One of the main purposes of an owner’s association is to govern by way of implementing and enforcing community rules and guidelines. When discussing community rules, it is important to know why rules and guidelines in a community association are necessary, but also how effective rules are developed and enforced. Rules and guidelines outline expected behaviour, identify limitations, and govern the community in four areas:

1. The use of common property 
2. The use of individual lots or units
3. The appearance of individual lots or units
4. The behaviour of residents, guests and visitors

The first consideration when discussing the enforceability of community rules and guidelines is to consider the criteria for a valid and enforceable rule. To be valid and enforceable, a rule should not violate fundamental rights, must be reasonable and fair, must be capable of uniform enforcement and must be necessary and reasonably relate to the purpose of the community. If a rule does not conform to those criteria, then the likep/lihood of it being successfully enforced is diminished.

The challenge is to establish a process by which valid and enforceable rules, once breached, can be notified, and then ultimately enforced. Without a due process it becomes difficult to ensure that any breaches of rules are successfully notified, penalised, and rectified. If the process has not been widely accepted, by both the Owners association constituent members and is supported by the regulatory authorities and ultimately the Court, then it follows that rule enforcement is going to be ineffective as a way of ensuring the four objectives listed above are achieved.

It is essential that if rules and guidelines are to be embraced by the wider community and can be effectively managed and enforced, that they are clearly and widely communicated to all stakeholders in the community. This will include owners, tenants, visitors, guests, and contractors working on site. Without any knowledge of what the rules are, they will be breached through ignorance. A successful policy or rules enforcement in any community commences with ensuring that all the stakeholders are fully informed as to what the rules are and what will happen if a breach of those rules occurs. A process must be in place to ensuring that all new owners are given an updated set of community rules at the time of transfer of a unit or lot from one owner to the other, every new tenant in the community is given a copy of the rules at the time a tenancy agreement is entered into, and all contractors are made aware of the rules in the community before they commence any work.

It is always best to ensure that every stakeholder is aware of the rules to avoid any breach occurring through ignorance of the rules, because once a rule has been breached, then enforcement and rectification becomes challenging for the manager who is representing the interests of the wider owner’s association. In some cases, a breach of rules will invoke a breach of local or federal laws or regulations, and in that case the support of those civil organisations will be an effective form of enforcement. For example, if a flat has partitions illegally installed it is most likely that this will have an impact on the wider fire and safety regulations for the building and in that case the civil defence department can be notified to bring their own enforcement measures because of the breach by an individual owner or tenant.

Where external authority regulations have not been breached and the rule enforcement is internal only, then the enforcement of that breach will rely on a robust and transparent process by which the breaching party can be notified, penalised, and have the breach rectified. Without an agreed and transparent internal process, it becomes difficult for the manager to then try and enforce and ultimately rectify the breach.

The most important lesson to be learned when considering the enforcement of community rules and guidelines, is that prevention is always better than the cure. The successful community and the professional community manager will always ensure that those rules are established using the four essential criteria, that they are effectively communicated to all stakeholders in the community and that they are enforced fairly and reasonably to all that are in breach.

The author, Alan Rowlands, is the Treasurer of the Community Associations Institute - Middle East Chapter and a leading industry expert and consultant in the field of community management