Taking over disorganized HOA

First you need to identify the issues. It could be that enforcement of covenants/rules are only one issue.

Once you identify the issues, prioritize them. You only have so much time and one issue may take a lot of it while another may simply require a letter.

As for enforcement, we had a similar issue in our Association (however the architectural committee handled the initial enforcement). This is how we handled it:

1) Got our records in order. - This required organization, and a summary for each lot of what had been approved and what was not approved.

2) Searched other association records for approvals/disapprovals - Our Architectural Committee used to be very lax in keeping minutes and often gave verbal approvals. Therefore, we went through every set of minutes of the board. We looked for reports by the committee to see if they mentioned any approvals or disapprovals. This allowed us to have records that were the best we could make them from Association records.

3) We inspected the entire community and identified every change to each property.

4) We then correlated the inspection results with our now organized records.

5) For items that were changed and no approval was on file we asked ourselves if the change would have been approved or not.

If the change would have been approved, we sent a memorandum of approval to the owner(and a copy to the files) stating what the change was, the fact that we had no approval on file but since it likely would have been approved, this memorandum of approval has been placed in Association records.

If the change would not have been approved, we sent a letter noting that the association had no record of approval on file and asked that the owner please provide a copy or bring the change into compliance.

6) As for rule violations (like parking), we did something similar. We did an inspection of the development and identified all the rules that were broken. Knowing that we had to enforce equally (vs. selectively) we then identified what rules were being broken by a majority of the residents. We then proposed amendments to the rules (why tick off a majority of the owners when it makes more sense to change the rules).

7) For those rules that did not have a majority of violators, we started enforcing the rules as written.

To complete the above, we had a committee of 4 people and it took us a year to complete steps 1 though 6. We started enforcing the rule (step 7) in year 2.

By being on the board and having to be the enforcement arm of the Association, I hope you have a whole lot of time available. Simply serving on the Board takes time. The additional duties of any office takes more time. Dealing with unexpected issues takes even more time. What time you have left will be what you can expend toward the list of issues I suggested you make at the beginning of this thread.

I wish you luck and I hope this helps,

Tim

Thanks.

First off, there are absolutely no records kept. Zero. The ex-president hasn't even turned over the security room key, storage room keys, etc. even though I specifically asked for handover of all the items (somethings might've been lost in translation). Imagine a 50s something immigrant who speaks no English running the HOA, by himself. I'm actually an attorney, so all this is like being transported back to the medieval ages where anything goes. The ex-pres was completely incompetent, if not willingly negligent in how he conducted business.

I looked through the California statute (David-Stirling) and am somewhat familiar with it now. About the only thing the tenant did right was ask for permission beforehand. But there's no record of anything. I asked the tenant with the EV port whether he had the million dollar insurance. He doesn't. So, he probably just hired a random person to install the 220v outlet. I'm very afraid that he didn't even get a contractor who was licensed -- which is about par for the course in this area. Same for getting any sort of permit with the city.

If the person didn't follow any of these rules, will I need to have the installation ripped out and redone? I do want to make this easy for him and not waste money, if possible.

Doesn't the HOA still need to bring this to the city/county's attention? The tenant will not be ratting himself out to the city for failing to get a permit.

What happens when the city asks to "bring it up to code"? Doesn't the HOA still need to get involved because this affects a common use area, i.e., the garage (we have a parking lot structure and the 220v outlet was installed there)?

The outlet is wired to an Association meter so there's no way to measure the actual charging usage. The tenant and our management company somehow agreed to price the usage based on a previous baseline electric usage versus current usage. This seems incredibly flawed and risks charging the guy too much or too little. I checked our monthly electric bills from the management company, and the electric usage is surprisingly consistent month over month, so it might actually work.

The station is simply a 220v outlet.

I'm not familiar at all with city codes governing electric outlets... but would it be possible that this 220v installation might conform to code? Or is not getting a permit a violation itself?

Here is some info that may be helpful on the subject:

Plug‐In Electric Vehicle Readiness FAQs from Southern CA Edison

Why Nearly Half of Americans Can’t Charge an Electric Vehicle at Home.Apartments and condos are the next charging frontier. Sales article but shows an option concerning the billing issue.

Free EV Chargers for Multifamily Buildings the California Energy Commission is funding this initiative. ChargePoint, the leading provider of EV charging services, is administering this project as part of its MultiCharge San Diego initiative (started in 2013 but may still be applicable)

Plug-in Electric Vehicle Charging Guide for Property Owners, Managers, HOAs and Multi-unit Dwellings At the end of the guide it has a lot of resources for CA

Hope this helps,

Tim

Just checked the Los Angeles codes. We do need a permit for this.