Can the Board Auction Off Parking Spaces?

Julie,

Welcome to the forum.
We can't say if it is legal or not. For that answer you will need to contact a local attorney who would have access to all the documents you have access to and be versed in CA laws.

Expecting that the parking spaces is common area, it is typical for the Board to have full authority over the common areas. Membership approval would not be required. How do your governing documents define your parking area?

I would also like to point out, since you indicated that this is all from one person, that decisions of the Board are done by majority vote. The President is the face of the Board and is therefore usually associated with any decision. However, the decision came from the entire Board. If the other board members were not in support of this action they could stop it.

Here is a link to Davis-Stirling common area menu page. It may be helpful to you.

Hope this helps,

Tim

I see, Julie, that my post overlapped with Tim's.

Your CC&Rs (Declaration) may NOT be like ours, which do state that no common areas may be sold, leased, etc. without the approval of the membership. So do examine your CC&R carefully to see if the Board has the authority to sell off chunks of your common areas without approval of the membership.

I'll tell you, I never would have bought in my highrise HOA if the board had that authority.

The Board basically consist of one owner who lives out of state, and another owner which is his best friend, the other members change so often its hard to keep up with who is on the board. I am not on the board, I had access to some of the financials after many request to view them and finally going to court to get anorder allowing us owerns to view them. When this happened, he immediately fired the current accountant, and had all the boxes of financial documents delivered to his home, it was not until several weeks later a new accountant was hired (who just so happens to be a long time friend of his) and we were able to make an appointment to view the statements. I was only able to get a few of the ledgers pages, and some (very few) banking statements. I asked the accountant about the deposits of the proceeds from the auctions of parking spaces, and also fine assessments, she said she was not aware of these deposits, but was very vague realizing that she needed to ask him about this. The financails were scattered among many boxes, no receipts were attached to purchases, everything was in a complete mess so it was hard to tell what was what.

All decisions are basically made by this man, we have no management company as soon as he bcame President he fired the management company within days. He has full control of everything, banking, vendors, accounts, literlly everything. He recently purchased a four thousand dollar golf cart so he can drive around the property, however our property is so small you can walk from one end to the other in less then a minute, and we have no golf course. He also purchased several thousand dollars in night vision cameras and monitors, the monitors are only accessible to him, and most aim at the units he owns and his garages. Thheres so much going on here, that it's impossible to put in writing.

Basically you need to vote in a new board, president, secretary, treasurer, etc. Now.

We have already once voted this man off the Board by a majority vote, however he refused to step down, claiming the vote was illegaly done. His reason was, several owners got together and met in the mail room, which is the only public room and is also used for hearings, he claimed that the vote was not valid due to the fact that we did not get permission from him to use this room nor did we pay the fees for it's use. I had never heard of this before, this room has never been rented out for anything, it is basically empty except for the mailboxes on the wall. When herings are held they bring in chairs. There is no mention in any paperwork that fees have to be paid for its use. So he refused to step down, and still remains on board, most people have given up. Owners that live offsite and have renters, the ones that voted to have him removed, most lost their tenants for one reason or another (right after the voting), he harrassed them until they moved out. So now owners have chosen to stay quiet they cannot afford to lose their tenants. The ones that live onsite are also scared, shortly after the vote they began to get notices of violations they did not committ, and were forced to pay fines when found guilty by this man, he was the witness, the one who decides guilt at the hearing and the executioneer. There is so much going on, and the sad part is there is no help from anyone outside, no one wants to get involved.

We have already once voted this man off the Board by a majority vote, however he refused to step down, claiming the vote was illegaly done.

Well it all depends on whether or not you did it properly by gathering signatures to hold a Special Meeting to recall him. He would then have the opportunity to schedule the meeting and only if he failed to, could the homeowners hold one. The rules work both ways.

BTW It's a shame you waited a couple of months to post because in CA homeowners can vote to repeal rules but only if done in a timely manor.

Easy. Simply be ignorant of the law or or just disregard it.

Going back to your mail room, Julie. Do your bylaws state that Board meetings must be held monthly or perhaps quarterly? If the language is there, the Board must permit homeowners access to theses meetings per the Davis-Stirling Open Meeting Act. But where are these meetings held?

Minutes must be recorded and the draft available to owners 30 days after the meeting. The minutes should show the board's vote to "auction" off the parking spaces, and also any rules the Board has added. They also should show board approval for the golf cart and the camera system.

Or are there no open meetings and no minutes to review??

The way this all sounds is, along with others, you either need to get a group together and pressure the board at meetings to follow your governing docs and state laws. Or a group of you chip in and buy some expert advice from an HOA attorney. You also might let the new accountant know that you (& others) don't think that the financials are in order and are sound. Her professional reputation might be a stake here and you might make her at least nervous.

I, too, wonder if you "election" to throw out this man was legal--not because of some of you meeting in the mailroom, but it must be done exactly to CA civil code. Anyhow, how did the prez know who voted against him? The ballots in CA must be secret.

Julie:

Your membership is foolish to allow this person to bully them like this. A superior court judge would oust this jerk in a heartbeat. I would love to hear him tell the court that the members needed his permission to hold an election to remove him.

BTW, where are the rest of the spineless board members? I would vote them off, too.