HOA Security Gate Question

Hello All:

I am going to try to get right to the point because I could type my story forever. Basically I moved into a HOA two years ago, the gate never worked, they never provided any instructions when I first moved in about buying any devices for the gate etc.

The HOA sends a letter out says the gate is being repaired and on April 15th the gate will be functional and only those will controls will have access.

They give no information on if they sell controls, what controls they reccomend you to buy, how to program the control etc. Since I moved in, at least 6 places have gone into foreclosure and have new owners. It is a 44 house HOA with no general office.

They give a # to call for more info. I call, leave voicemail, no answer.
I speak to one of the board directors, he only speaks spanish barely any english. He helps me program my garage door opener.

April 15 comes, the entrance gate is closed, the exit one open.
My opener does not work on the entrance of the gate. So I have to enter through the exit.

I look up the directions for my opener and attempt to program it still doesnt work, I call technical support they help me program it, still doesnt work.
I physically walk to the house# that never returned my call. She has me signs for a pedestrian gate key. I ask her for help programming the device. She calls someone over from a nearby garage (cause she barely speaks any english at all).

He basically tells me it should work with the switches being set correctly and provides no help. And gives me the whole buy it at Home Depot thing. I ask him to see his opener so I know which one to buy. He pops open his opener and it only has 8 switches and not 12 but the switches that are "ON" match up.

He then tells me the guy in house 38 sells them and thats where he bought his. (Glad they included that information in the letter they mailed out). I am skeptical about buying it "From the guy in house 38" and want to see how much they go for on the internet so I dont get ripped off.

They are 12 dollars on the internet. I am torn between buying the one online, because I already spent 35 dollars each on my garage door openers when I moved in, and they have two buttons, one for a gate, and one for the garage. So I really dont want to have to carry around two controls.

Since the other gate appears to be open I put off my decision on buying the new remote. Later that day I am leaving the complex to goto a store, and I notice people are working on the side of the gate that has been open, the exit side. I then realize they were leaving it open to be nice to let people program their remotes, it just was broke.

I ask the guys repairing the gate if they know why my control wont work. They say I need a 8 dip switch one instead of a 12. I told them the other guys work and its a 12 they then tell me not all will work. They seem eager to fix the gate and not talk with me so off I go.

Knowing the gate is probably going to be fully fixed and functional by morning I order these 12 dollar remotes with 2 day shipping when I get home.

When I leave for work the gate is fully fixed and I know when I get home I wont be able to gain access. That day I try to find a retailer for the 12 dollar remote so I have one when I get home, I even goto lowes and home depot. No one has anything. I goto the manufactuer website, and calls stores that carry there goods, nothing. I tell my wife to goto house 38 and see if the guy has any for sale. He is not home.

I go home that day and have to wait for someone else to open the gate and really get pissed off at the lack of help and information. I feel its wrong to lock me out of my own house. I call the # and get voicemail and leave a nastygram and get no response.

Today the remotes will come and it should work. but is it against the law for them to do this to me? Does anyone think I have recourse?

Thanks John.

Got my two remotes and now I can open the gate. Went to a person the HOA told me was selling them from his house because I need one more for mother in law asap since she is coming Monday to help out with baby care and I cant wait for shipping. The guy selling them is selling them for $30 bucks!!! I bought the exact same one for 12 dollars a piece.... he has told me he already sold a few to other new home owners who needed them..... wow talk about over paying.... not only do I have to jump though hoops to try to get this remote, but the guy selling them to poor unsuspecting new home owners is charging almost three times the fee.

wow...

People are always trying to make an extra buck, esp. in these tough times. This guy claims he bought these in bulk, either he got really ripped off, or he is trying to make a quick buck! I am going to print out where I bought them on Amazon and tell the HOA they should let people know they can buy them online.

I had another lovely experience with this new gate today. There is no keypad and no phone authentication system for homeowners. So the UPS Truck could not get into my complex. Now I am going to have to ship everything to my work.

They must of spent too much money on this gate, because the common area lawn is getting awfully overgrown. We have this small common area, with an old broken BBQ, broken swing set.

There are supposed to be lights throughout the complex, one of them in the common area got ripped out of the ground by someone! There is one behind my house that has never worked since I moved in. One time I caught a kid tying his baseball to it and using it to practice swinging.

There is another one in front of my house that has not worked since I moved in. I had to buy my own security light and install it in front of my garage. When I asked the HOA guy when they are going to repair the security light in front of my house, he told me why bother I had put my own up and it only cost me around 30 bucks per year.

There is some type of problem with our pipes. It seems every other week there is someone digging up the road and fixing a pipe. They fix it, and then just fill the road in with dirt. Now we have all these dirt filled holes throughout the private roadway.

There notification that water is being turned off is written on a foam plate in bad English AND bad Spanish and posted on the front of the gate! I have no idea my water is going to be turned off, all of a sudden it’s off! Then I have to start using filtered water. Once time it turned off when I had shampoo in my hair!

We do not even have a property management company; the last property management company sued the HOA. I know this because they got the names confused and accidently served me and my wife!

When we did have a property management company they always complained that all our HOA money is being used to pay the water bill. Hence the rule we cannot wash our cars with HOA water. It is heavily Hispanic, very heavily Hispanic in our 44 house complex. Some of these houses have three or more families living in the house. I can only imagine all the water they must use. I wish we can be individually metered and only pay for what we use. That way the people who have a water park in their bath tubs can foot the bill.

The curb in the front of the common area grass got so filled with trash, no one cleaned it up. I finally went over and swept it all up in the trash can! I am so tired of my HOA.

Hi All,
We live in the gated community in Apopka, Seminole County, Florida. We discovered that the Fail-Safe mode from our automated gates (entrance with battery + exit w/o battery) had been deactivated or removed (screw to prevent the gate to engage in lock position.) I sent the email to the Mark Property Management, whose company has been managing our community, to inform them about the problem of the exit gates and asked for the procedure of how to open the gate in case of power outage/emergency. I could not believe their reply: the B.O.D. members would come to the gates and manually open the gates in case of power outage, and we would not release the procedure to homeowners. Then I went online and check out the specification the gates based on the manufacture and the model number. That is why I learned that there was Fail-safe mode on both gates. I called the gate manufacture; Doorking Inc. and asked them for their advise. The technical support staff explained that the reason that I could not push-and-open the gate gate with a very minimal effort because the Fail-safe mode had not been install (50 cent-crew) or had been removed. I went to talk with the members of the BOD, some said that It would be very expensive to have that feature on the gate! (these members did not know anything about the gate specification) the other would say beasause they worried the homeowners would open the gates without their approval like "garage sale!" ... but none of them did not read the specification nor know the name of the manufacture and the model till I brought to their attention. I even called the fire chief marshal about the fail-safe mode and the UL-991 and UL325, the fire marshal did not answer my email, however he gave me his opinion and intepretation that it would be ok for his fire department to access the site as long as one gate is open and about the fail-safe mode ? he never heard or awared of such feature (right now the entrance gate is open and the exit gate is in locked position during power outage) And I asked for some reason that the entrance gate might not be opened due to the worn-out / weak battery or mechanical failure then there was no way in + out, ...he was silenced and then just said "good bye!" ...
-Up to know :the entire of the BOD and Mark Management Inc. have oficially awared that it only cost two 50-cents srews for two set of gate to reactivate the Fail-safe mode (the Doorking sent the diagram and it is very very simple procedure) They are playing stoned deaf!
-How can we let these people know that they are playing with somebody's live-and-death in case of emergency. And the reason the gate manufacture designed that Fail-save mode is to save critical time, therefore, is to save lives. We as the homeowner do not want to rely on their mercy on how fast for them to come to open the gate at 2 o'clock am during the thunder storm/hurricane, especially not even mention that they might get injured themselves ...

Please we need your feed back on this issue.
Thanks in advance,
Sony

Hi Matt:

You need to understand that there is a big difference between picking up some trash once and taking care of the association business. When you and everyone purchased your homes you did so with the understanding that there was an HOA. Because of this everyone needs to also understand that they should take a turn in handling the association or in essence corporate entity; otherwise, you should not buy a home in said association. What potentially is happening is you have a very few who are trying to keep things running, but are tired and need a break. However, if no one else steps forward then they continue trying, even though they do not necessarily want to anymore, and only doing minimal necessary to avoid potential receivership.

Now if things continue on this path because of all homeowner’s apathy then potentially the following will take place at some point in time:

Court Appointed Receiver. Another option is for one or more members of the association to petition the state court to appoint a third party (a receiver or custodian) to manage the association as provided for in Code of Civil Procedure 564(b)(9). The receiver would have the power to run the association, including the power to assess the membership for all costs needed to pay for operations. The downside is that there are no restrictions on the size or frequency of assessments imposed by the receiver. The membership would have no say in what services were provided, what was repaired or when, or how much is paid for operations and repairs. All of that would be in the hands of the receiver. Moreover, the receiver would likely special assess the membership to pay for his/her services.

Keep in mind in this circumstance there are no restrictions on the size or frequency of assessments. A receiver could come in and assess each unit $10,000 to make immediate needed repairs if they so desire. Is this something all your homeowners want to potentially see happen? This is why I stated everyone needs to start working together as a team and fix the issues. You and everyone can potentially be tired of your HOA, but you are the only ones who have the current choice regarding the future of your HOA.

I would recommend you and your neighbors start attending board meetings and get a feel for your association. Sometimes people showing support for the current board can help any potential apathy in that the board may start feeling like they are appreciated. Everyone needs to start building a team and maybe suggest the board have some committees for those who do not want to be elected, but still should participate to help fix some immediate issues.