PamelaM5 (Florida)
Posts: 85
Posts: 85
Posted:
MY HOA board hasn't been following our own by-laws when it comes to the ARB and more. We're a community of single family and multi-family units, and the ARB is supposed to have two members from the single family homes and one member from a multi-family, but for the last few years we've had three from the single family. Now that we're getting ready to appoint two new members I brought this up and the response was to nominate two members from the single family homes, which will give us three members from the single families. My personal attorney advised that I abstain from voting on something I know to go against our by-laws, but this won't solve the problem because three directors will vote in favor, I'll abstain, the fifth member isn't allowed to vote (see the next paragraph) and the ARB will be out of compliance.
Two years ago we had some ARB amendments passed that were also in violation of our by-laws because only single family members were permitted to vote on them, when our by-laws say that an amendment has to be passed by a majority of all members. Now the current board is trying to use one of those improperly passed amendments to deny a multi-family director the right to vote on any ARB issues, although it doesn't say what they say it does and the amendment is invalid, anyway.
I'm on the board, a distinct minority when it comes to caring about enforcing our by-laws. I'm at wit's end - I send email after email about what the by-laws and covenants say and I'm routinely ignored.
It may sound like it's not a big deal, but it's indicative of the disdain that the majority of our board has for our governing documents and just one in a series of things I've discovered we're doing improperly since being elected. Every time something comes up I find another by-law that's been violated, and this is just the latest.
We just had elections - three candidates, who won because no one else ran - and very few will run or become involved due to the cutthroat climate that surrounds board membership in this particular community.
What do you do when your board does what they want, by-laws and covenants be damned? Do I have any recourse?
Two years ago we had some ARB amendments passed that were also in violation of our by-laws because only single family members were permitted to vote on them, when our by-laws say that an amendment has to be passed by a majority of all members. Now the current board is trying to use one of those improperly passed amendments to deny a multi-family director the right to vote on any ARB issues, although it doesn't say what they say it does and the amendment is invalid, anyway.
I'm on the board, a distinct minority when it comes to caring about enforcing our by-laws. I'm at wit's end - I send email after email about what the by-laws and covenants say and I'm routinely ignored.
It may sound like it's not a big deal, but it's indicative of the disdain that the majority of our board has for our governing documents and just one in a series of things I've discovered we're doing improperly since being elected. Every time something comes up I find another by-law that's been violated, and this is just the latest.
We just had elections - three candidates, who won because no one else ran - and very few will run or become involved due to the cutthroat climate that surrounds board membership in this particular community.
What do you do when your board does what they want, by-laws and covenants be damned? Do I have any recourse?
).