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Upper units are not allowed to have wood floors due to the amount of noise that can be heard in the unit below. Unfortunately not everyone complies with the rules. Mel, a ground floor resident had this to say:
HELP PLEASE!!! My upstairs have hardwood floors, I hear footsteps and their dog running around through out the entire day...especially late at nights and early mornings is when it is most disturbing. I have contacted Beacon Property/Charity for the last year and they have done NOTHING! I want the hardwood floors remove, it is in the Homeowner Manual that upstair units should NOT have hardwood floors. Can someone help me resolve this issue, I have been trying for the past year. Thank you in advance.
-Mel
What should be done? Does anyone else have this problem? Let's help him out. If I can hear my upstairs neighbors and they have carpet I can't even imagine how loud it would be if they had wood.
Mel your plea has been heard, hopefully someone will have an answer. Committee Chairs. hopefully you'll know what to do. It's not hard to believe that Beacon Property/Charity hasn't helped you out one bit.
13 COMMENTS:
Mel,
As chair of the Rules & Regs Committee, I have heard your plea. I have placed a call to Charity to on your behalf to find out what can be done about this. I called on 4/23/2008 at 7:00pm so lets give her a chance to respond, when I have an answer I'll let you know. Do you have any suggestions yourself? I do not believe we can evict them, nor do I believe we can force them to take out the flooring. Unitl I get a better answer, the best remedy I can think of would be to not allow them to have a parking permit, as they are in violation and therefore not in goodstanding with the association. If the association were to forcibly remove the floors they would face a huge lawsuit, whcih if course would increase costs & cause dues to raise more than the proposed 10% the finance committee is already talking about. I have empathy for your situation, the issue you can controlis to insulate your ceiling. I will post again when I get a response.
I think a good solution would be to have the upstairs unit cover some of the cost to insulate Mel's Ceiling. Its great to see you helping out footballrules. Kudos to homeowner help.
If the rules say that you can't have hardwood floors in upstairs units, then you can't have hardwood floors in upstairs units. Simple as that. They should be carpeted over, or a similar situation. Why should the owner be punished by not being issued a parking pass? Those two seem very unrelated. If you wish to punish based upon "good standing", then you would have to revoke all those permits you gave out to homeowners with BBQ grills and satellite dishes without permits.
This is a clear violation of the CCR's. What does it say for violation of these rules? If it is stated in the CCR's, then I doubt the assoc. would face a lawsuit (although I'm no lawyer). It's not right to enact new consequences for rules violations that the association does not want to (or can't) enforce.
To be honest, if I could get by without a parking pass, I'd be glad to accept the increase in value of your home from hardwood floors. In this scenario, the benefits far outweigh the consequences.
You're right GMAN, what about requiring that they have so much of the area covered by rugs?
Thank you all for your help! I really appreciate it and I'm glad to have such good neighbors :)
What Charity told me was she would contact the owner and have them take it out since it was in clear violation of the Rules and Regulations, however, nothing has been done and there has been no push for them to do so.
I agree the Parking Pass is unrelated to this issue. All I want them to do is take the hardwood floors out. I know the owner is not living in the unit and is renting out to renters. The owner install hardwood floors even though the owner knew it was a violation, I really believe they should take the responsibility and consequence for the choice they made.
If it was not such a big deal, I wouldn’t mind them having the hardwood floorings, but it is really loud and it is not fair for me to have to deal with the noise. All of us paid to be proud homeowners but I do not feel like it is my home with all the noise going on upstairs. I would like to be able to sleep in quiet and not be consistently awakened by the noise early in the mornings and late at night.
The last page of the Rules and Regulations and Information Handbook lists out Fine amounts, I really think if HOA can start fining the unit for Nuisance - Excessive Noise of any Nature then it will push the owner to remove the hardwood floors. I just don't understand what is holding Beacon Property/Charity from sending out a Fine to the owner for this. Please help, I really want some peace and quiet in my own home. Thank you!!!
Hi all, question regarding something similar - my roommate and I are going to be renting a unit there (sorry! seems like renters don't get much love on this blog), and while reading the CC&R, it was noted that all upstairs units need to have padding under the "legs" of all furniture (i.e. beds, tables, etc.). Does this apply to ALL furniture (beds, dressers, armoire), or only those that distinctly have "legs/feet" (dining tables, couches, people [j/k])? Despite the fact that our unit is carpeted, is the reasoning for that similar to this situation, in that it will assist with absorbing noise...? Not sure of the logic behind it. Carpet preservation?
Many thanks!
Mel,
It is definitely an issue within our community that people in violation of the CC&Rs are not being notified, or are being notified months or years later. The Rules Committee would rather take on that responsibility so it gets accomplished in a timely manner, but we'll see if that is possible. FYI, I do notice that issues brought up in the homeowners portion of the HOA meetings get more attention than issues that people call or email about. If you have not made it to a meeting yet, you might want to go to next month's... it could help...
the worst part is that you need to have a really big mouth to be heard at the meetings. It usually becomes a shouting match. I think the format needs to be changed to allow all participants to be able to speak without interruption.
I agree GMAN this last meeting was horrible when it came down to order.
Does anyone else have a problem getting cold water? I have brought it up with Charity a few times over the past year, and nothing has changed. Lately, it has gotten worse. I'm in building Q.
Mel,
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. This is an important issue for everyone.
Have there been any updates on this situation?
What is the Rules & Regs Committee doing about it?
Also,
Short of a lawsuit, what can be done to PREVENT this situation from happening?
It's the principle. What's the point of having rules & regs/CC&Rs if they are not enforced?
Homeowners need to be better educated on the CC&Rs. I'm sure most people didn't even know wood and other hardsurfaces are not permitted in upper units. I know for a fact that an upper unit in the M building installed hardwood floors. Lucky for them, the unit below them is vacant. I hate to see what happens when someone moves in downstairs.
It would be beneficial for everyone to get the word out to the community on common rules & regs that are violated.
TennisEsq wrote: "Homeowners need to be better educated on the CC&Rs."
Doesn't each homeowner have a copy of these, and isn't it each homeowner's individual responsibility to read them and remember what they say? What other sort of education should be necessary?
OTOH, I can see that it is a long and tedious document to read. Perhaps a "Cliff's Notes" version can be created and distributed and posted somewhere accessible to all (like this blog). Another idea could be to hold a one day workshop "Highlights of the CC&Rs" (sounds riveting, oesn't it? :-p). Still, it would remain up to the homeowners to actually read any additional materials or attend any additional education sessions that might be provided.
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