like I was at my previous condo. I wanted the no pet policy changed. The other board members were uncertain or opposed any changes. I said, well, let's ask the other owners. I created a survey, slid it under every owner's door of the 90 unit complex, followed up if there was no response, got a 100 % response rate, and it turned out ~ 70 % of the owners wanted pets allowed. So the Rule was changed. People are apathetic but one determined individual can do a lot.
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This is a CONDO... NOT an HOA
