Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Fines?

[Maureen Mcnair (memcnair948]

Hi Dawn,

I’m so sorry your community is having this problem. 

I live in California which has very strict laws limiting the amount of fines an 
HOA can impose. I don’t know which State you live in, but I recommend checking 
your State laws about fines if you haven’t done so already.

Take good care,
Mauren

> On Aug 9, 2026, at 5:28 PM, Dawn E. Slack via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello, wise humans! Our Board is discussing instituting fines (which we
> haven’t really done in our 40 year history). As you can imagine, opinions
> are split. I’m wondering: for communities that have gone this route, how
> did it play out for you? For communities who have had members who have
> repeatedly disregarded or violated agreements, what were some winning
> strategies, if any?
> 
> I’ll add in here that our community had multiple significant ruptures
> between 2020-2023 that we have struggled to recover from and repair, so I
> think this factors in. Simultaneously, the specific neighbors in question
> have been involved in several acrimonious conflicts over the past decade
> (think Hatfields and McCoys; a professional mediator hired to help them a
> few years ago told us she’d never experienced people so unwilling to budge
> in her entire career), so this seems to be the latest iteration of that
> dynamic.
> 
> Thank you in advance for any insight and experience you can offer!
> 
> Dawn
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