HOA BOD running amuck

I live in a community located in Williamsburg, VA. I have read the VA property owners association act however cannot find anything of the following mentioned. The yearly HOA meeting which 'they' limit to an hour was conducted. There are two separate issues.

The BOD has determined the following:

1. to raise the salary of the woman who sits in the club house answering the phone. There was no vote taken nor allowed and we were not allowed to discuss it. This women by the way is the wife of one of the board members. The BOD raised her salary to $36K a year or about 25$ an hour. Most of the time she just sits in the office with nothing to do.

2. To increase the HOA dues to cover installing a security gate. No vote was allowed and lots of discussion ensued in regard to who is responsible to pay for this however the BOD just blew off the residents. (which happens a lot)
background. This is a fairly new development. One of the amenities provided is security. None to date has been installed. There are currently about 140 houses in the development and now the BOD wants to install security gates. They raised the HOA dues to pay for the installation. First, this is an amenity that was used an incentive to buy in this community (this statement was agreed upon by all at the meeting). Second, once these initial homeowners pay for the security how are any new homeowners going to be charged? - an increase in the initiation fee? - heard crickets from that question. The consensus met by the homeowners is this is an infrastructure that should be paid for by the developer, not the homeowners. This is not the first amenity that has changed since I first moved into this development in May 2011. When I bought into the community I was told it was going to be protected by security (gates and cameras) and it was a maintenance free . Now the homeowners are being required to pay for the security infrastructure and the maintenance free has been changed to 'limited' maintenance. Both these amenities are listed in on their web sites and in the contracts. To me, this is fraud. They offer one thing and when you sign the contract they switched the bait

There have been some emails flying back and forth and one of the last emails written by one of the board members says they (BOD) can do what ever they want with the HOA money and that we as homeowners have no say so on how the money is spent. (I love emails as this one has been safely tucked away because it will probably come in handy.)

I have googled my fingers off and cannot find anything that will give me some insight into whether our HOA can do what I mentioned above without a vote from the homeowners. If there is someone that can direct me to a link or can provide some information I would be appreciative Thank you.

TIA

I love Williamsburg and was just there a few months ago. One question for you though...Are you still under the developers control or has it been turned over to the owners? It sounds like the developer is stil in control from your postings.

Your HOA should be charging the expenses EQUALLY amongst ALL the owners not just those effected. That is how dues are set and how a HOA funds it's budget. You may have to pay a special assessment every now and then to get a project done but that too is divided equally amongst all the members.

The security gate was it promised by the developer? If it was then they should be paying for it. Which they may be out of the dues they collect. Without knowing if your developer controlled with a few select board members from the community it is hard to tell.

I can't judge what one does on their job or doesn't. What do you expect as a person who answers phones and probably does some secretarial work? Having nothing to do for a few minutes on a job is part of the nature of the job this person has. Phones ringing all the time isn't a good sign. If you don't have the job, then don't judge the job. Once you all become owner controlled then you all can have a vote on paying this person.

Thank you. Yes the BOD is mostly under developer control. however if I am not mistaken and will have to check, there are two homeowners on the BOD.

No this woman doesn't do secretarial work. I can't say if the phones ring continually however from what I am told from other residents that are retired, they hardly ever ring. She does try to rent out the club house (which is very nice) for weddings and events (and it is rented almost the entire summer so the residents cannot use the facility - although we are paying for its use). From this she gets about a 20% (not sure if it is higher) commission. "We" are told renting out the club house offsets the cost of mantaining the building and pools however until I went through the laws and regulations and presented it to the board/HOA, they refused to give any information to the residents on what it costs to rent the club house, who gets paid what and how routine clean-up/maintenance and repairs are done when renting the club house. In fact they wouldn't even release the budget. Happy to say this year we all received a copy. amazing what presenting laws can do.

I have read all of the regs and HOA rules but will go through them again, this time with a fine tooth comb. What I have discovered the HOA was pulling the wool over the eyes of most of the residents and they were believing everything. Now I am here and I do my homework - and thoroughly. I am a housing advocate and have worked with organizations like HOBB and HADD and have learned a lot.

I have found the BOD is not very happy with people like me that confront them. They use intimidation to quiet some of the older people and if that doesn't work, they will yell at you until you back down. Unfortunately for them, I don't allow that to happen and stand my ground. I am usually quiet and do not bother anyone, however when my pocket book is being picked, I get vocal really fast.

Thank you again.

Mel called it correctly if still under Declarant control.

Thank you. You are absolutely correct. The developer does not want to pay for the security gate and is pushing the expenses on to the current residents. The same thing happened with the maintenance free concept. -another story another thread.

Thank you for your advice. I believe we (the residents) will have to seek an attorney. However after saying that there is another way to skin this cat before calling in legal advice. It may be enough to scare him straight.

In answer to another person in regard to the 'secretary'. The amount of work she does is minimal, certainly not worth 25$ an hour. The amount of time she expends in trying to get the club house rented is because she gets a commission (and she does this while she is getting paid). However based on other answers there is nothing the residents can do about this - now.

I was incorrect. The BOD members were selected by the developer and none live in the developmment.

I would call a local temp agency to see how much they would charge the HOA for a comparable staff member.

I wanted to thank everyone for their assistance. After receiving information from the board I conducted some research and then wrote a note to the BOD where the developer/declarant is a member asking his counsel for clarification of my interpretation of the VA code. Lo and behold the next thing you know, the developer is footing the bill for the security gates. I am going to make a wild guess he would shoot me down if he could because I just added another $40,000 to his bill, but oh well. He and his counsel probably knew about the code but they weren't going to tell anyone in the development. I am just of the nature that when you start fooling around with my pocket, I am going to find out if in fact what 'they' are saying is correct.

Now they increased our HOA dues because originally they were taking out a loan to pay for the security gates. I keep asking that since the dues increase is no longer valid, when are they going to decrease the dues. The answer keeps coming back, they are trying to find something to spend it on. They did go down the aisle about the 2010 law that all public pools that were over 300 feet long had to have two handicap accesses and less than 300 feet one handicapped access. However after a lot of research found our pool to be private, less than 300 feet and it already has a handicapped access. Regardless I have stepped up to the plate in an open forum and in emails stating that the BoD and HOA have to provide justification to the community how they want to spend our money. I also volunteered to be on the budget committee, but for some reason they are not very open to that request.

So again, thank you.

Yes, it was supposed to be when phase IV was finished or 2016. 'We' were told all the phases were in place and filed with the city but evidently they don't have a clue about phase IV. First it was supposed to be an assisted care facility. Obviously someone didn't do their homework as this takes 5-7 years to get everything in place. Now they are talking condos. All of the older people who complain about the current pool being too small obviously haven't looked beyond their noses because condos are really going to increase the number of people using it. I won't bring it up (not yet) because they are also the people who complain if you heaven forbid splash, bring any type of floats etc etc. they actually wanted to raise the age limit to be able to go to the pool alone without an adult to 25 and oh yes and make the entire community smoke free. I don't smoke and don't like smoking but to tell someone they can't smoke at their home is too much. I will continue to stir it up - but with facts. I don't mind falling on my sword but I want to ensure I have my ducks in a row.

If it wasn't for this forum I might not have been able to find the answer.