In need of a shake up in Texas

I tend to believe that folks who run for HOA Directors positions do so because they truly wish to improve the community.

That being said I've observed what I consider to be a number of problems with the running of our HOA. We a a subdivision with just over 230 residences in the Houston area.

The HOA passed from developer control to community control a few years ago. According to the enabling documents, the BOD is comprised of three individuals. Earlier this year one of the BOD resigned leaving a vacancy. The governing docs specify that in the event of a vacancy the board "Shall" appoint a replacement to serve out the remainder of the term. The terms are for 2 years and end this month.

As required, the management company sent out a notice to all members announcing an annual general meeting and that one of the purposes of the meeting would be to elect two Directors - the included ballot listed the current directors who are apparently running for re-election. I wrote a letter to the management company asking who had been appointed to serve out the remainder of the resigned directors term and pointed out that the word "shall" in the governing document is a directive and requires an appointment. I also pointed out that the governing docs require three directors and asked why the ballot only specified the two incumbents. I received no response to my letter. The annual meeting is this evening (Nov 10, 2014).

A little history here - for the past few months, I have written a number of letters to the management company requesting information about the operation of the HOA. Specifically, the HOA owns three small parcels of land in the subdivision. There is also a very large area called the lake that is a detention pond and I discovered that it is actually owned by the Municipal Utility District, but that the HOA is maintaining the area, cutting the grass, planting trees.

Last year our cost for landscaping and grass cutting jumped 100% from around $24k to over $50k with a new contract. I specifically asked the management company for information concerning any agreement made between the HOA and the MUD to maintain that area. I also asked if our annual liability insurance coverage covers the Municipal Utility District property as the amount seems very high (around $3,000 per year) considering the fact that the HOA only owns 3 small areas one of which is a small park with childrens swings and benches. Our governing docs provide for maintenance of the detention area - but the area was transferred from the developer to the Municipal Utility District two years after the governing docs were enacted.

I also requested information as to the makeup of the Architectural Control Committee and the Nominating Committee, I also questioned why some recently enacted Architectural Guidelines were not canvassed with the HOA membership prior to their enactment, whether any consideration was made to grandfathering pre-existing conditions.

All of my letters were received by the management company which has not responded to any of them. I sent a final letter to the CEO of the management company and subsequently received an email from a VP who asked for my phone number so we could discuss things. I politely responded that I would prefer a written communication as I had found telephone conversations could be misinterpreted. There has been no written response.

The management company is one of the largest in the nation, and I suspect that they do not wish to disclose that they are also the insurance provider (the company has an insurance arm. Our accounts are apparently held in a bank in California and not locally. Doing a little research I found out that the CEO of the parent company is a director of the California bank.

I suspect that the ACC and the Nominating Committee is solely comprised of the two directors who are running for office - which although not violating the governing doc, is certainly not transparent. The governing docs actually state that directors can be on those committees but they also require at least 3 members.

I also believe that the CCR's need to be amended to reflect the new make up of the community, they were originally intended for the developer and now control has passed there needs to be more directors and more accountability and transparency.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the meeting tonight will probably not give me any answers as each member has been limited to a 3 minute session after the election. I do however intend to offer myself as a candidate to the board, I intend to announce that I will serve no more than 2 terms as I am a firm believer in term limitations.

I guess I'm not really asking for advise - just venting.

Nigel,

I know the forum discussed your CC&Rs in your earlier thread.

You may want to send your requests directly to the Board. Include in there that you made a request to the management company earlier. In the future, you may also want to always be willing to discuss things over the phone. To document the phone call, you can always mail (e-mail) a letter stating what you understood from the conversation. For Example: Mr/Mrs abc, I wanted to thank you for the time you took to discuss my request in our phone conversation of mm/dd/yyyy around hh:mm. From that conversation, I understand the following:
. . . If I have misunderstood anything, please respond to me at the following address.

As Shelia said, now the hard work begins.

Nigel,

Glad to hear you are on the Board. Unfortunately, the work does get harder. My advice is to not try and correct everything at once. Pick one or two things and work on correcting them.

Unless you have membership involvement, the Board typically serves as various committees as well. Our nominating committee was the entire Board asking whomever they thought would be good to run.

It's good for you to know that your initial request was forwarded to the Board. This shows that the MC is likely doing their job and involving the Board.

As for learning, start with your governing documents and then move on to the Statutes.

Hope this helps,

Tim