Horrible HOA with a vengeful President

We are having several issues with both our HOA and Management company in our neighborhood. It is not just my husband and I, but rather the entire neighborhood. We are frustrated. It was tossed around to disband the HOA, but we can not because of the land that is owned by the HOA, and the city will not purchase it. Our largest problem is with our HOA President.

We have not had the opportunity to see the budget (they posted it for a week on the website and then took it down), vote for the board (although they are telling us we did), we were charged a "special assessment" for a ditch project that never occurred two years ago, and have been kicked out of meetings as a neighborhood (they went into an "executive session"). They will not let us speak in meetings, they have been so rude when we post something on facebook - or delete our comments, and will not return any emails.

We have an ARC that is made up of the President of the board - which we found out Tuesday night - before that they would not tell us who was the ARC (Architectural Review Committee). And then we found out she "appointed" a new resident who moved into a house one month ago onto the committee. So, there are only two people on the ARC who are making eroneous decisions about our neighborhood. We have now discovered that she has a vested interest because she is having a conflict with the neighbors she is fining. While we are not the people that are on their "radar", we are in this community with these neighbors and all of the bad attitudes. We are now getting a reputation as a neighborhood as a "bad" one, and that will effect our resale values.

We are just not sure what to do. A couple came to the meeting last night to try and work out the paint color issue, and they were rudely dismissed by our President (I am not kidding, she actually started yelling at them and telling them about her personal life and how she can not be bothered by them) and then she stated she did not like the color. The house I am speaking of is being built currently, and was painted by the builder with a color that SHE did not like. She put a lien on the house - yes over a paint color - so that they can not close. They were at the meeting begging for a resolution. The guy, Mr. Hansen, even said, I will go over there and paint it myself, just tell me what color you would like. She told them to submit their color preferences (which has been done three times before so far) and she has 60 days to review it and get back to them. The problem we see is the Covenents say earth tones, which is what was painted on the house technically, but the President does not like gray tones. And she should not be the only one deciding... What do we do as homeowners to help get this resolved so that we can invite these new homeowners into our neighborhood! Right now, as it stands, this couple wants to walk away from the house. Which in turn leaves it empty and well thats not good... bank owned properties do not help us!

This HOA association is really being run by a management company and ONE person in the neighborhood who simply stated in the meeting (to our horror) that they are fining people for more money and said they will not apologize for it. The management company stated that they are taking $200 from the $250 that we are required to pay for the ARC submittals for their expenses???

HELP!!!

Probably - start with reading your documents to see what they say about recalls (or at least how to call a special homeowner's meeting).

Of course, if this has been going on for a while, I'm wondering why none of you have done anything to keep this president in check - assuming everyone's frustrated with her. Why haven't all of you attended a board meeting and demand answers? That may be all that's needed to get her to straighten up and fly right if she wants to say on the board (it's one thing to yell at one person, but when everyone's coming at you, most people slow their roll.).

Just remember, if the president steps down, the remaining board will have to appoint the next one among themselves (read the documents to see how resignations are handled). If you end up tossing the entire board, you'd better have a number of people in place ready and willing to step in (and you may be one of them). Good luck!

Roger, are methods of recalling boards also in your state's codes somewhere?

The one negative thing to recalling the Board is, you actually need to have volunteers willing to step-up to be elected in their place and serve.

We have 240 homes, and 3-4 on the board? They had a list of 4 people in February, but in our meetings they have 2 of those people, plus 4 more people that act as though they are on the board. One of those just moved in two months ago?

We are trying to figure out who is actually on our board. They will not tell us, which I know sounds ridiculous! We did have a board meeting and I recruited everyone to come - they kicked us out. They stated they felt threatened. We did not do anything but sat there wanting to listen. Someone stated, "so you are the ones on the board who we did not vote for", our President stood up and said she was not going to tolerate that. We had the meeting at our town hall and they asked the police to remove everyone from the building. We stood outside as a neighborhood talking about it, until the police told us that we were being a public nuisance. We live in a town of about 2500 people, and our neighborhood is 240 households. I have contacted the management company to discuss the matter and stated we just wanted to be treated fairly as homeowners and see the budget, the covenents, declarations, etc. They then provided them on their website, only after I contacted the DA. However, as a computer guru, I discovered by comparing the original documents that we received when moving in (that are only generic and do not state any regulations) they had WHITED-OUT or deleted information for their advantage and also ADDED information to them. Then, three days later the management company changed the website and all of the documents were missing. What do we do? We are very concerned. They added into the covenents that they could decide on fines from $250 to $5000 and that was just added. We can actually see a line through an "a" where the white-out stopped.

Your first step would involve some simple math.

Out of 240 homes how many would be willing to support your efforts to remove the board.

How many people out of 240 are now willing to put their money where their mouth is?

I have to wonder just how much support the current board has within your community and how many owners out of 240 will sit this all out.

If these numbers don't add up in your favor chances are you will have a difficult time changing things.

Report your CAM to the state agency that issues licenses.

Karen,

What issue do you believe the CAM did that requires them to be reported to the State licensing Board?

From what I've read in the posting, the issues are caused by the Board, not the CAM.

In this posting, EW pointed out that they were kicked out of the meeting by the Board. Therefore, they were initially allowed access and the CAM had nothing to do with the Board telling the membership to leave.

When asking for financial records, the CAM simply said that the request had to be made to the Board. Perhaps the CAM didn't have the financial records. Perhaps the CAM was simply following the process put in place by the Board. Either way, it wasn't the CAM who denied access. The CAM simply pointed out who had to be contacted to gain access.

Karen

I think you would have a tough time selling your ideas. Lawyers in Florida have made it very clear they don't want CAM's practicing law or giving any opinion which might be interpreted as advise.