Employer Fundamentals: Understanding Employment Law
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Employer Fundamentals: Understanding Employment Law

As a business owner, keeping informed about the finer points of employment law is important. If you're getting ready to hire your first employees, you need to be sure that you understand exactly what you can and cannot do. Don't risk getting yourself into legal trouble by asking the wrong question at the interview or making an off-hand comment that's considered legally unacceptable. I created this site to give you the basics of employment law expectations. I hope that the information here helps you to understand what you should and shouldn't do as you're interviewing and hiring your first staff members.

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Employer Fundamentals: Understanding Employment Law

How An Association Attorney Can Help Your HOA

Irene Robertson

Do you run your local housing authority, or are you at least a part of a community group that seeks to keep your local housing plan looking as good as it can? If so, you likely already know that this can sometimes lead to unpleasant conversations if you have a homeowner in your community who refuses to play by the same rules as everyone else. If your HOA or community association does not yet have its own attorney, it might be worth your while to fix this oversight as soon as possible. Here's how hiring a local association attorney can benefit your group and your community.

Show Homeowners That You Are Serious

An HOA or community association that never enforces its bylaws is an association that won't be respected. In an ideal world, every single condo, townhome, or house owner would play by the rules, but your reality could very well be different. By announcing that your association has hired its own attorney to assist with enforcement, you will give everyone a heads-up that your group intends to get serious about keeping the community in good shape.

Avoid Direct Conflict with Your Neighbors

If you are the president or any other leading officer of your local community association, you may have had difficult conversations in the past with property owners who are breaking the rules of your community. No one likes having to fight with their neighbors, and you are likely interested in keeping the peace as much as possible. But if there is a serious offender of community rules in your midst, you do need someone to step up and be the bad guy. By hiring an attorney, you can have someone else give the bad news to repeat offenders. Property owners may react differently if enforcement is coming from the community association at large and they can't pin the blame on a specific officer. Lawyers are used to difficult conversations and will be able to get the job done while hopefully minimizing conflict within your neighborhood.

Make Sure Your Bylaws Are Legal

If your community wants to make a change to the rules it requires all residents to follow, you should first make sure that your community association has the legal right to request these requirements. In the event a property owner disagrees with you, it's possible they could sue your group for the right to do whatever it is that they want. An attorney can make sure that all of your bylaws are written correctly and that they will stand up in court if it comes to that.


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