Annual Elections & No Quorum

I live in a 74 unit townhome community in GA, non profit status. The recent annual meeting had no quorum, so there was no election. It was re-scheduled, but noone in the community was notified by the management company. It seems only the board was there and conducted business. The only reason I know is because my neighbor's wife is on the board and he told me. Now, there hasn't been any mention of setting another meeting or even asking if any residents would be interested in joining the board. The current treasurer has served a continuous term for the last 4 years even though there are term limits, and the president is the worst, but won't seem to leave either. There weren't even any minutes posted for the last annual meeting. There are a few homeowners who are interested in being on the board, but we need to get the pres. and treasurer off first and start fresh.

Last week the water in our community was shut off by the county for non payment. The management company needs to be fired, as they will not even answer an email explaining why the water was turned off.

There are alot of other problems on the property and we also need an audit. We have a bad board pres. and management company. Is our only recourse an attorney at this point? I don't see anywhere in the state of Georgia where violations can be reported. If anyone has a suggestion, I would welcome anything at this point. Thank you.

Hi: Thanks for your reply. From reading our docs, it looks like we need to go door to door with a petition. This community unfortunately is apathetic and noone shows up for meetings. There is only a handful of us who are willing to step up and get involved.

Special Meetings:

Special meetings of the members may be called for any purpose at any time by the pres. or secretary, by request of any member of the board or upon written petition of owners holding at least 1/3 of the total association vote.

Term limits:

At the first election of directors of the assn. following the expiration or termination of declarant's right to appoint directors hereunder, the two directors receiving the most votes shall be elected for the term of two years and the remaining three directors elected shall have a term of one year. At the expiration of the term of office of each board member, and at each annual meeting thereafter, a successor shall be elected to serve for a term of two years. The board members shall hold office until their respective successors shall have been elected by the assn.

Removal of memeber of the board of directors:

At any regular or special meeting of the assn. duly called, any one or more board members, except for directors appointed by declarant hereunder, may be removed with or without cause by a majority of the members of the assn. and a successor may then and ther be elected to fill the vacancy thus created. Any director whose removal has been proposed shall be given at least 10 days notice of the calling of the meeting to consider his or her removal and the purpose thereof and shall be given an opportunity to be heard at the meeting.

Tina,

I know that some of this has been discussed in your earlier threads about the issue:

Subject: Common area water and Subject: Water Billing

I do have a few comments about your recent posting:


The MC may or may not need to be fired. However, they are typically not the problem. The problem would be your Board. The MC works for the Board and, typically, at the direction of the Board. I get the impression from your posting that you know this.


However, the questions you bring up are:


My suggestion is to take a breath and work on one issue at a time.

It appears that there are several issues and questions:

1) Is (was) there enough money to pay the water bill?

There are several reasons why bills weren't paid from too many delinquent accounts to wasteful spending to embezzlement. The reality is that you likely won't know the reason until you and others get on the Board to have full access to all the records (if they exist). It can be a rally cry to oust the existing Board but, to be honest, is something that needs to wait until the Board is changed.

2) Poor decisions made by the Board.

As you stated, it appears that the Board needs to be replaced. This is done by recalling or simply not reelecting. With the water turned off, it may be easier to gather support for a recall. Recalls are done by petitioning the Board for a special meeting of the membership to recall and, if successful, to elect new board members. Although the site is for CA associations, Davis sterling's site has a good example of a petition. See:

http://www.davis-stirling.com/tabid/1866/Default.aspx#axzz3PqCSiznB

Just be sure to verify the percentage of signatures needed (always collect more than needed) and change the references to applicable laws.

3) Management Company

Someone will need to review the contract for the MC. It's highly possible that the MC will be servicing your Association until the contract runs out. Of course, who gets a new contract or if the existing contract is renewed is a decision of the Board. Therefore, ignore this issue until the Board is replaced.

4) Reporting of Violations

Violations of governing documents or applicable civil laws are typically resolved internally within the Association. The best way to resolve violations is to replace the Board with those who are willing to comply with the governing documents and applicable laws. The hardest way is to take the issue through the courts.

My suggestion is to deal with issue 2. Gather support and get a new Board either though recalls or by not reelecting. Keep in mind that you will likely find additional issues once you are on the Board (I know I did). Those additional issues may need to be addressed prior to the issues you already know about. So whomever is elected to the Board is going to have to put in a lot of hours and hard work - be prepared for that.

Hope this helps,

Tim

Hi Tim - thanks for your reply. Yes, there are multiple problems here, starting from when the builder turned over the property. I was on the original board and the current pres. and treasurer I served with at the time. This was four years ago. Regarding the water billing, I am sure that there is enough money in the operating fund to cover the bill, I have seen the recent financials they post online, and hopefully they are true and correct. There are not a lot of foreclosures here, if any at this time. Our common area water has always been paid out of the operating fund. The billing company we pay our individual water to even has on it's own website in their company's FAQ section that they do not bill for common area water, only personal usage, yet they are doing it to us. No one at the MC will answer this question, have been trying for 2 years to unravel this. I will also petition for an audit to be done. In the beginning, the treasurer gave full control of the assn. checkbook to the property manager and come to find out, also someone employed by the builder. The builder owned the mgmt. company also. Nobody on the board was a bank signer. Hopefully we can clean house quickly and get a new board. Thank you all for your input.