D.J. from Pinellas County, Florida writes:
Dear Mister Condo,
Our Board President was entrusted to look after a condo unit as the owner had to go back north due to illness. He has been inappropriately using the unit to have affairs with women. Can anything be done about this? He has since gotten divorced and has moved off site with one of the women he was having an affair with. He has his unit up for sale but is still technically an owner and is still president.
Mister Condo replies:
D.J., when people ask me why I continue to write this column after so many years, I show them questions like yours. I needed a good chuckle and your question has more than helped. I would think that the Board President’s divorce has adequately taken care of what can be done about this. The unit owner who entrusted their unit to the care of the Board President may want to rethink who they entrust their unit to in the future. Since his unit is up for sale and he has moved off site, it looks like this problem is going to take care of itself in rather short order. Thank you for the question!
Apparently the rest of the Board does not care much about this. They could easily elect someone else President, leaving him as just a lame duck member. Just the fact that he has his unit up for sale would make me question if he has the interests of the owners in mind when he makes decisions, especially as President.
A good neighbor would send the out of town unit owner some Tide pods.
The writer doesn’t indicate if quite a few unit owners are aware of this; also, it is remotely possible the unit owner knows and doesn’t care. Why I mention it, is it could help association members perceive in real life situation the value having a Conflict of Interest Policy and Code of Conduct for board members and officers (that should be drafted by an attorney familiar with your state’s HOA laws, and may already have them in template form). Code of Conduct is something that can help people who are elected and appointed into positions to be more circumspect and aware of expectations (even though it wouldn’t enumerate every type of behavior of concern), and/or empower those who need to intervene. Also, it could be a good time to review the condo docs, to see if non-owners are allowed to hold officer positions, especially if you are already considering amending them.