Questions for Special Assessment Meeting

Hello HOA Folks,

My association has scheduled a special assessment meeting for tomorrow afternoon. We received notice of the meeting about 6 weeks ago. Since receiving notification of the meeting, I asked for board meeting minutes and a financial report to date. The BOD meetings are closed to the members. I received one set of board meeting minutes (the board meets quarterly)and that is it. One of the board members recently suffered the tragic loss of her husband so I didn't pursue the issue.

Other than reviewing the financial well-being of the association do any of you have any suggestions on what questions to ask? Hopefully there will be an opportunity for members to comment and ask questions. I have concerns that a financial report may not even be available to review at this meeting or that members will have an opportunity to speak. As I have mentioned before, there is little transparency with the current board and getting information from any of them is always a hassle.

Your comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

Oh by the way, funds are needed for repairs to the sanitary sewer. A pump needs repairs, a sewer line needs unclogged, and a lagoon needs some updating.

Well it's a matter of semantics. It's an association of homeowners with expired CC&Rs but with common elements to maintain. The sanitary sewer is the main amenity but there are also some ponds, a dock, a picnic shelter, etc. What I have noticed from the annual meeting financial report is that all funds are lumped together. There is no separate account for reserves.

Banks

You might wish you were an HOA as in most HOA's it takes a majority (often up to 75%) to agree to a "special assessment".

It could be in your case the BOD can levy the assessment without approval.

Some suggestions:

Ask to see the engineering report on the needed repairs, or other justification for the expenses. Who did the inspection(s) and what were their qualifications?

How did they determine the costs of repairs? If these are expensive repairs, ask if they got bids, or did they just accept the first bid.

Is there any relationship between any of the board members and the contractors?

Before the meeting, get someone who will be willing to second your motion, and make a motion that financial reports be issued to all owners (before the special assessment).

By the way, how much money are talking about?

Maybe living in a true HOA would be better than the limbo hell I currently live in. NOT!

I just returned from our lengthy special assessment meeting with a happier heart. The meeting was very informative and the members were all given multiple opportunities to speak and share thoughts and ideas. It really was very participatory and everyone was cordial and some goals were accomplished. I didn't agree with everything that was decided on but I'm okay with that. We got to speak, discuss, and vote. I feel like some real progress was made today.