DIRECTOR DISMISSED

Norma,

As it says in your Bylaws, a Director is voted in by the membership and may only be removed by the membership (unless there are special circumstances that allow the Board to remove a Director). Based on your post, it looks like this "dismissal" is not lawful.

The Board votes on reimbursing a volunteer for materials, either before or after the repair occurs. The director who made the repairs should probably recuse themselves from that vote. If the Board is being fair, I think they would vote for reimbursement.

If the Board does not vote for reimbursement, then the "handyman" is out of luck. It is *not* permissible to withhold payment of dues for this. There is a lesson here in making sure that the terms of engagement are well understood, or even made in writing, before a homeowner steps up to help out.

I had a handyman type in our HOA. However, ours was quite the crooked contractor instead. However, the handyman is wrong in witholding his dues. It will backfire on him. It is the very reason why a HOA should NEVER EVER EVER compensate someone for doing work by allowing them to skip a dues payment. It's much better to pay them the amount of the dues than allowing them to skip it. The HOA would never know the point of placing a lien if it has a history of dismissing dues payments.

It's hard for me to look at this as "innoncent" handyman eyes. Not that this guy isn't. I've worked as a handyman myself. It may be best that the handyman director is fired overall. It can be too much of a conflict of interest. Board members shouldn't get paid for their work. Plus I don't know if this guy is licensed and insured. A board should ONLY hire contractors who are qualified even if it's a simple job. There are handyman companies out there now that could provide professional services. This guy could also work as a contractor for the HOA if they choose to accept his bids. A better option for all in the long run.

Our handyman guy was hired once when during a meeting it was raining. In front of everyone in attendance, we noticed water dripping down the inside of 2 windows in the clubhouse during the rain storm. Since this guy was trusted by many in the HOA, he put in a bid that night to fix it. We the board accepted his offer on the spot. (I was hesitant but out voted). A few days later he called me over to inspect his repairs. He had fixed the 1 window. When I confronted him about the 2nd window, he tried to put in another bid for repairs for it! He denied the bid was for both windows even though EVERYONE saw both windows leaking and was why we gave him the bid. He even tried to just charge us for "The materials" NOT labor if he fixed the second window. You can quickly figure out that both windows were repaired without paying for his extra materials that he already owned. It wasn't like he had gone and purchased new materials for the job. The job almost ended with a bigger repair to the roof when I went off on him...

With that story I hope you can see that there could be another side of this tale. I kept things politically correct when I talked about it at the next meeting. He was trusted by many and had lived there longer than me. So it was impossible for me to just get rid of him. What I did end up doing with him is NOT using him for HOA business as much as humanly possible. However, I did advertise that he was available for independent contractor work on other people's dime. It worked out best for the HOA to do it this way. This way when he did do the crappy work, it didn't reflect back onto the HOA as much. It worked better for him as he got many more jobs. Which is something this guy may appreciate.

If the handyman wants his money he could place a lien or take the HOA to small claims court over the matter. The HOA can file a countersuit if they want. Which is much cheaper for the HOA.

Whoops forgot... If he resigned due to pressure, embarassment, or even ignorance then it is HIS choice then.

I don't see the issue, if I am the handyman and advised someone that doing a job in the rain would not work and they still wanted it done I would have told them to find someone else.

Hello CarolR:

I already stated what the qualifications in Section 1 say. He did meet those. But, they did tell him to resign when he did not pay his dues. I understand that two wrongs do NOT make a right, but I can also understand he is hurting financially for them to do this. The board as usual was being stubborn. They should have done the right thing and payed him, since he did WARN them that it could happen and it did. If I was him, I would have had them put it in writing. Thank you for your reply.

Interesting

It's interesting that Simone & Norma have the same writing style--use of a lot of CAPS, for instance.

Anyway, please answer whether or not your HOA docs give the board authority to dismiss a director for nonpayment of dues? Ours do not, but some do.

OK folks. Enough of this squabbling. This is a (somewhat) public ANONYMOUS forum where you could be anyone.

The fact is you can have multiple screen names/accounts here. It's no big deal IF they (Simone, Norma) are the same... who cares?

Peter may not be my real name, may not reflect my true gender, and I may not live in Florida.