Escalations and repeat offenders

The same property keeps getting flagged. Same violation, same neighbor reporting, increasingly frustrated board. The system tracks the pattern and supports an escalating response — by hand or automated. This article covers both.

How the system tracks repeat violations

Each violation tracks an escalation tier and links to any prior violations on the same property. When you create a new violation against a property with a history of similar issues, the system:

• Recognizes the pattern (same offender property, similar issue)
• Increments the escalation count
• Suggests the next-tier action based on your fine schedule
• Surfaces the violation history at the top of the new request

You can see a property’s full violation history under Properties → [property] → Violation history.

The standard escalation ladder

Most communities follow something like this:

Tier	Trigger	Action	Resident notified by
1	First confirmed violation	Friendly notice — “we noticed this, please fix”	Email
2	Same violation 14-30 days later	Formal notice with grace period for fine	Email + letter
3	Still unresolved after grace period	First fine assessed	Email + letter
4	Continued violation	Second fine, double the first	Email + letter
5	Still continued	Daily fines, board discussion	Email + letter
6	Severe / unresolvable	Legal action — lien, suspension, court	Lawyer-handled

Your bylaws and state law set the actual amounts and timing. The system just tracks where each property is on the ladder.

Two ways to run escalation

Manual escalation

The simplest. A board member reviews each repeat case and decides what action to take. The system:

• Surfaces the violation history
• Suggests the next tier based on your fine schedule
• Lets you accept or override the suggestion

Pros:

• Every escalation is human-reviewed
• No surprises for residents
• Easy to handle edge cases

Cons:

• Time-intensive — you’re reviewing every case
• Slower response means residents notice the lag

Most new communities should start here. Get a feel for what your enforcement actually looks like before automating.

Herald Shield (AI-assisted)

Herald Shield is the AI-driven escalation agent. It watches for patterns, suggests actions, and (optionally) executes them automatically.

What Herald Shield can do:

• Auto-classify new requests as violations, ARC requests, maintenance, etc.
• Auto-detect repeat patterns — same property, same type, within X days
• Auto-issue notices at configured tiers (with templates you control)
• Auto-assess fines at configured tiers (with amounts you set)
• Surface unusual cases for human review (anything that doesn’t fit a clean pattern)

What Herald Shield won’t do:

• Issue fines without an admin approving the rules first
• Take legal actions (liens, court filings)
• Handle disputes — those always come back to the board

Modes

Herald Shield runs in one of two modes:

Mode	What happens
Review mode	Herald Shield drafts each action; an admin approves before it executes
Autopilot	Herald Shield executes routine actions automatically; only escalations beyond the configured ladder go to admin review

Recommendation: start in Review mode for at least a month. You’ll see what Herald Shield wants to do before it does it. Once you trust the rules, switch to autopilot for low-stakes tiers (notices, first fines) while keeping admin review for higher-tier actions.

Configure under Configuration → Herald Shield Automation.

Configuring Herald Shield rules

Under Configuration → Herald Shield Automation → Rules, you set:

• Cooldown period — how long between actions on the same property (e.g., 14 days between notice and first fine)
• Tier amounts — what each fine tier costs
• Letter / email templates — what the resident sees at each tier
• Auto-execution thresholds — which tiers run automatically vs. require admin review

A typical config:

• Tier 1 (notice): autopilot, 30-day cooldown
• Tier 2 (formal notice): autopilot, 14-day grace
• Tier 3 (first fine $100): admin review
• Tier 4 (second fine $200): admin review
• Tier 5+ (daily fines, legal): always human

This lets the AI handle the routine 80% (notices, formal warnings) while keeping admins in the loop for anything with financial consequences.

When to step in manually

Even with Herald Shield running, there are cases where you should override:

• Hardship situations — the resident is dealing with a medical issue, family crisis, etc. The system doesn’t know that; you do.
• Disputed bylaws interpretation — Herald Shield is following the rule literally; you may have context about why this case is different
• First offense by an otherwise-good resident — sometimes a friendly call from the board is better than a formal notice
• Active board negotiation — if the resident has already engaged with the board on a fix, don’t let automation override the negotiation

To override, open the request and set Skip auto-escalation on the violation. Herald Shield will leave it alone going forward.

What residents see

A resident getting auto-escalated sees:

• Email at each tier
• Updated balance if a fine was assessed
• The full enforcement history visible in their portal

What they don’t see:

• That Herald Shield (the AI) drove the action — it appears as a board action
• Internal review notes
• Other residents’ enforcement history

This is intentional. Residents shouldn’t feel like they’re being managed by a robot. Even if the underlying decision was AI-driven, the message to the resident is from the board.

Common situations

”Herald Shield issued a fine and the resident is angry”

Treat it the same as any board-issued fine. Review the situation, confirm the rules were applied correctly, decide whether to waive. If the rules were correct but the situation warranted leniency, that’s a good signal to refine your Herald Shield rules.

”Herald Shield isn’t catching obvious repeats”

Possible causes:

• Two violations are recorded as different types (e.g., one Complaint, one General). Herald Shield matches within the same type. Switching the second to Complaint would link them.
• Cooldown period is too long — the second violation falls outside the matching window
• Address discrepancies — same property, different address spellings. Use the property’s canonical record, not free-text addresses.

”We want to give one specific resident a permanent pass”

Add an internal note to the property: “Skip auto-escalation per [reason, date, decision].” Then disable Herald Shield on that specific property under property settings. Auto-escalation stops; manual still works.

”We’re getting too many false positives from Herald Shield”

Switch back to review mode for a few weeks. Look at what it’s flagging. Adjust the rules — maybe the cooldown is too short, or the trigger conditions are too aggressive.

”Same family keeps offending across multiple properties they own”

The system tracks per-property. If the same owner has violations on two different properties, Herald Shield treats them separately. To track owner-level patterns, you’d need to check manually under the user’s profile.

Where to go next

• Issuing a fine — the manual flow
• The request lifecycle — what status changes look like
• Publishing to the public board — for transparency on enforcement
• Herald Shield feature page (marketing): /features/herald-shield/