Our Clients Ask Us: Additions

Q: A unit owner submitted an application for approval of an addition to their home, as is required by our Declaration. The Board did not respond to the application, and the unit owner proceeded with the addition without written Board approval, which is now complete. We have asked him to remove the addition due to the lack of approval, and he refuses, because he claims we agreed to it by not responding within 30 days of his application. Can we force him to remove the addition?

A: THAT DEPENDS. If the documents contain language that requires the Board to make a decision on any application submitted to the Board for approval within 30 days, then no, the Association cannot force the unit owner to remove his addition. He would then be correct in his assertion that the Board agreed to the addition through its lack of response within the time required. However, if the documents contain no such language requiring a response within a specific time frame, then the Association can seek to force the removal of the unapproved addition. The best course of action in that case is to seek a judgment from a court declaring that the unit owner’s addition is improper and must be removed due to the failure to obtain the approval of the Association prior to its construction.

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