CC&R Corner

By Will Bullington, CC&R Compliance Officer

February 2008

Recently I received two anonymous complaints in the mail. These notes were not signed, had no return address and report on “a violation of the Lake Shastina CC&R’s” (shed construction design). I will quote the rules enforcement procedures as adopted by the Governing Board:

1. Reports of Violations. Violations may be brought to the Association's attention in a variety of ways, including by the observation of Association staff or members of the Board. The Association may also be made aware of violations through reports from owners. All such owner reports must be received in writing before they will be acted upon. Any owner reporting a violation of the Rules consents to the open use of his or her report and agrees to cooperate in the Association's investigations and enforcement actions, including any related hearings. No requests for confidentiality in this regard will be granted. Basic fairness to the owner accused of violating the Rules, and the Association's need to ensure that adequate evidence of a violation exists, require nothing less.

In this particular case one address did not exist and the other was a shed that was approved in 1992. In fact I have a list of 82 approved sheds in Lake Shastina and many do not meet the current minimum construction standards that were adopted in 2000. Anonymous complaints get the Colonel North treatment.

Even Siskiyou County will not allow anonymous complaints about code violations. It often surprises me and law enforcement officers a person’s lack of gumption when it comes to contacting their neighbors. We will live next to someone for 10 years. See them everyday, smile, wave and occasionally we will be bold enough to talk across the fence line about the weather or “is this your kid’s ball?” If your neighbor blasts their stereo or their dog keeps knocking over your trash, it is hard to walk across to their home, knock on the door and say, “hey, would you please mind not doing that?” It is nice when we know our neighbors enough to be familiar with their names, where they work at, and some personal items about them. Not enough to be deemed nosey but if a strange car is there, or they are gone on vacation and water is running out the front door, or flames are seen through the window, you might just pick up the phone and call the right people.

If you politely contact your neighbor about something such as their dog barking all day while they are gone, and they don’t respond, or respond in a matter you don’t like, please by all means call the police. I have been surprised by calls from home owners about neighbors putting things on their property or driving on their lot. I get called and contact the “violating parties” and am always asked why the neighbor did not contact them first. The “violating party” is now angry and at some point will invariably make a point of saying something to their neighbor. I will then get the call from the original complaining party and asked why I “dimed them off” when they wanted to be anonymous. I don’t know I guess it’s because you don’t need CSI to figure out which neighbor complained about the car parked on the street in front of their house for a month, etc.

The argument may be made that you pay me “to be the bad guy,” and granted that is true. (I have had to contact one lady about multiple problems such as described above. The last time I called she said, “You don’t ever call me with good news, do you?”) I was introduced to a homeowner’s daughter recently as “the bad guy that has to go around and tell people they are doing things wrong” while we all sat in a busy doctor’s office waiting room. I got some pretty interesting looks from people.

Many issues that you may want to pay the “bad guy” to take care of for you are best handled by you. The processes for CC&R violations are long and cumbersome. I have to send out a 30 day courtesy notice to someone for a barking dog and if the dog stops barking, guess what, that is the end of it. If the dog barks again next week, the process is repeated. We are currently looking at amending the current discipline process for repeat offenders but even then the CC&R section on barking dogs is vague on what constitutes a violation. This same issue has been, and is currently being addressed, by cities and counties about what by criminal law makes “maintaining a public nuisance” a violation when it comes to a barking dog. Many jurisdictions require at least three separate homeowner’s complaints in order to cite someone for a disturbance of the peace. Ask any street cop what they hate about barking dog calls and they all say the same thing: “why don’t people just go over and talk to their neighbor about their dog first?”