“Whether and how we might revise the covenants so they authorize the use of fines as a component of a formal progressive enforcement process.”
“How to develop a formal credible enforcement process that has the active support and involvement of the HOA.”
[Problem Statements #9 & #10 in the survey, combined].
The covenants presently offer only one enforcement remedy, which is self-help. The covenants give the Board authority to enter any property, with 24-hour notice, to perform corrective work and then charge the property owner for it. So, the only two enforcement tools presently available to the Board are letters of non-compliance and self-help. The authority to levy fines would be something in between. By 27 to 10, the membership surveys supported consideration of a system of fines. (Pro-change members score= 2.7).
Effective enforcement is a process that seeks to change behavior before imposing fines or other punishment. Members ranked the importance of exploring a formal enforcement process. By 24 to 13 the membership surveys supported a more formal enforcement process in the covenants. (Pro-change members score= 1.85).
This proposal would amend the Covenants to provide a simple enforcement process, including fines, forgiveness of fines, and rights of appeal. It would allow an 80% majority of the HOA board to impose a fine up to $100 per month on a lot owner for a violation of the covenants, and allow fine collection through the lien process. The board would be required to give 30 days notice before imposing any fine. The fine would continue each month the violation continues. At any time, the lot owner could ask the board to change its decision, and/or forgive the fine. For each month of covenant compliance, one month of fine must be forgiven. If this provision is enacted, owners would have at least 120 days to bring preexisting violations into compliance.
For Example: If someone erects an outbuilding without architecture review, the board might impose a fine of $30/mo for the violation. Once the building is permitted or removed, the homeowner may request the board to remit the fine at the rate of $30/mo after compliance. The proposed new language is found in the Draft Covenant Proposals, Article III at section 3.5.9 (on the Saddlehorn Blog).
Saddlehorn Ranch HOA 
I like the idea of fines as a method of insuring compliance; however, 3.5.9 states: “For new violations and pre-existing violations continuing to exist more than 90 days after the enactment of this section…” Does “pre-existing” mean that any violation that has been in existence for the past year, the last five years, or for the past ten years, that has not been addressed by the HOA with the homeowner, will now be addressed and the homeowner will now have to resolve the issue that has essentially been allowed to exist for all that time? If so, then a lot of homeowners may have to fix a lot of things–some which may be extremely difficult to fix. If this is the case, then perhaps the language should refer only to future violations, and those violations that the HOA is already engaged in with specific homeowners, which have not yet been resolved.
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