Q In this day and age, must notices of rule violations be sent by certified mail? Can they be sent via priority/tracking mail? Via email? Must complaints by others to a rules committee always be placed on a standardized form, or can they be emails, texts or even phone calls? Can certain violations, such as parking without permission or loud noise be ‘automatically fineable,’ and then appealed to a board?

—Need Help in Needham

A “Certified mail is not required as a matter of law,” according to Veronica C. Viveiros, an attorney with the law office of Goodman, Shapiro & Lombardi, LLC, in Dedham, MA and Lincoln, RI. “However, our practice is to send via Certified and First Class mail. In Massachusetts, mailing constitutes notice. However, if the First Class mail is not returned, then we know that the person received notice. Not everyone has access to or reads their email, so I would not recommend relying on email as a primary method of sending notice to a unit owner or occupant.

“Requiring the use of a standardized form for complaints is not necessarily going to be helpful. If people have complaints they should be able to submit their complaints.

“The board can impose automatic fines, however the person against whom the fines are levied should be given an opportunity to ‘show cause why the fines should be revoked’. For example, if pets are not allowed and the board fines someone for having a pet, upon review, it may be that this person is handicapped and therefore, is entitled to have that pet. In that instance, the board must revoke the fine.

“Also, when filing suit to enforce violations and fines, the board may run afoul of the court if it has not afforded pre-suit ‘due process,’ in the form of a ‘show cause’ hearing, to the person alleged to have violated the rules and restrictions of the condominium.”