Voted off board heading to court

Started by GaryR6 • 5 replies • 1423 views

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GaryR6 (Connecticut)
Posts: 33

Posted:

On March 28, 2011 and on May 9, 2011 myself and other unit owners organzied petitions to remove three of the board members(petition 1) and then remove the remainder of the board (petition 2)petition 2 was because the remaining board ignored the initail petition and results---the removal(on both votes) was for the removal "without cause" for the sake of simplicity, collected 20% of the unit signatures,sent the signed petitions to the secretary,waited the 15 days to receive a response, sent ALL unit owners the special meeting notices.The notice for the special meeting consisted of the specific agenda, location,and date.All unit owners were informed of the date to vote etc. The previous board members were sent certified letters, special notices, outcomes of both votes, the associations attorney was also informed. To no avail. We were totally ignored inspite of following our bylaws and Connecticuts Common Interest Ownership Act implemented in July 2010. We hired an attorney to represent our group of unit owners. We have to be in court on Tuesday May 31, 2011. Our hired attorney specializes in condo laws, he feels that we have better then better of a chance of winning.

1) Has anyone been through this process?
2) Any suggestions on what to expect?
3) The previous associations attorney claims he/she will loose a great account.
4) We attempted through certified and e-mails to inform this refuted attorney of our actions and they were ignored.
5) Any additional input?

Thank Gary

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

Just one question...Do you all have replacement plans for the board members you wanted off the board? It's all good and well to remove the bad board members, as long as there are people available to fill those slots...

Former HOA President

GaryR6 (Connecticut)
Posts: 33

Posted:

Hello MelissaP:

I am sorry, the evening of the 2nd vote to remove the remainder of the board, we replaced/voted in 9 new board members and also voted on the officers. The new board has been put in place until October when our annual meeting takes place---.

Thanks
Gary

DyanaH (Florida)
Posts: 20

Posted:

We went through the exact same thing just last October 2010 - we had more then enough signatures for the original meeting - proxies were received and the meeting held.

Ours was to remove three of the board members (without cause). The VOTEs were taken and it passed. But, the members on the board fought the matter (and used the HOA attornies to do so). Then they tried to have those that were listed on the petition pay for the attornies fees ($13,000, why I would love to know). But, the judge shot that down.

All and all it was a waste of time and money all around - as they did not step down and then ran again in January (collected proxies of their own) and now we still have them serving on the board. They have anchored themselves in - and we are finding it very difficult to get rid of the. The best part about all of this is that one has lost his home to foreclosure and another is just about to (our president at that) - but we have one owner that owns more then one unit and he has made them agents for him - but they are telling people that they are still owners in the complex.

BonnieG1 (Nebraska)
Posts: 1,186

Posted:

Your problem is quite different that ours. We have a difficult time getting people to serve on the board and I feel that the majority of Board members would be delighted to be voted out as long as there was a replacement.

JanetB2 (Colorado)
Posts: 4,219

Posted:

Hi Gary:

Both sides will enter the court, present evidence, and the Judge will rule. If you have all required documentation regarding the recall and met all requirements under the law, then potentially your attorney is correct in having a good chance of winning. If possible your attorney should maybe try to insure the recalled directors, if they lose, pay for attorney fees and not the HOA. Maybe he can press that because they ignored a proper legal recall that they were negligent and therefore responsible on a personal level.

It sometimes is amazing how many people will crawl out of the woods when they have had enough and then are more willing to participate in the association. While these situations are unfortunate the one item they tend to do for at least a while, is they will draw many members together as a team for hopefully a better future. If possible try to keep everyone participating for the long term via committees, get togethers, etc.

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