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May 31, 2007
Some People Don't Want Resolution - They Want To Be Vindicated
Some people do not necessarily want to find a solution for a problem, they just want to be right, at any cost. How do I know this? I see it often.
Recently, I got a call from a reader of my blogs and visitor to my website... who, by the way, complemented me on the website and blog (a usual opening to a question). Conversations often start out this way, and then they are followed by "My problem is ..."
Then, this caller asked me outright if the "Freedom of Information Act" applied to HOAs. The caller wanted to know it if would guarantee him rights to get certain documents. I told him that there were statutes in California that required the HOA to turn over many records, and asked if he wanted the citations to the statutes that do regulate the dissemination of information. (The Freedom of Information Act doesnot regulate the dissemination of information in a California HOA.)
No, he said. What he wanted were copies of complaints that owners had apparently made against him. He admitted to having violated the governing documents - having cured the violation and yet wanted to know who complained.
I told him that an HOA is not required to release any complaints that neighbors made, and that doing so would open the door to retaliation. And, I suggested he did have the right to pay a visit to the neighbors and ask them if they had any complaints, and/or tell them they could come to him before going to the board and he would work with them, if they did have any complaints.
No, he said, he wanted copies of the written complaints. His parting "shot" was that he would make his case with the association and let them spend money on an attorney.
Sometimes people lose site of the idea that a situation can be resolved without butting heads. But that gets in the way of "being right". Everyone can't be right all the time.
Posted by Beth Grimm at May 31, 2007 9:31 PM