Please help - HOA Mgmt Co and NO Board and NO Meetings

I am writing this representing the homeowners in our little townhouse community. We really appreciate any insight you can provide. We are in washington state if that matters.

There are 8 units in our association. They are 2-4 years old.

A realtor bought this project, finished the townhomes and sold 4 in his first year and only 2 more 2 years later. He kept the remaining 2 and rented them out for one year, collected rent and got them foreclosed upon with renters in them. They were sold at auction and are vacant. So there are only 6 of us lving in this 8 unit complex.

He named himself the HOA president and hired an HOA company 2 towns over. They have provided VERY little and are extremely unresponsive.

All 6 of us want the HOA management company out and want to self manage but we don't know where to start because there is NO board and has never been a single meeting in 4 years.

They took our HOA dues from 180/mo to 280/mo when the realtor couldn't sell his units. THe county told us they were for his unsold units and he told the HOA company to spread it out amongst the rest of us. He is a bad guy and not in the picture anymore but SOMEHOW is still our president and the HOA management company doesn't respond to our questions majority of the time. When they do respond they say they have to ask him!!! I am not sure how he is still tied up in our townhomes at all. Especially after he got foreclosed upon on his last 2 units.

Question: how do we get rid of them. again we can't board vote them out because we have no board or meetings. That is all I have read online but we don't even have that venue to do this.

What other info can I ask them in one certified letter so I can get any info that I need? I need to do it this way because they do NOT respond to email or calls.

I am current on my dues but other owners have stopped paying. They send foreclosure letters if we do not pay.

- There are NO amenities. No clubhouse, no park. they don't even keep up the "field" that has become because the final 8 townhomes were never built. No lights, no walkways. Nothing. It is an extremely basic place. no signage that even says our "name".
- The only single thing they do is mow lawns. VERY infrequent. And they stopped mowing mine this year. The one answer I got was that the middle units do not get yards done. Hm. that is new. Before that the mowing guys told us that they told them to ONLY DO the units going into foreclosure so it looked good for auction.
- They raised our dues 100/mo for no reason. an elderly man contested it and they dropped it for him because our county backed him up saying it was sewer for the NEW units that the realtor couldn't sell.
- The realtor is somehow in cahoots with this management firm. he hired them and they seem to go ask him questions now even though he has nothing to do with our development any longer.
- when asked, they cannot provide a spreadsheet of our finances.
- when emailed over the course of a year, myself and one other owner got an email back with SOME financial numbers in it and the information varied greatly. basically we catch them in lies. I won't detail them but it's all just very shady.
- Our HOA manager is NEVER EVER available.

Anyway what can we do. We are sick over what we are forced to pay because of risk of them taking our homes. It's all very frustrating. My old HOA with my previous home was NOTHING LIKE THIS!

Thank you so much.

THANK YOU TIM!!

Answers per item:

I would suggest that you need to first check on the following things:

1. Is there an actual named Association? Yes. T. L. Homeowners association. For privacy I don't want to put our actual name.

2. Is it incorporated and are there bylaws to this Association? I assume it is incoporated. There are bylaws if those are the same as CCRs. We have a huge packet of rules and information. Including saying that our $180.mo includes mowing lawns (not specifying that we in the middle are NOT included!) and also stating sewer is included so the new additioanl $100 charge that came up over a year after we moved in is clearly above and beyond the 180 that was covering the sewer fee.) So yes that document exists and I have a copy of the last owner that bought 2 years ago too. I was curious to see if they differed at all.

3. Who owns the last two units (very important question)? Wa Federal Savings, per the County Assesor Treasurer Web site. They are listed for sale by a real estate agent with John L Scott.

4. Is the development considered a condominium? No, in everything they are called Townhouses. We all have our own door at a main level and all are 2 stories high which are totally ours. Like 4 2story units are connected by a shared wall. And then across from us 4 other units are 2story and share inside walls. Hope that makes sense.

Once you know these things you need to the following:

1) Follow the requirements within the CC&Rs and/or bylaws to hold a special meeting for the purpose of recalling the Board of Directors and electing a new board.

Note: if that individual still owns the property, as the Declarant they might still have control of a majority of the votes.

Send everything via certified mail so there is a paper trail if needed.

Soooo you are saying that WE are essentially the president even though the HOA Management company stil calls him and asks him to coach them through what they should say to us? Interesting. Do we have to send them a certified letter saying they are INVITED? and then hold the meeting, vote, and them send them a certified letter saying "Per our board meeting Jane Smith is now our Board President and Joe, Sam and Sallie are the other board members." and then another letter saying that the Board wishes to terminate our contract with said HOA Management company?

Am I understanding this right?

Ok I will do the legwork tonight to figure out which. But for sure all the paperwork says townhouse. I am sure I have the bylaws so won't request them. I need to request all stuff in one fell swoop because we need to handle this succintly.

Question: "They can wait for an annual meeting OR petition for a special meeting to recall the Board and then elect a new one. "

When you said that part who is "THEY"??

The HOA Management won't do anything. They will not hold a meeting because they never HAVE held a meeting. So what can we do to kick this into motion?

THANK YOU THANK YOU so much. It feels good to make progress after several failed attempts.

Just so I don't waste your time detailing the wrong scenario... now I am doubting myself about condo vs. townhouse. And then because of what you wrote I saw Non-Profit for the first time. Aye yi yi

It is called T.L. Townhouse HOA. HOWEVER, I have documentation that 50% says condo and 50% says townhouse now that I look at it all.

What I have:

(1)
From the loan paperwork - "Condominium Rider" borrowers note between the bank I financed with and the property address. it says "Name of condo project: T.L. Townhomes" It's just a form they used from docmagic.com as a template it says in the footer...

(2)
From the loan paperwork - "NWMLS Form 28 Condominium Purchase and Sale Agreement Specific Terms" is the title of the doc and it just says our names, address, how much earnest we put down, etc. financing info.
The papers behind it but part of this packet have to do withTitle, Offer, condo assessment, paint, property condition, etc. etc. There is a Builder Addendum as well.

(3)
Then I have "Articles of Incorporation of T. L. Owners Association" which is the HUGE packet that we have all been focused on. It does not say Townhouse or Condo in the title.
But then says "The undersigned, acting as incorporator of a corporation under the WA Nonprofit Corporation Act (CH. 24.03 RCW) adopting the following articles. (Note: I will google that Rcw now...)

Article 3 is Purposes. This corportation is organized to provide an entity pursuant to the wa condomimium act (ch 64.34 rcw) hereafter called the "Condominium Act" for the operation of T. L., a condominium located in City, Washington.

**********
So there you go. No matter how often they call us TL Townhomes we are technically under the "Condo" and "NonProfit" stuff you mentioned.

I am not sure what this means for how we proceed though.
***********

Under article 5 "members" it does say it will have one class of members which shall consist of the owners of the units at T.L.

Is this good/bad?

Article 11 is "Incorporator" and is the realtor guy's company name and address. AGain, he was foreclosed on his 2 units so we are hoping he forfeits rights even if he originally set all of this up.

(4)
The BYLAWS document is included. ByLaws cover Membership, Voting, Register, Board, Committees and Good Faith Estimates (from before anyone had moved in so all are estimates). This is the spreadsheet of costs we have asked for on an ongoing basis from the HOA Management company

In any case, what picture does that paint for us?

Thank you so much

Wow thank you so much. I can't believe how informative this has been - THANK YOU TIM!

So I just learned that it was incorporated but no longer is.

Here is info from the organization you suggested I contact. They had an online search feature.

"T.L. Owners Association"

Category --- REG
Profit/Nonprofit --- Nonprofit
Active/Inactive --- Inactive
State of Incorporation- WA
WA Filing Date -- 05/30/2007
Expiration Date --- 05/31/2010
Inactive Date --- 09/01/2010

So since they are NOT incorporated anymore, what does that mean?

I do not recognize the woman's name.

But the address listed is the HOA Management Company.

You and your concerned HOA neighbors really need to get a lawyer to help you with all this.

The inc. status can be renewed with the State. That is the least of your problems.

You have a management company who is dealing with someone who is representing himself as the owner or president of the HOA. You need to get control of the HOA and terminate the MC contract.

Have the lawyer set up a meeting with the guy and your group and let him know he is out of the picture. He needs to turn over everything to your new HOA. Get your neighbors together and read all your CCRs and bylaws and be prepared to run the HOA.

They = the membership (i.e. you and your fellow homeowners).

Lets summarize what we have learned based on your postings.

1) Your development is considered a condominium.

2) Your Association is incorporated as a nonprofit corporation

3) Your Association apparently failed to file an annual report or pay a fee to the Corporation Commission which placed it on the inactive list in September of 2010. Filing the form and/or paying the fee will place you back on the active status. however, this raises the concern that the Association also might not have filed Federal or State tax forms. Things the new Board needs to be aware of and address.

4) The following State laws would apply:

Condominium act

Washington nonprofit corporation act

5) At some point, as Susan said, you will need an attorney to assist in straightening this mess out. Sooner is better then later. However, if the current Board is willing to follow the law, it's possible that this can be postponed for a little while. However, the new board will definitely need to hire one to get everything straightened out.

6) The management company address is being used either as the Associations address and/or the Registered agents address (not clear in your posting).

Take some time to research and digest all of this information you have gathered. Talk about it with your neighbors. You are in the beginning steps of correcting this issue - the gathering of resources and gaining knowledge by reading and understanding those resources.

Find out the following:

What is the minimum number of Directors required to be on the Board?
How many seats are vacant?
Who is currently serving on the Board (you will need this information for later).

There can be other options depending on what information you can get hold of.

NOTE: I am not an attorney and I do not work within the legal profession. I am offering advice based on information contained in your posting, personal experiences, research and, hopefully, some common sense.

Oh, here is one more link that might help:

HOATalk thread titled How to read a statute (law)

Thank you so much. I am totally with you. And I won't hold you liable or anything - e.g. your posting about not being a legal professional and so forth. I understand where you are coming fromm.

All of this is extremely helpful. I'm with you so far so off to read all 3 of those links.

We do all want the management company out still. They have been far too close and favorable with the realtor/developer guy (who bought and finished the aesthetics of this project from the real builder who died) who was very shady toward all of us. And they haven't been forthright about where the money is going when we've asked for statements.

Hopefully the other folks will be open to putting some money toward this. I hope there is some free/cheap way to get rid of all of them though and either hire another hoa management company OR do it ourselves.

To answer your Q:
The nonprofit set up is called T.L. Owners Association, the address is the HOA Management companies corporate address, and the "President" listed is the President of it.