Should I join him?

A lot of you know that I have a nonfunctioning HOA. Evidently the president sucks, BUT he's been in the president seat forever. And although he's not doing what he should, I bet he knows what he's SUPPOSE to do. When we finally form a new board, do we leave him on and use his knowledge or kick him to the curb for allowing a defunct community?

In meetings, do y'all really go through all the "second that" "carried" type stuff? What about there's only a couple people in the room?

Do you recommend a class? There just seems like SO much stuff, how does one not make 10 million mistakes?

The CC&Rs are crazy when you really get into them. I swear it says something in one sentence, then there's a semi colon and then it takes back every it just said. They also weren't written for my community, but for all communities in general. Has anyone ever gotten them re-written? I saw a lawyer that will make our CC&Rs Davis-stirling compliant and will reword it so it makes sense to EVERYONE. Being that we are going to be all n00bs on the board, would you recommend this service?

California is one of those states that goes by Davis-Sterling. Not every state or HOA does that. Robert Rules of order is indeed a FORM of meeting but NOT an requirement. It's more or less a guideline on how best to conduct a meeting. There are several other methods and your documents might even tell you what/how needs to be covered. Our Articles of Incorporation dictated what must be covered in each meeting and the duties of each officer. It's NOT all in your CC&R's.

As for rewriting your documents, I have gone through that. It's all dictated on how that is to be done and the vote needed to pass the changes. It will take a lawyer to help draft. It is also NOT cheap as it cost to file those documents besides hiring the lawyer to redline/file them. There are also costs involved in making copies after the rules have been changed and other processing costs. It cost us about 3K and 3 years of hard work to change ours. It at first required a special meeting and a 90% vote of ALL the members to change the CC&R's. It was a 75% vote of the ALL the members to change the by-laws and Articles of Incorporation. We were able to get out of the special meeting requirement which helped us gather votes door to door or at the regular meeting.

It is good to keep a former person so familiar with the HOA on good terms. When I stepped down, I stayed as a board member. That way I still had some voting rights and could give guidance to the new board. I no longer lived there but my house was rental. So I still had an interest in participating and had knowledge of much of the history for decisions. Don't throw the baby out because of the dirty bath water...

Actually, I'm not even considering him at all. Whatever is best for the community is the way I'm going to roll. He could of caused me to lose my house. It STILL could happen. So no, I don't feel bad about using him to the extent of what I'm allowed for the betterment of everyone, even HIM. If using him only includes letting him keep on keepin' on.... I'll be cool with that at the pearly gates.

Pretty sure he's not allowed to be President, vice-president, secretary and treasurer all at the same time. Corporations are not allowed to function that way. All business activity is to stop until it's fixed.

Just because it continues on, doesn't make it legal.

California:

Board Required. Corporations are required to have a board of directors:

Without a board, a corporation cannot conduct business, which means insurance coverage will lapse, maintenance ceases, rules enforcement ends, the association's corporate status lapses and lawsuits cannot be answered. This exposes each owner to potential liability. Resignations by all directors without appointing replacements may also be a breach of the resigning directors' fiduciary duties.

Management Companies. Managers are agents of the association and have no independent authority to oversee associations. Managers can try to persuade owners to volunteer, but managers have no authority to appoint directors. Without a board, the management company should immediately resign the account.

Receivers. If necessary, courts can appoint a receiver to oversee an association.

Less Than a Quorum. If the bylaws call for five directors but only one is willing to serve, that one director cannot conduct any business except to appoint additional directors. Once a quorum of directors has been appointed, the board may then conduct business. If the remaining directors fail or refuse to appoint directors to fill empty seats, the membership can call a special meeting to elect new directors.

Read more: Board Required http://www.davis-stirling.com/MainIndex/LosingEntireBoards/tabid/1365/Default.aspx#ixzz2rFX6Bd00
from Davis-Stirling.com by Adams Kessler PLC.

"Management Companies. Managers are agents of the association and have no independent authority to oversee associations. Managers can try to persuade owners to volunteer, but managers have no authority to appoint directors. Without a board, the management company should immediately resign the account."

A short story. In July of 2013, I went to work for a management company as a portfolio manager. On July 19th, I was handed 19 accounts after they fired one of their managers. During the next two weeks, I tried contacting the Boards of record of these 19 associations. I found out half didn't have Boards, three just conducted "illegal" elections. When I contacted the owners of the company, I was told we can't afford to lose any accounts and look the other way.

Thirty minutes later, I went out the same door I came in and didn't look back. Three days later, I started my own company.

There is a correct way to operate in this business and it isn't as difficult as people want to make it.

Renee,

When I had my issue with my Association I discovered that the issue was, in reality, one person on the Board. Even though I provided copies of State Statutes that backed my position, the Board wouldn't budge on their position.

Once that one individual finally chose not to run again, the Board approached me and said that the my position was correct and the Board would no longer take the position they had been taking. What I found out later was, since this person had served on the Board for 18 years, everyone expected that he knew what he was doing and when he spoke nobody challenged him. Problem was, since he had served so long, he quit looking at the applicable laws, which change every year.

The fact that he wasn't keeping up to date and the fact that nobody would challenge what he said (after all he had served for 18 years he must know what should be done), issues that could have been avoided became the focus of most meetings.

What I'm saying is that if your individual isn't re-elected, it very well could be the best thing that happens to your Association.