Hoa special meeting request II

I went back and looked at the previous thread to get a little more information on what's going on - did you get answers to the other questions some of the other posters brought up?

I agree it would be helpful to have a special meeting to discuss all this and I don't know why your board doesn't schedule one to clear the air - if they feel they're right, they can present what they have and then the homeowners can decide what to do next.

If there's no documentation anywhere, you may have to start at square one and come up with some policies. After 20 years, I'm sure this isn't the first time repairs have come up - do you know if there are any old timers who may have some information stored someplace. $10K divided by 10 is $1000 - not cheap, but if it's been 20 years since anything's been done, someone has to pay it (and where do you think the $10K will come from, if not the homeowners)? Have these things been listed in a reserve study - maybe the answer's in there. Did the board get more than one bid for the work? If not, would you be willing to do some research for them and bring it to a special meeting?

Finally, would the 10 homeowners be willing to split the costs with the association this time and vote on an amendment to the CCRs that will resolve this mess once and for all?

In my opinion, it's the Associations responsibility. I say this based on my own Association documents. The Board may (and has) assigned exclusive use of specified parking spaces to each lot. However, per the governing documents, it's still the Associations responsibility to maintain those spaces.

Therefore, in Jim's situation, it will likely depend on the specific language used in his Associations governing documents. Additionally, if Jim and the current Board have different interpretations on that language, it may require a third party (moderator or courts) to rule which interpretation is to be complied with, or, it may require the replacement of one of those parties (replacing the current board with a new board or Jim sells the property) so there is now agreement on the interpretation.

It's possible that they sought opinions on other things than just this one issue. If they provided what they had but redacted the other issues, it could cause the same problem, that members believe that they are hiding something.

It's also possible that they never sought a legal opinion and are trying to bluff.

It's also possible that, since legal opinions can be withheld from membership review, they are simply exercising their right to withhold those documents. I know that their are those currently sitting on my Board that would vote to withhold simply because the law allows the withholding of this info.

Since you mentioned that documentation is missing from Associations records, then it's highly possible that the opinion supports the Association but, without documentation, that opinion could not withstand a legal challenge.

The problem is, as you pointed out, there is no documentation. Therefore, you need to decide if the issue is worth enough to you (either financially or in principal) to take the issue to a third party.

BTW - have you requested the minutes of the meetings where this may have been mentioned? You obviously are not entitled to executive session minutes. However, sometimes, the open meeting minutes may give you enough information about the issue to make a good guess on what the legal opinion was.

First, if you believe that the property in question is your property and not the Associations, then you as the owner should pay for the repairs.


718.111, scroll down the page,

the following records are not accessible to unit owners:
1. Any record protected by the lawyer-client privilege as described in s. 90.502 and any record protected by the work-product privilege, including a record prepared by an association attorney or prepared at the attorney’s express direction, which reflects a mental impression, conclusion, litigation strategy, or legal theory of the attorney or the association, and which was prepared exclusively for civil or criminal litigation or for adversarial administrative proceedings, or which was prepared in anticipation of such litigation or proceedings until the conclusion of the litigation or proceedings.

FL 90.502 addresses what is considered attorney-client privileged.