3 Things Wrong With Your HOA

Well, three improvements I'd like to see in my HOA:

1. Update our 14- y.o governing CC&Rs & bylaws.

2. Have at least one educational town hall or such for directors. Too many of our 7 know very little about our governing docs or CA state legislation that affects us.

3. Improve our reserves contributions a little more.

Your last sentence in your #1, JohnC, doesn't seem to fit the rest, but I can see how all there could be improved.

Only 3?

1. Reserves not established and accounted for in accordance with state law.
2. Things that should be in the CCRs are actually in the Bylaws which are then included by reference into the CCRs.
3. Committees are not well defined.

On #3, for instance, I'm a director and I don't even know who is technically on our committees. Our single largest monthly expense is for landscaping and related items; I couldn't begin to tell you who the chairperson is of our landscape committee.

This is a common problem as no one on the board wants to raise assessments. My own association raised assessment rates just twice in the last 17 years. The two increases combined raised rates a total of about 32% even though state law allows increases of 20% per year without member approval.

Our CC&R's require the board to set assessments based on anticipated expenses. Of course, they do just the opposite: they budget expenses based on anticipated revenue, which is derived from the revenue from the previous year. This means the revenue remains static while costs increase, resulting in less work being done, less money going into reserves, and no serious improvements.

And just what are your damages if I paint my house hot pink and electric blue?

Good question. Our CCRs say the HOA can demand the homeowner re-paint to bring the color scheme into compliance. If the owner refuses the HOA can do the work itself and bill the owner for it. If the owner then refuses to pay, there would be quantifiable damages.

It gets a bit more tricky when it comes to vehicle restrictions. Also for other more mundane things like leaving garbage cans outside for more than 24 hours after pickup. Quantifying those damages is more than a little absurd. We seem to be in need of an amendment that permits fines.

Our MC, Richard offered year seminars for directors, then skipped a couple of years but held one this year. I don't think it's useful and will offer suggestion for the one early next year as we'll have at least two new directors. In the past, there was too much emphasis on the MC's corporate structure and resources.

It's be better for us if there's more about effective meetings, learning our gov. docs, etc.

I never thought of this, and think it is a good idea. My HOA has a do-nothing board and tremendous apathy among the home owners. The board has not had a meeting in over a year and a half. Not once, but twice, the property management company has had the board members attend a seminar on HOA best practices. I think it would be of benefit to provide some incentive for non-board members to attend, not board members. God, anything to get more people to care.

For the first 20 or so years our 33-year-old 32-unit condo development was run by the same all-volunteer BOD. Everything was on autopilot, as the place didn't need much in the way of repairs, just routine lawn maintenance and snow removal. After those 20 years, they had not ever raised the dues, nothing had been fixed and repairs and improvements were needed, the reserve fund was grossly underfunded, no owners participated in anything except to complain about something that might have affected them personally; the then HOA President was always mean and snarly in response to any owners' input, and the Treasurer got very lazy and was keeping sloppy records and only depositing owners' monthly dues once every six months or so. So an all new all-volunteer BOD got voted in of which I'm the President. First thing we did is collect the email addresses of every owner and resident. They we emailed out an extremely comprehensive survey to all of the owners and residents, surveying them on almost every applicable issue. Then we published the results of that survey. Then we built a website. Then we posted every applicable piece of data we could find from the prior 20 years on that website. Then we let everyone know that we, their new BOD, is never further away than a phone call, and email, or a knock on one of our doors. We respond to ALL emails within 24 to 48 hours. We publish quarterly financial, planning, and progress reports; emailed to everyone. We always let everyone know what we plan to do, how much it will cost, and why we are doing it. We even host an annual summer barbecue so that everyone can come out and meet their neighbors. During the spring, summer, and fall, we the BOD go out and walk around the development on a weekend day every few weeks, and chat with anyone we run into. We have spent years telling everyone that we are "user friendly, open, and accessible", and it seems to have worked. Last year we raised the dues for the 1st time in 10 years, this year we raised them again, and next January 1st we are raising them yet again. Everything is getting fixed, slowly over a multi-year period -- as most of our current repairs have never been done before in our 33 year history. Our reserve fund is slowly being restored. Now every time we complete another project here we receive four or five thank you emails and many verbal compliments; and as far as we know there is only 1 tenant that lives here that does not like us or what we do. Still almost no one ever attends our annual meetings, and they probably feel that they don't have to since they are otherwise in the loop always anyway. in conclusion I'd say all of our efforts have been a success; and we will continue to do them.