Help with an illegal election - condo assoc.

Welcome Kelly

Typically the owners elected to the BOD elect their officers (Pres., VP. Trea., Sec., etc. from among themselves. Them bouncing positions back and forth could be proper as long as they were still members of the BOD

There might be a question if a member of the BOD loses ownership status during his term if he is off the BOD at that time and/or for how long. That aside, the former Pres. may have never lost ownership during the process even if he did not live there for a period of time.

You have several options. Call a special meeting, call a special election, recall all or some BOD Members, etc. How to do so will be in your Covenants and/or Bylaws. To do any of these things is often a long, involved, cross the T's and dot the I's procedures. The procedures are often unsuccessful and may end up in court.

Now how to get rid of the bysterds.....LOL

My suggestion would be to line up support among fellow owners to replace all or several BOD Members at election time. If it is as bad as you say, you should have no issues lining enough support. I can assure you this will be the easiest and least complicated method to take control. It may take more then one election cycle to take control, but it can be done.

As part of the "takeover planning" be sure you read and know all Covenants (Deed Restrictions), Bylaws, Rules & Regulations. You will be playing the game under those rules. You must follow them to the letter. Become familiar with Quorums, Proxies, Ballots, Nominating procedures, etc.

Want to show you them are serious? Form an Owners Election Committee from among other owners. Collect a few bucks for expenses. Have Covenant and Bylaw reading/education meetings. Invite any sympathetic BOD Members to join and attend the meetings. Have an attorney come in and explain the election procedure. This may well scare them into realizing you are for real and they might well become more open to your suggestions as a peace offering. The offering can always be rejected.

Now if your association is still under developer control then disregard all I say, lean over and accept the pain.

Hope I helped.

For now, KellyM, per Tim, make sure you understand your HOA's governing concerning the qualifications to to be a candidate for the board. and the qualifications to continue serving on the Board. If nothing is written, it could be that anyone can serve on your Board. As Tim points out, though there may be something in LA's laws. Is this director's re-election what you believe is based on fraud??

And are you saying that the HOA members elected the directors AND the officers at the Feb. meeting?

I think you need more info about your HOA, KellyM. Then, if your suspicions are well-founded, you can think about some of the solutions that John46 offers.

With my specific HOA, anyone can serve on the BOD - does not have to be an owner. Read your bi-laws, its a boring, necessary evil. I'll bet they allow anyone to serve. Just a guess.

Oh, by the way, Kelly, you also need to read about minutes in your state. In CA, HOA meeting minutes must be provided to owners upon owner's request 30 days after the relevant meeting. If the minutes haven't yet been approved by the Board,
they should be stamped "DRAFT." In our case, minutes are posted the day after approval in a secure area on our web site for any owner to view.

Your own documents or state laws also should tell you if your HOA must send the budget to owners annually (as in CA) or if there's some other way to see those materials.

Thank you all for your responses. regarding Board membership, our ByLaws state "At the initial meeting the voting members shall elect a Board consisting of not more than 7 members elected by the voting members....Members of the Board elected at the initial meeting shall served until the first annual meeting. At the first annual meeting, and at each successive annual meeting thereafter, members of the Board shall be elected for a term of one (1) year." There is nothing that states non members can serve on the Board.

The president did lose ownership of his property in July of 2013. He was able to live there until January when the eviction took place. With all of the foreclosures in the country, this is not an unusual time frame.

JoK2 - I did try to attend the meeting and they changed the date. It happened twice in a row last year, so I quit trying. Our by-laws state ...each year on or before December 1st, the Board shall estimate the total amount necessary to pay for expenses for the upcoming year...and shall on or before December 15th notify each Unit Owner in writing as to the amount of such estimate, with reasonable itemization thereof....the Board shall supply to all Unit Owners an itemized accounting of the maintenance expenses for the preceding year actually incurred and paid, together with a tabulation of the amounts collected pursuant to the estimates provided and showing the net amount over or short of the actual expenditures plus reserves....
There is no provision for sending minutes out but I have asked for them and the annual docs in writing and have gotten nothing. Actually, I sent a certified mail request and the President did not sign for it.

BellaM2 - Our Association is small, 50 members. 22 of the units are owned by one person/entity who really doesn't participate in this small town party! He actually did not receive any voting docs this year...kinda convenient! This year we have 7 board members but not 7 official positions. President, Vice, Secretary/Treasurer/Administrator, Property manager. I know a 5th member is needed for voting purposes but not sure why 7 have to be on the board. 7 members is our limit not a requirement. We have no attorney, to my knowledge. It's all a bit too casual.

CarolR11 - not sure what our state requires yet but am researching it. What is also not in the bylaws but is a no-brainer to me, is that we do not get mailed a copy of our insurance policies. To me, that is a given that should not need to be requested. And, there was only 7 members present and 5 proxies. I was not in attendance as my notice of the meeting was not attached to my nomination form and proxy form that was stuck in my door, which is another violation - we are hand delivery or mail.

The fraud, IMO is that a non member continued to serve on the board, was nominated and voted in for the 2014 year, and per the January minutes, the board decided to elect the officers at the February meeting since the non member would be back in residence by then.

sheesh.....this is such tedious stuff!!

Kelly

Kelly,

Based on what you provided, and I am not an attorney nor do I work in the legal profession, the individual was allowed to continue to serve (as there was nothing requiring them to resign) and the individual was permitted to run and, if elected, serve another term (as there are no qualification factors preventing this from happening).

I understand what you are saying and believe should be the case for serving on an Associations board. I personally agree (to a point) with you that non-members should not be allowed to serve on the Board. Unfortunately, your governing documents (just like my governing documents) do not support that belief. The way to counter anyone from doing this is to make the issue known at the meeting when the election is taking place or gather support from the membership and recall the individual. The better option would be to gather support and amend the documents to create such qualifications.

I would like to clarify why I said "to a point" with my agreement. I was attempting to place qualifiers within our governing documents and in the process of going door to door to gather support I had an interesting conversation with a couple. They did not support the proposal and the reason why was simple. They were on their second marriage and chose not to put the spouse on the deed to the house as they wanted premarital assets to go on to their children by their previous marriages. Since membership was defined as who's name was on the deed, such a proposal would prevent the spouse from running for or serving on the Board. I actually agreed with them and quit pursuing that amendment proposal.

I've been thinking about this. Two things:

One) I am a licensed real estate broker and am familiar with foreclosures. How is it that he moved back in? that would lead me to believe he worked out a deal and never foreclosed (retaining ownership the entire time making your point moot) or he's a squatter. You should write down his address and go to your local government and pull tax and/or assessment records. If it truly foreclosed the bank will be listed as the owner. Those records are public record, just walk in and ask - simple. I'd love to know more about that part.

Two) if he got voted in, perhaps it is legal. If the vote counts, then the vote stands... you folks could vote a monkey on the BOD and it would be legal. Right?

Depending who you ask, some might say that this is how I was able to be elected to the Board

I am not sure how he moved back in. The property went to sheriff's sale in July 2013 and I have a copy of that sale. I am a title company notary and a licensed title insurance agent and have access to those records. A realtor sign went up on the property and was gone within a week. This property was not ever listed in the MLS either. It is curious.

Overall, the board does like its privacy. One long term member gets to do all of the maintenance he wants without have to bid (nothing in bylaws about that either) and runs the garbage service we use.

And, hey, if the monkey owns a unit, I'm all for voting for him/her, LOLOL

I think, Kelly, that this means that the Board is comprised of 7 directors--"members" of the Board. I don't belied it means directors must be members (owners) of your HOA. "At the initial meeting the voting members shall elect a Board consisting of not more than 7 members elected by the voting members..."

Many bylaws such as ours here and Tim's are silent about directors needing to be owners (or not) is because for some period of time when th HOA is new, the developer and non-owners, perhaps from his staff, comprise the original board. Once the developer turns over the HOA to strictly homeowners (""homeowner control"), the "developer language" in the governing documents should be removed. Boar drag their heels on this due to possible attorny's fees and the cost of mailing ballots.

But have your reviewed your other governing docs too, Kelly? What you're looking for may be buried in a odd place.

I read that to mean the number of seats on the Board.

Janet

Not to disagree but for conversation sake. At least 3 of us read it to say the BOD will have 7 members be they owners or not. Personally I disagree with non owners being on the BOD, but another subject.

You read it to say the 7 must be association members thus owners to be on the BOD.

Not saying any of us are right but in a dispute, I smell attorney billable hours. Bad for us all.

LOL John … I love a good debate or discussion.

KellyM7 stated … “our ByLaws state "At the initial meeting the voting members shall elect a Board consisting of not more than 7 members elected by the voting members....."

The question:

Who is considered voting members? In most states the member in an association is the individual who owns any property pursuant to the County Records and they have X number of votes based on the number of properties owned and governing documents. The voting member can allow a “proxy” of their choice to cast a vote … but they are still the member not the proxy. In most states only the members or their proxy are allowed to attend the association meetings.

I would bet if KellyM7 checks the County Records the individual elected most likely owns the property, so I do not smell attorney billable hours … which I agree is bad for anyone and to be avoided if at all possible.

You would need to go back to the CCRs and/or Bylaws and look at the associations definition of a Voting Member. These are described in the first part of the CCRs. The words are then used throughout the governing documents in lieu of the definition.

"Voting Member" has a definition in your CCRs.