Page 14 - CooperatorNews Chicagoland Spring 2022

14 COOPERATORNEWS CHICAGOLAND —SPRING 2022 CHICAGO.COOPERATORNEWS.COM © 2022 First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company. All rights reserved. CIT and the CIT logo are registered trademarks of First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company. MM#11515 Expertise. Focus. Solutions. Put the leading bank for community association management companies to work for you with individualized service, custom technology and smart financial solutions. cit.com/cab Let’s get started. Thomas Engblom, Ph.D, CMCA, AMS, PCAM, ARM, CPM, Vice President 312.209.2623 | Thomas.Engblom@cit.com The support you need to manage your associations. Hugh Rider ph: (773) 989-8000 hrider@realtymortgageco.com REALTYMORTGAGECO.COM Call Us Today. Chicago’s Trusted Customized Property Management Program. Since 1906 somewhat frustrating—when they started services, and legal services called APS, and exhibiting short-term memory loss and finally some out-of-state family members were violating every rule in the book. “Eventually, hoarding became an issue. ing near a relative – which should have hap- Not vermin or filth, but definitely stuff – all pened long before. I obviously felt bad about of it important to the resident—that was dragging a 75-year-old to court, but it actu- stacked high in their unit. Clearly the asso- ciation had an issue, but no one on hand was volved. We had a kind, sensitive judge, good a healthcare professional, so it fell to us to legal professionals, and we did what her get in touch with local professionals, like the family should have done for her long ago. fire marshal and the head of social services. It was slow at first. But as our rock star also ence and, if management can’t solve some- happened to be a heavy smoker, they even- tually went to sleep with a cigarette in hand. cause we have the resources and deal with They never heard the smoke alarm – but this quite frequently.” fortunately, a neighbor did! There’s nothing like a fire to get the town’s attention—so now they’re helping our resident resolve their is- sues. With our help, both resident and com- munity are in a better place.” Scott B. Piekarsky, Esq., Managing Mem- ber of Piekarsky & Associates in Wyckoff, New Jersey “You have to approach residents with be- havioral health issues in a sensitive manner. Walk gingerly and carefully. People have privacy rights, and you don’t want to libel or slander them; you also don’t want to exacer- bate a problem. “We’ve had situations where some people just act kooky, and other scenarios where residents are truly in need of an interven- tion. If it’s a really serious matter, then you can call the local police of course. “In New Jersey, we’ll often have situa- tions with elderly folks who are living alone, who are potentially being neglected or can- not take care of themselves, or who may have a behavioral health issue on top of a medical issue. Every county in the state has something called adult protective services, or APS. We’ll call their office in these situa- tions to see if they can look into things. And certainly, if there are other family members available locally, we’ll reach out to them to intervene and indicate that there’s an issue. “In New Jersey there is also mandatory alternative dispute resolution (ADR), so we might use that process to sit down with the resident, approaching them in a kind and relaxed manner, and engage in a dialogue, assuming that they are both cognizant and cogent enough for that process to have mer- it. “The worst thing that people can do is to be confrontational with those who have sensitive behavioral issues. There are people who absolutely need to be attended to, med- icated, or even institutionalized. The test in New Jersey is, ‘Are they a danger to them- selves, others, or to the property?’ And at that point it becomes a police matter. “We had an elderly woman in a co-op who was living alone; her kids had aban- doned her. She had a continence problem, and when you got off the elevator \[on her floor\] in the co-op building, you could smell the urine. Eventually she was noncompliant in so many areas that we had to file legal ac- tion to evict her from the co-op. But it ac- tually worked out, because she called legal got involved and placed her in assisted liv- ally was in the best interests of everyone in- “But every case is different in my experi- thing, get on the phone with a lawyer, be- n Mike Odenthal is a periodic contributor to CooperatorNews. MENTAL HEALTH... continued from page 6 in Chicago. “There are a number of options you might consider; however, without re- viewing what your operating documents and your rules or policies provide in your particular situation, any information of- fered may not be relied upon and it is for information purposes only. You may have a policy on smoking and/or the use of il- legals or a violation policy that sets out dif- ferent levels of violations, and—depending on where you live—a complaint policy that is mandated by the State. Your bylaws most certainly have a provision prohibiting ‘nox- ious or offensive activities’ that create a dis- turbance to other owners and a provision for mediation. “It’s important to know whether there are units below or next to the offending unit that would be able to hear the noise and whether there have in fact been other complaints; if not, it could be a problem for you. Consider keeping a new log, tape more, report each event to the board and management following association proce- dure—not by email—and retain a sound transmission expert to confirm there is more than an average transmission of sound. Noise nuisances are judged by a dual standard, and both tests must be met. First a subjective test—whether you believe the noise is unreasonable—and second is the objective standard and whether a reason- able person would find the noise unreason- able. Continue to call the police whenever the neighbors are in the midst of a distur- bance and log their response. You need to take their names and badge numbers, and if they continue to be non-responsive, write a letter to the Commander of your precinct with a cc: to the Mayor and your Alderper- son. “Continue to complain to the board and police. If your complaints remain unan- swered, you might consider sending letters to the Commander, Mayor, and Alderper- son or State Rep and/or go to the media Q&A continued from page 5