HOA has no board

I have never dealt with a HOA before so I have come here for advise. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

My wife and I recently moved into her old condo as we sold my townhome. This condo is supposedly run by an HOA. There are broken down cars in the parking lots, the lawn care is being done by residents (looks horrible),and a plethora of other violations. Upon my inquiring about the HOA enforcing the rules or even holding a meeting I was told there is no board to run a meeting. One guy has access to the HOA dues but does not have any books showing the finances. Supposedly he has put 7k of his own money into trying to keep the place running as thier are people that dont pay thier dues.

I am trying to get a meeting together to get this place running; however, I have been told to tread lightly by a few owners (HOA only has 19 units) as nobody wants to participate in trying to get the place in respectable condition. It seems the majority of the owners now rent thier units out. A lot of the units dont even have working AC units, this place looks like the slums. I have been told by other owners that when they tried to have a meeting no one showed up (at least not enough to hold a vote).

If my efforts with the meeting bear no fruit (no enforcement, no board to run the hoa, no info on the financial status) what should i do?

Thanks in advance,
Leroy

Leroy,

You should also mention in a letter to the membership that if the Board can not find volunteers to run the system or at least to sit a board and hire a management company that the only other option would be to petition the court for receivership. This of course would drastically increase fees as the membership will have to pay the receivers salary. Additionally, as long as the Association is in receivership, the membership will have zero say in how it is ran.

Tim

Yes one guy gets the checks. The checks are made to the HOA and sent to him. My wife asked hime to see the financials ahwile back ago, he apparently became very rude and hostile, needless to say she didnt get to see the books or even get a statement. I have talked to some of the other owners and it appears to be common knowledge that he dosent have any books detailing the finances.

Leroy,

You will need to petition the court to have the Association go into receivership. Therefore, consulting a local attorney would be the best course of action.

Tim