The Even Month Grievance Committee

New year, new Grievance Committee! Last year, we had the odd and even month grievance committees.Also last year, we merged with two associations: one is 50+ miles from here and the other is 240+ miles from here. The powers that be had some brilliant notion to give the East side Grievances to the even month committee and have the West side committee handle the grievances on the odd months. If you have a grievance in Southern Arizona, I don't know when you meet. Anyway, our normal committee, which handled about four cases a month now handles 13 every two months. And let me tell you, our cases this past week did not disappoint.

The reason our date and location are secret, is because those who file tend to be emotional. I know this because I have read every single word written on every case this past week. We don't need them showing up on our doorstep and pleading their case to us--who can't do a thing about it. And from what I understand, those who file all seem to have a unusual and frustrating habit of calling the local association six times a day to ask on the status of their case. So, if someone happened to file mid-December and the Grievance Committee didn't meet until this past week, the folks at the Association fielded a lot of unhappy calls. And according to those same folks, they did call. Often.

We had three property management cases. The one I got to peer review was from a fellow who felt that he was misled. "Feeling misled" is enough evidence to send the case up to the Grand Inquisitor Squad who will decide if this is a violation of the code of ethics. Though I will never know the outcome of the case, my money is on the property management company who can't rent the same home to more than one set of folks. My guess is the complainants just lost out to someone who was a better fit for the owner.

We also reviewed a case where the upset soul was making up new code of ethics breaches: but I assure you, there is no Article that states the agent can't be a jerk by telling them to please stop repeatedly contacting them. This same dude also alleged that the agent "made" him buy the home in question next door to a bigot who is walking on his roof (he has the footprints to "prove it!") in the middle of the night and saying unkind things because the complainant is from some nation far, far away.

Then there was the smoker-seller who feels she got a raw deal because her house smelled like cigarettes and the buyers asked her to mitigate the smell, which she did. But she didn't think the house smelled like smoke and shouldn't have had to do this.

Lest you think I am mocking, I am not. We all took our roles seriously and looked through the code of ethics for each case, determining if what was alleged was an ethical violation. We all dressed up--I even pulled out the hot rollers. We were all professional. Nobody mocked the cases--even the case we looked at where--and I am not making this up--the owner felt she was mistreated because the property management company fixed her leaking roof.

I love the Grievance Committee. I love finding a role of significance after so many years selling houses. I love keeping the bar high in real estate. This, by far, has been one of my favorite contributions to my industry.