Constant complaints by one owner especially & two friend owner's

I went back to read my past requests for help...now realize it has been a very long time since I have written! A brief review... I resigned as Treasurer from our board in 2007 due to suspected financial wrong doing by our PManager. Other board members had closed eyes and believed that those owners suspecting trouble were just troublemakers harassing the board. I & one other began to believe after two very suspicious incidents but the president & two board members were in total denial & refused to even look into the possibility of wrong doing. I resigned & subsequently the other bd member resigned. Soon after, an owner hired a condo attorney & filed suit on the board for the financial records. Management had told the board the records were given to the owner & the remaining board believed,ignoring the owner & left the lawsuit up to management. No one attended the final hearing and the board defaulted! Even then it took 3 months for them to see the writing on the wall & fire the PM. They then hired a new PM & hired a new attorney who filed suit on the PM. So many details but suffice to say a new board was placed...a new attorney took over the lawsuit and sometime later it was settled out of court with that request coming from the PM's attorney. We could prove many, many errors in financial records but legal expenses without a "smoking gun" suggested it was best to settle. I should write a book on the naivety of board members!

To this day, the past President has assumed no responsibility. The new board settled with the new PM letting them go (too large & no feeling for our financial situation) and took over the management of the 52 unit complex. They then saved the community at minimum $50,000 by finding a different contractor to repair a 100' failure of a gravel road leading to our clubhouse. The quotes offered by the large PM hired by previous board, amounted to that much more, than subsequently was paid to repair the road.

So much more...a little of the goings on are in previous posts. In late September we had a major fire in our largest building. One elderly owner died 3 weeks later due to smoke inhalation...very sad. 12 owners are living in apartments off site until repairs are completed...an entire new roof and 6 units mostly gutted. The fire was caused by a grease fire on the stove..an accident of one of the owners. We are slowly becoming experts dealing with insurance... thankfully we were well cov'd... but the details have placed us on a steep learning curve. And we still have a long way to go...finish date may be late summer!

Now to my question! This past President and a couple of her friends have made it their goal in life to complain about this board sending emails about anything & everything. They have been against self management from the get go... No board is perfect but the mistakes made have been minor... mostly concerning landscaping. My husband was appointed to the board when a member was transferred out of town & then elected twice. This last election had two bd members running again including my husband. And the past President ran...we were shocked when she was nominated by a friend. She received only 6 votes! And the previous bd members were re-elected.

This board has tried their best to accommodate her when complaints are legitimate. But mostly they are just requests resulting from her animosity to self management. There is no doubt that the board carries animosity also because of her lack of humility in accepting responsibility which resulted in two lawsuits. So when these frivolous long complaints arrive in our email, the board says...do not respond. I am a past Realtor of 40 years and dealing with irate situations always required a response, part of the job and handled with respect...have managed to talk them into response on occasions. At present we have three e-mails no one has responded to...this last one concerns snow removal. She expects these snow people to shovel between the cars...if a space is vacant they do that area but we do not pay them to be that detailed. As it is this year snow removal will eat into our budget! I have checked with friends in other complexes and we all have that problem.

If possible, I would like you all to respond with thoughts about the boards responsibility in answering these constant e-mails. I will then pass your response on to my husband and the board.

Thank you for reading my very long e-mail. Ann

Tim,
Thank you, thank you...an excellent reply! I will pass it on to the board. Truly appreciate your example's of a possible response.

Ann

Due to the risk of damaging cars, the contractor will not shovel between the cars. No action taken.

Ann, would it help if your Board prez wrote to this owner and stated that no directors will reply to her emails? And that in future, per Steve, all of her inquiries should be sent to your PM by US mail to be dealt with at the next open Board meeting (or some such language) or by the PM if appropriate.

There is NO need for all of you to change your email addresses! Don't let this woman bully you!

I too was a realtor for several years a couple of different times. There's no comparison to that occupation, for which I was paid, and my current work as a 7-year volunteer on my HOA's board. No one would serve on our board if they were expected to reply to individual homeowner's emails in our high rise of 200+ units. That's one reason we have a PM.