Board calling special meeting with only 5 days notice--Need help with Davis-Stirling

Tamara,

It's not clear if the special meeting is a meeting of the membership or simply a meeting of the Board.

If it's a meeting of the Board, then all that is required is a 48 hr notice to the directors and a 4 day notice to the membership. See: Board Meeting NOTICE TO Members from davis-stirling and NOTICE TO Directors, also from davis-stirling. Keep in mind, if your governing documents require more notice than this, the statutes defer to the governing documents.

If it's a meeting of the membership, then a 10 day notice is required providing the membership is not voting on anything. If ballots are being used, then a 30 day notice is required. See Special Membership Meetings from davis-stirling.

So, if it's a Board Meeting, then the 5 day notice complies with the statutes. However, it may or may not comply with your governing documents.

If it's a general membership meeting, then 5 day notice is not enough time.

Personal opinion, based on what you provided, I believe that it's a notice for a special meeting of the Board of Directors.

Thank you both for such quick and detailed responses.

This is what our documents say regarding a Notice of Special Assessment:

"Upon the imposition of a Special Assessment or an increase in a Special Assessment, in compliance with Civil Code section 1366(d) notice shall be sent by first class mail to each Owner not less than thirty (30) days and not more than sixty (60) days prior to the due date of the Special Assessment."

The purpose of this particular meeting is solely to discuss a potential increase in HOA dues as well as an assessment for the management company expenses.

I believe that you are misinterpreting that section.

In reading the statute referenced Civil Code 1366(d) (now Civ. Code §5615) which states that prior to the special assessment becoming due (it had already been approved) the Association is to give a notice of not less then 30 days nor more than 60 days.

In other words, the Association can't send you a demand letter saying pay by next Monday. They must give you at lest 30 days and no more than 60 days before they tell you the money is due.

The process of deciding to have a special assessment or not is based on what Kerry told you. Membership approval is only needed if a special assessment of more than 5% of your annual expenses. Otherwise, the Board may impose the special assessment without membership approval. See Civ. Code §5605(b)

Based on the notice provided, I suspect your Board is simply seeking membership feedback on imposing a special assessment of 5% or less. The final decision is up to the Board.

Ahhhh....okay. You all are absolutely correct. I did indeed misinterpret well...pretty much everything! (insert sheepish grin) I think part of the problem for us is the Board is pretty bad in that the meeting minutes generally have errors or omit important details to items being discussed. They then forget the details from the previous meeting so asking questions or seeking corrections is futile. Unless one can attend a meeting in person, it's pretty much impossible to find out what's really going on. For instance, the Board has been trying to hire a management company for a year but we aren't sure why. They also only hold the meetings on Mondays despite the fact all of them have flexible schedules and some of the residents have work that prevent them from being able to attend. If we seek clarification or have questions we are brushed off and told we should have attended the meeting.

If this were a large complex with many units, I can understand, but we only have 10 units!


The Board has decided to hire a management company for a couple of reasons. Getting anyone to serve on the Board is like pulling teeth and so is getting full Board attendance.

Projects keep getting deferred and will sometimes stay on the agenda for over a year simply because the Board cannot figure out how to proceed with something. I'm embarrassed to admit I was on the Board for 8 years and finally had to take a break from the nonsense this time around and misinterpreted our rules because in the 10 years I have been a resident, there has never been a special meeting nor has there been an assessment.

Having a management company will ensure our meeting minutes are correct, projects get done, as well as keep the egos of the Board members in check. We already pay $350/month in dues despite having only 10 units with minimal landscaping requirements and a healthy reserve in order to handle the larger tasks when needed.

Thanks again to all of you for taking the time to address my question as well as setting me straight!

I think you answered your own question.

Since you have served on your Board (and thank you for doing that), you are aware of the time and energy required to do the job properly. I suspect that with only 10 units, everyone is just burned out and they are looking for some way to reduce the work load required of the Board.

For example: 10 units, 2 adults per unit = 20 possible volunteers. However, with not wanting two members from the same household to serve on the Board at the same time, this equals 10 potential volunteers each year to serve.

So, with a 3 member board (which is typically the minimum requirements), and lets say one year terms, someone from each unit needs to serve at least once every 3 years.

Per your posting, you last served 8 years ago. Looks like your turn has come around again.

True. It depends on the individual PM assigned by the MC to your complex, the terms of the contract and the willingness of the individuals serving on the Board to learn. If you get an inexperienced PM, the Board may be misguided. Even with an experienced PM, they work for the Board and it's still the Boards job to make the decisions. A good Board will utilize the expertise of the MC as a resource but also do their own research into the various issues of the Association.

Not sure about California, but the following is from a Florida attorney with regard to Florida Association law-

Legally, all that is required to be reflected in the minutes is the date, time and place of the meeting, when it was called to order, the directors in attendance to establish the quorum, proof of proper notice, motions made and by whom, motion seconded and by whom, vote on the motion by roll call and time of adjournment. There is no requirement to reflect the nature of any discussion on the motion by directors or members in attendance.

Interesting information, everyone. I think the Board is expecting unicorns and flowers when the management company takes over. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Thanks again for all of your great information!

Tamara

How have they been doing it wrong? Please explain your statement/reasoning.

Thanks

Tamara says that it was called as a special meeting. The meeting concerns one specific agenda item , which qualifies it as a special meeting. So it sounds like a special meeting to me, and that would be the 35 day notice. Perhaps your board could use the trick my board uses; they don't have meetings. They haven't had a board meetiing in 18 months. Eliminates the need for minutes completely! The board still exists, and it is very proud of its fine work. Also, we have a management company that handles maintenance. They takes pains not to get involved in enforcing Davis-Stirling rules, or enforcing the requirements for meetings or minutes. So having a management company does not help there.

I will review and let you know when I have a bit more time!

$1,200/mo for an MC sounds like a hella lot when you only have 10 units! what would th company do that offers services for $300/mo?

I'll try to be specific about your dues. How much per month (or year) is your HOA contributing to reserves? an annual budget is required to be sent out to Owners, and that amount will be listed in your budget.

What is the total value of the components in your reserves study? With such a small HOA, you may not have many components (items).