Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.

[Aqua Letifer]

@jodi said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

The tripping and falling part would be my worry. I’ve fallen in a random hole in a sidewalk and it’s not fun. Was the hole protected in some way before he filled it in?

Nope.

[George K]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

@jodi said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

The tripping and falling part would be my worry. I’ve fallen in a random hole in a sidewalk and it’s not fun. Was the hole protected in some way before he filled it in?

Nope.

Lock 'em up!

[George K]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

@jodi said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

The tripping and falling part would be my worry. I’ve fallen in a random hole in a sidewalk and it’s not fun. Was the hole protected in some way before he filled it in?

Nope.

Was there signage indicating potential hazards?

This hole was unprotected for weeks and weeks, eh?

Probably all kinds of code violations there.

[George K]

How wide is was this hole?

[Aqua Letifer]

@George-K It was about a foot in diameter? Maybe less? And about 2-3 feet deep.

I also need to be a little careful; actual complaints I'm going to reserve for when they get serious. But they sent in some bullshit, so I responded in kind, and for now we can just keep it stupid.

Very good to know the possibilities, though. I'm thinking this is just going to turn into a back-and-forth with the lawyers, but if they start to get pushy we can start to respond in kind.

[George K]

@Aqua-Letifer said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

It was about a foot in diameter? Maybe less? And about 2-3 feet deep.

Serious hazard, to be sure.

[brenda]

When there is to be any excavation at a property of more than a foot or so, it's usually required to make contact with the utility companies to inform them and have them place markers for utility locations, called a locate. Here in Minnesooooota, we contact Gopher One State to have all the local utility companies notified. They place their little flags of various colors, so the property owner/manager can safely dig.

This locate service is provided for free and is required. If any damage to utilities occurs, the digger is in deep doo doo.

The other requirement is that once the locate process is complete, the work on the property must be completed in a certain amount of time.

If this does get serious, you may want to find out what the locate service requirements are in that location.

[brenda]

@George-K said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

@Aqua-Letifer said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

It was about a foot in diameter? Maybe less? And about 2-3 feet deep.

Serious hazard, to be sure.

+1

[George K]

Good points, @brenda .

I would ask for documentation that communication with utility companies did, in fact, occur prior to excavation.

[George K]

Another thing, is this in the "common areas" of the association?

Does the public have access to this location?

If so, I see all kinds of violations - public hazard, etc.

Lock 'em up!

[Aqua Letifer]

Good points all! Keeping them on the back burner for the follow-up.

[brenda]

You may be more patient than I am, Aqua. Okay, I'm quite sure you are. LOL

If it were me, I would be in their face with all of this in a freaking long letter demanding they provide all the above information. If not provided within a specific and rather short time period that I chose, I would then make it clear they had no case and that they were simply trying to intimidate people for no good reason other than to charge fees to the HOA, of which the parents are paying members. I would further make it clear that it would be no problem to notify all the related authorities of the safety violations (open , unmarked, empty hole), lack of utility locates (evidenced by lack of little flags), and failure to complete in a timely manner (witnessed by the adjacent property owners, such as said parents).

Make'm work, and give them some pressure. They really don't want to have this get media attention, do they? Yeah, you may want to ask them about that, too. LOL

[Aqua Letifer]

@brenda said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

You may be more patient than I am, Aqua. Okay, I'm quite sure you are. LOL

If it were me, I would be in their face with all of this in a freaking long letter demanding they provide all the above information. If not provided within a specific and rather short time period that I chose, I would then make it clear they had no case and that they were simply trying to intimidate people for no good reason other than to charge fees to the HOA, of which the parents are paying members. I would further make it clear that it would be no problem to notify all the related authorities of the safety violations (open , unmarked, empty hole), lack of utility locates (evidenced by lack of little flags), and failure to complete in a timely manner (witnessed by the adjacent property owners, such as said parents).

Make'm work, and give them some pressure. They really don't want to have this get media attention, do they? Yeah, you may want to ask them about that, too. LOL

All very excellent points! Honestly, this goes back a little ways. My parents got approval from the HOA to make a back patio kind of a thing about 10 months ago. I don't know how it worked with the HOA but they got approval, despite the president really not wanting them to. My dad's pretty sure that's who's behind the letter.

So none of this should be taken at face value. The HOA doesn't honestly believe any of the bullshit they claimed, the president just wants to get back at my dad. No one's actually prepared to continue on with this.

If I turn out to be wrong, then sure, there's plenty we can do about it. After all, they've obviously been sloppy with the sign thing, and what's more, no one can prove it was my dad who filled up the hole. (They're just blaming him because they know the kind of person he is and it's adjacent to his place.)

So they wanna get pushy, sure, we can get real. But because I know this is just a petty president getting even by using his access to lawyers to sound scary, we can have a lot of fun with it first.

[brenda]

@Aqua-Letifer

Yes, I just described my version of fun!

[brenda]

I want that emoji of the laughter while pounding the floor. That would be perfect, thank you very much.

[brenda]

[Aqua Letifer]

Well, we have different motivations. Your advice is absolutely perfect in the event that they get serious (and knowing this guy, it's absolutely possible). So the points you brought up will be very helpful when that happens.

Until then, though, my goal is going to be to keep it as stupid and sustained for as long as possible. I asked my dad to send me pictures of the hole, along with pictures of the HOA office.

"Why do you need pictures of the HOA office?"
"To show them I have pictures of the HOA office."
"What does that matter?"
"It doesn't. I'm just going to refer to the pictures in the next letter. 'The Association Office [see attachment]'."
"What the hell does that do?"
"Absolutely nothing, aside from infuriate the shit out of the HOA president. Also it's hilarious."
"Okay, got it."

I don't know HOA housing provisions, but I have 30-plus years of stupid experience under my belt, so I'm playing to my strengths for now.

[George K]

This is the thread of the week.

[Loki]

@George-K said in Don't mess with the parents of a spiteful kid.:

This is the thread of the week.

Crowdsourcing TNCR style is a distant (mutant?) cousin of the original concept.

[brenda]

@Aqua-Letifer Oh my gosh, I love the picture of the HOA office. That's awesome!