What HOA?

My husband and I recently bought an end unit in a condo association in California. We own the property the condo sits on and a 16th of the common areas. We were given the by-laws and The Declaration of Establishment filed in 1964, a set of rules written by the management company in 1997, a sheet of paper stating our property was current with the maintenance fees, a sheet of paper stating the association had $20,000 in reserve and a copy of an insurance bill from 2002. There has not been an annual or any other type of meeting of the Home Owners Association”, in several years or any accounting thereof. The contract with the management co. is yearly as are the board members. There is to be 3 to 5 board members.

The management company of our homeowners association of 16 units offers rental services to those members who desire to rent their units. It also holds the proxies for 8 of these properties giving it 50% of the voting power. Both the treasure and the secretary of the board work for this company. All of these properties are rented as section 8, with broken down cars, speeding, pitbull dogs, multi families in one unit and pot smoking in the common areas, which we would like to be cleaned up (what are the rules for). The management Co. refuses to do anything, maintenance included. One of the owners tried to stop the pot smoking and the management co. said that she had 8 letters from residences stating they were not bothered by the pot smoking. So nothing was done. This complex is single story, built in 8 rows of 2 homes each, with only the garages connected, we are adjacent to the state parks, 2 blocks from the beach and neither of the 2 un-voted for board of directors live in the complex.

There are 3 maybe up to 7 other owners besides us that would like to break ties with the current management company. Is there anything we can do? We believe that the 16th condo is owned by the management co. owner through a family member.

Also of note is that the non-voted for president owns 4 units and the other board member owns 2.

I think we were a little naïve. When we looked at the property, we saw the other condos facing the street; we didn’t walk through to look at the others. The one joined with ours is by far the best but the two on the other side of the complex facing the street were also nice. I also spoke to the MC owner who gave me her cell phone number and promised to take care of any issues we had. We only found out about all the issues when while we were questioning the neighbors (homeowners), and another homeowner stopped by and gave us an ear full. We were trying to find out how long it was going to be for the MC to come out and remove the 12 inches of sediment against the back wall of the condo that was promised. This was to prevent more water damage because the buildup was higher than the floor level, back door and the dryer vent. The neighbor laughed at us. She said they were not going to do a thing. It’s been 3 weeks. The rainy season starts in about 4 weeks.

I would have thought there was a conflict of interest in being the management company, property manager for several units and property owner in the same association. This is one person I’m talking about.
It also shows that renters in her units have more pull than a homeowner. All the letters backing the pot-smoking renter were from the other renters from her managed properties.

Anyway, thanks for the info, we printed the Davis-Sterling Act and have started reading it. We really thought that with 16 units next to the beach the conflicts would be minimal and I thought it would be fun to be part of something. Though the condo with the 26 family members really needs to be addressed because the condo water rates were raised from $35 a month to $55 after they moved in.
We have been offered $900 a week for our condo by some of the summer crowd we have met. I hear that the section 8 condos are getting around $950 a month.

Do you think we can move the crud, we have found a knife, assorted bones and plastic,shells, to another part of the common area so that there is no more damage to our property or do we hire someone and bill the mc? Or are we opening a can of worms.

sorry about the duplicate!

Section 8, broken down cars, speeding, pitbull dogs, multi families in one unit and pot smoking in the common areas. They may give you $950 this year, but I doubt they will ever come back. LOL. Good luck.

I assure you this in no put on. This is a very small resort area that is in high demand during the summer. A family member paid $3000 a week for a small 3 bedroom house just 1 block closer to the beach last summer and had to make the reservations the year before. That’s why we jumped on this property when it came up.
I guess the place is hard to picture. Our condo faces the street and we have a large front yard. Looking at it from the street it looks like a house. The only common area we share is the back yard, which we share with the next condo that is empty. The other condos face each other so that 4 condos share a small drive (fire lane) through the middle. It is so small I don’t believe anything bigger that a VW could turn into the garages. The front doors are maybe 20 feet apart. This is the common area that that the other owner is upset about. These condos were built as summer homes and winter retreats, I don’t think they were meant to be permanent homes for people.
My neighbor bought the condo behind hers refurbished it inside and out furnished it and keeps it rented weekly during the summer and monthly during the winter. Winter rates are $1600 as there is less demand. She said she could easily keep ours rented. We have no plans to rent.
We met the owner of the condo behind us today. His plan is renting seasonally also. He also has had problems with the MC. A few years ago every owner was charged $5000 to have lawns put in and have 2 driveways replaced. Because no accounting is ever provided to the homeowners he believes that some owners were not required to pay the $5000. He also seemed afraid of the MC. He said that another association broke ties with this same company, the homeowners were sued, and when they finally got control back, they found that their bank accounts were emptied and the paperwork was in such disarray, they couldn’t tell how much money was taken.
Does there have to be a court order or something to get the MC to do what it was hired to do? I have a feeling that the section 8 tenants never even got a copy of the association rules. I am also curious why no one has been able to get anything from the MC, not even a list of the property owners. How can we get the owners together if we don’t know who they are? I am beginning to wonder if they really do have all the proxies they claim to have.
We have already moved the dirt away from the condo and will waterproof next trip. I guess we will have to hire someone to haul it away. Of course doing anything to the common areas is against the rules.

Good idea, I spent some time online looking and only came up with the names and maybe 3 phone numbers. I haven't tried them, I think we need to come up with a plan of approach. The property tax on some of these properties is so low they maybe original owners.