This past weekend we had an incident in our neighborhood the HOA feels you should all be made aware of so hopefully it will not happen again. Late Saturday afternoon, one of our residents notified the HOA of cars parked all over the street and a loud party ensuing. While this is not an HOA matter, our President was contacted, and she immediately acted. The owner of the property, the management company (as this is a short-term rental) and the Sheriff’s Office were all contacted. This resident who notified the HOA did not want to report this party for fear of retribution. The owner of the property is an absentee owner and had no idea that such a party was going on. The Management Company was of no assistance because it was after their normal business hours and the Sheriff’s Office was dealing with life threatening emergencies, so this “problem” was on the back burner for several hours. During this time, the party escalated to nearly 100 people. Our HOA Board was still dealing with this mess at 10pm when the Sheriff’s Office was contacted again. They arrived within minutes. We have said this before, the HOA is a voluntary organization. We do not hold weekend hours, yet when this came up, the members of the HOA stopped what they were doing and acted. We are not looking for thanks, but we don’t understand why the residents on this street did not call the Sheriff’s Office themselves and complain? The HOA cannot be held accountable 24/7 when every single type of complaint arises. Calls CAN remain anonymous. It is not okay for you to call for fear of retribution, but you expect the HOA Board to do this on your behalf? Something is just not right here. The HOA Board did volunteer for these positions to better this community, but you live here as well. YOU need to do your part. The HOA Board cannot do everything. Everyone needs to take some accountability.
This party is not an isolated incident. Management companies are renting homes by the weekend and with the growth of Airbnb’s, we are afraid this will only continue. It is essential that ALL homeowners who rent their homes provide the HOA with their Management Company information as well as YOUR correct phone numbers and email addresses. When the HOA sees something wrong, we contact the homeowner immediately. This is for your benefit. Work with us hand and hand and we will get rid of these problems and make this a better community! WE NEED YOUR HELP!
The HOA has received many responses to our email/message/post from Monday, July 24, 2018. Most of the responses were very positive but a select few were not. Firstly, we would like to say as always, we wish this were a mandatory HOA then maybe we would have extra funds to hire Code Enforcement Officers ourselves and off duty deputies on a regular basis. Perhaps someday this may be so, but for now we are trying to do the best we can. We need help and who will step up to volunteer? Normally we would not respond to any type of criticizing especially when a member asks, “what do I pay dues for”. The answer is look around the community and you see no car parts on lawns, no broken-down cars, and trash and garbage all over the streets. Look at our park renovation, it is still in progress. When we see a violation of a deed restriction we try to handle it by sometimes visiting the resident and talking to them about the problem. If not, we contact Code Enforcement without “any fear or retribution”. We are a voluntary association and the treasury is used to make things better for the community. Our records are no secret. We also do maintenance when we can, issue parking permits (which most don’t bother to get), issue pool and tennis keys, arrange meetings and so much more. We are NOT a Law Enforcement Association. Some residents apparently think we do this 24/7 and while they “have a fear of retribution” its fine to pass this on to others. If some of these residents think they can do a better job, elections are coming up and this is the time for them to be involved and not care about “fear of retribution” then it won’t be such a “big deal” to some residents. All these years, meetings have always been held on Wednesday and there is no reason to change it for one. If any resident rides around at night as mentioned, maybe they should take pictures and report them to Code Enforcement but then, there is that “fear of retribution”. Parties like we just experienced are rare to our knowledge. If the same people rent a house every weekend and have the same type of parties, then these same residents are doubly guilty of turning their heads. In closing there is an old saying “If you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.”
Jeanne Stancil Correll, President IWHOA
Board of Directors IWHOA