Courtesy notices
The informal first word before anything formal starts.
A courtesy notice is an informal, written heads-up telling an owner about a possible violation before any formal notice or fine. It carries no penalty and simply gives the owner a chance to fix the issue quietly. Sending one, and keeping a record that you sent it, helps the board later if enforcement is ever challenged as inconsistent or unfair.
What a courtesy notice actually is
A courtesy notice is not a fine, not a hearing, and not the document that starts a formal cure period. It's a short, dated, written note: "we noticed X, please take care of it." It's usually the first thing an owner hears about a violation, and it's meant to close the loop without a hearing ever happening.
Whether your governing documents call this step a "courtesy notice," a "warning," or a "first notice" varies, and whether one is required at all before a formal violation notice can be sent is a question for your own declaration and rules. Check your CC&Rs and enforcement policy for whether this step is mandatory or discretionary.
Why send one before you escalate
Two things make a courtesy notice worth the ten minutes it takes to write. First, an owner who was never told about a rule is in a much stronger position to fight enforcement than one who was told and ignored it.
"Changes to duly adopted rules and regulations should be made available, using the association's regular communication modes, to the owners of record. Communication helps ensure compliance."
Source: Rules Development and Enforcement, Community Associations Institute
Second, a courtesy notice creates a record. If the same violation shows up on five properties, a documented pattern of courtesy notices to all five shows the board treated everyone the same. Skip that step for one owner and fine them directly, and you've handed that owner the opening for a waiver or selective enforcement defense, the argument that the association tolerated the same conduct elsewhere and singled them out.
What belongs in it
Keep it plain: the specific rule, what was observed, the date, and what fixing it looks like. No specific format, retention period, or required contents for a courtesy notice is set by law, so this is prudent practice, not a legal checklist. Put it in writing, keep a copy, and note the date it went out. That record is what protects the board if this owner, or a later owner, argues the board acted inconsistently. See documenting violations for how to build that habit.
What it does not do
A courtesy notice does not, by itself, start a fine clock, trigger a hearing right, or authorize the board to enter the property. Those consequences belong to the formal violation notice and whatever your state statute and declaration require after that. If the owner ignores the courtesy notice, the board still has to make a deliberate decision to move to the next step, that decision doesn't happen automatically.
Check yourself
Answer before you read the explanation, recalling it is what makes it stick.
A board member notices a basketball hoop installed without approval, for the first time. What should happen before any fine is considered?
The board sent courtesy notices to four owners for parking on the grass, then fined a fifth owner for the same thing with no notice at all. What can that fifth owner argue?
An owner gets a courtesy notice about an unapproved paint color and ignores it. What happens next, automatically, from the notice alone?
Sources
- Rules Development and Enforcement, Community Associations Institute
- Three Common Covenant Enforcement Defenses: Waiver, Estoppel, and Selective Enforcement, Joseph Arena, Becker & Poliakoff
Covenant Enforcement
Next up: what has to be in a formal violation notice once a courtesy notice hasn't solved it.
Whether your governing documents require a courtesy notice before a formal notice, how many must be sent, and what counts as adequate documentation vary by declaration and by state.