Q: I am the president of our midsize condominium. One of our owners is a hoarder. She won’t let us in to inspect her unit, but we have reason to believe it is cluttered with what she probably calls “collectibles”; I call it junk. What should we do?
A: According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, “hoarding is the persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value. The behavior usually has deleterious effects — emotional, physical, social, financial and even legal — for a hoarder and family members.” I would also add, “and for community associations.”
There are two things you should do immediately. First, if you cannot gain access, have your attorney ask your local court for a restraining order against the owner, whereby you will have the right to access. I suspect your legal documents allow access for emergency purposes.
If you get the court order, I would contact your local social services agency that handles such problems. You do not want to enter her unit alone; someone — possibly even a local police officer — should be there with you.
The second thing you should immediately do is try to contact a relative or friend of the unit owner. Hopefully, if you find such a person, you can persuade him or her to start the appropriate legal action required to clean up the unit and possibly even relocate the owner to a place where she will be safe.
We must recognize that hoarding is a mental illness and various laws — such as fair housing laws — will apply.
On several occasions when my condo clients were unable to locate a family friend or relative, the condo association board authorized me to go to court and ask the judge to appoint someone as the guardian of a hoarder. The guardian would have the full authority to take all appropriate action to clean up the unit and deal with the unit owner (considered the ward of the guardian).
We often hear of animal hoarding, where numerous dogs, cats or other animals are kept in a condo or a house. In this case, I would contact local animal shelters; they know how to respond.
The anxiety and depression association explains that hoarding is not collecting. Collectors, it writes, “in general have a sense of pride about their possessions and they experience joy in displaying and talking about them.” Hoarders, to the contrary, “usually experience embarrassment about their possessions and feel uncomfortable when others see them.”
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Q: I hired a contractor to add a room on our house. In our opinion, he did not do a good job and actually quit in the middle of the job. The contract price was $85,000 and I have already paid him about $70,000. Can I file a mechanics lien against him?
A: No, a mechanics lien is filed by a contractor or subcontractor against a homeowner who has not paid for the work that was done. In fact, many homeowners do not understand that even if you pay the contractor, if the subcontractor was not paid, he or she can file a mechanics lien against the homeowner’s property. So this is a good lesson for homeowners. Before you make the final payment to the contractor, make sure that you get a “release of liens” from all of the subcontractors. This is — or should be — the contractor’s obligation.
To answer your question, you certainly can file a lawsuit against your contractor. But before you do that, make sure that the contractor was licensed in your state. If not, you may have a claim for a refund of all of the money you have paid to your unlicensed contractor. This depends on your state’s law.
Benny Kass is a practicing attorney in Washington, D.C., and in Maryland. He does not provide specific legal or financial advice to any reader. Readers may email him, but he cannot guarantee a personal response.
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