First legit meeting in years what should we do?

Our HOA has not had a legit meeting in several years. All the owners I have met with would like to replace the current MC. Any ideas what we should do first? I have contacted 15 of the 16 homeowners (MC will not give out owner info and I can not find the last one)we thought we would send the letter for an emergency meeting to the condo as that is the only address we can find. Next issue: Do we first vote in a new board or use the old one and then replace it? The secretary and treasure were said to have been MC staff not homeowners and they are not invited to this HOA meeting. The last known President was told he was voted off the board by the MC. 15 of 16 owners have already agreed that we need a new MC and would like to move on it now. We have the quotes, referrals and a CPA to make the transfer.

Is there a legal way to hurry this along? We are a few months of having no money. We need to take control NOW. The owner of 4 units is leaving for an extended stay abroad on first of May. We would like to give a 30 day notice to the MC ASAP and replace them before he leaves.

The County assessor will only tell you the owner and address of the property taxed not where the bill is sent, I have tried. That's how we have found most of the owners names.

This is why I suggested a two-stage election. Hold your election for a temporary board ASAP. What are all of you doing tonight? If you have the support of 15 out of 16 owners, there really is no one in a position to challenge what you are doing even if it does not fully comply with state law.

I agree with Tim that you need to get that owner's proxy before he takes off.


Sorry about that. In Arizona all that stuff is online and publicly available. You have made a reasonable effort to locate this owner and give them notice, so no one can fault you. Do not waste any more time on it.

As some have said.

If you have 15 of the 16 owners then you have a Quorum so the 16th is not needed.

Call a special meeting, elect a BOD then and there. Probably 3 would be sufficient. Then the BOD can elect their Officers. I suggest Pres, Treas, Sec.

The first order of business for the new BOD will be to fire the Management Company. I might go lightly here to be sure the new BOD has all records, understands the MC contract, has control of the checking account, has the MC prepare a financial report, etc. Be sure all your ducks in a row before firing the MC.

Even if the owner of 4 units is not available you have in place a BOD and they can function. Most of what they will need to do will be within the power of the BOD meaning it will not require the approval of the owners.

With only 16 units, I doubt a MC is needed. I would think the association could easily be self managed.

Hope this helps.

This is a VERY dysfunctional HOA. The MC was brought on 15 to 20 years ago when the developer became too old to manage the HOA. He retained 25% of the properties. It is said; the MC purchased several properties so that between them they held the majority. Any owner that wanted to participate in governing was not allowed to do much of anything as the MC ran all the meetings. Over the years, the MC has sold her properties and the developer’s properties have been passed to the next generation, but the MC has continued to bully all the owners. At the last known meeting, the MC told the owners that there could be no meeting until her contract was renewed. It was renewed without being read or copies made because of the plumbing issues that had to be resolved. That was 8 years ago. No one has a copy of the contract with the MC, but I did get copies of the CC&r’s, Articles of Incorporation, By-Laws, and the previous years financial statement although it held up escrow for more than a month. We also have minutes that ended with that last meeting 8 years ago from one of the last known board members.

According to the CC&R’s if a MC is used the contract is for one year at a time only.

Last November the MC sent out a notice stating anyone wanting to be on the board to submit their name to her office. According to the MC, they received no response. I responded the same day I received the notice with a phone call and followed with a letter, as did four other owners. A 5th asked if her son could help as he works in real estate in the area and could help to improve our property.

I have put myself in harm’s way already and the other owners warned me, the MC would levy fines and use threats against anyone who disagrees with their management. There is no way we are going to get access to any records or funds if there are any, short of a court order and the MC knows everyone in the county, (Another threat). An association who had contracted with this MC had to sue the MC to get control of their funds after they did not renew the contract. The over $100,000 they thought they had was gone.

I took this off the MC website.
"MC is so sure our services exceed any other management company you’ve dealt with in the past, we offer you a “SATISFACTION GUARANTEE”. If at any time you become dissatisfied with MC, you can cancel your contract. NOW THAT’S CONFIDENCE……"

This is what we are dealing with and it’s prime CA beach property we are talking about. I had no idea of any of this until last year when I asked when the next HOA meeting was going to be.

Also, to correct the typo earlier: we have 8 of the 11 owners in agreement, which is 13 of the 16 units. One owner really likes the MC, one owner has the MC managing their property and the other owner we can’t contact.

I want you all to know how much the feed back helps us learn and see other options. One owner has an attorney on retainer which also helps.

MoM makes a good point, Tammy. Go to davis-stirling.com, which is put together by some HOA attorneys. It has a lot about the Calif. Davis-Stirling legislation, but all kinds of generic info too. Scroll through their Main Index and click on topics that fit your situation.

I have been reading the Davis-Sterling Act since I read MoM's post and as far as I can tell this HOA has been out of compliance for 20 years. It also said four days is the minimum numbers of days notice for a meeting, which is good for us. Good idea, I am going to call the owner with the attorney on retainer to see if he covers this kind of thing. Thanks!

We still have May 1, as the date for the meeting, although we have an 8 day window to accommodate as many owners as we can. We are having it at a private residence so that the MC can not invite themselves. Now the issue is the wording of letter we send out to those 3? property owners that side with the MC. The Davis-Sterling act and the the corporation laws it links us to has us questioning every word. We are sending out notices because there is only 1 owner that lives on the property, the rest are investors or vacation homes, and we do not want that held against us. I am also using phone and e-mail. If the attorney doesn't work out I am ready to hire one just to cover my husband and I. Any help with the letter would be greatly appreciated.

You know all this started because I wanted the boards approval not the MC's to replace the 1958 22" sunken sidewalk, the crumbling retaining wall, the bug infested broken down fence and replace the weeds with sod in the front of our beach house.

According to the CC&R's the developer lost control when he sold 51%.
The son who inherited the properties let the MC control his shares for a time.

The son was always president of the board because of the accumulative voting and the MC always ran the meetings,
until the MC told the son that he was voted out of office while he was out of the country.
We have not found anyone on that board or any owner that could confirm this. This would have been the last meeting.

So more of less your could be right, although he he knows nothing about it.
The MC does not contact him or anyone else and the CC&R's prohibit spending more than $200 without board approval.

Please don't tell me this makes the issue worse.