not elected board members

I live in a condo community comprised of 19 units. Our by-laws state that six elected condo owners be elected to the board at our annual meeting. We haven't had a meeting since August, 2014.
The woman acting as board leader is suggesting improvements totaling over $140,000, taking out a bank loan for this and raising our monthly dues another 50%.

My belief is that because these 'board members' were not elected according to the by-laws and just her friends. their proposals are not valid and an election to have 6 members appointed immediately take place.

I think a lot depends on state law. Some states do not cap the amount of assessment increases.

Judith, what do the other owners think? What do your documents say about recalling directors? In an association with 19 members, any 10 of those owners should be able to remove members of the board.

Why has there been no election for 18 months? If unit owner apathy is the reason then this issue may be just what the doctor ordered to wake some of them up.

No meeting since August 2014 and 2016 will be here next Friday? Well, at least some of you seem to be waking up.

Two issues here – the $140K in improvements and the status of the board members. When did these people get on the board? Why hasn’t anyone asked where there was no meeting in 2015? Did YOU ask the president or whoever else is on the board?

I know Christmas is upon us, but the rest of you may want to (1) check your documents to see what it says about special meetings and board member selection/elections and such and then (2) call a special meeting (or annual meeting if you like) before 2015 ends -or at least before the Super Bowl in February. You’ll need to hash out who’s really supposed to be on the Board and if you want to vote out the current regime, have at it. Just be sore you have another 6 board members (including you, perhaps) ready to step up and take over.

Now, you can address the $140K in improvements. What is this for? This comes out to about $7300 per homeowner, so one has to ask if you have a bad case of deferred maintenance at work. If these improvements are to enhance safety or livability in the units, or at least get the components up to current code, you may have no choice but to adjust the budget – if you don’t want a loan, you’ll need a special assessments, which, as you might guess has to be paid in addition to regular assessments, because monthly bills don’t take a break while major repairs are made.

$140K is a lot of money, so I have to ask: When did you last have a reserve study done? Do you have a reserve fund? How much is in it? I wouldn’t be surprised if the answers are “what’s a reserve study?” “I dunno” or “we had a reserve study, but I don’t remember when it was done or what it said.” If no one knows the answer to any of these questions, put that on your to-do list immediately. Once you get a handle on what components need to be addressed, you can talk about how you will pay for it.

By the way, however this ends, you’re looking at a fee increase – either because your assessments are entirely too low or they’ve been mismanaged. Both are quite possible. A loan has to be paid back with interest, so if you get one, assessments have to go up to make the payments, pay the regular bills AND fund reserves so this doesn’t happen again.

Such is life in a condo – especially when people don’t pay attention to what their boards are doing. Have a merry Christmas and then get to work!

A handyman inspected your roof? Uh, usually, people get roofing experts to take a look (preferably three to get a broader array of opinions). In fact, the higher the cost, the more important it is to get a 2nd and third opinion. When did this guy start looking at your roofs anyway - it's been 15 months since your last meeting and that shouldn't have prevented holding an annual meeting in 2015.

It's good your roof doesn't leak, but what about your neighbors? Did you ask anyone else if they've had issues?

This sort of expense usually calls for a vote by the entire board, so your president can say or wish whatever she likes - if she gets voted down by the rest, that's the end of that. And if all of you vote her out, that's the end of her.

You're looking at your bylaws and that's good - as I said, you'll need to call a special meeting to discuss who was placed on the board legitimately and who wasn't. Those who weren't but want to serve can be formally elected at this meeting or someone can run against them. Since the board makeup and this $140K proposed expense are different issues, keep them separate and get the board makeup settled first.

The name of the meeting is easily changed, but it seems to me these folks were trying to shut you down on a technicality. If you got a bunch of signatures from the other homeowners asking for a special meeting to discuss this, they were probably spooked at that and think nitpicking will slow you down. If you feel strongly about this, it's important that you not let that happen. That being said, you now realize there's a right and wrong way of doing this, so you may want to have a few homeowners work with you on calling for the meeting properly, so someone can catch mistakes you might miss.

I know you're concerned about the roofs, but your taking it upon yourself to bring out your own inspector was out of line - if he'd gotten injured, he could sue the association and since the board didn't authorize the work, all of you could have been on the hook for the bill. Ditto if the guy had damaged the roof. You need to concentrate on sacking the people who are calling themselves the board of directors without a valid election - once you replace them, THEN you can address the roof issue. For that, see the earlier responses on this thread. Good luck!

Call for the special meeting again but call it by its right name. It may be a technicality but a meeting of the members is not a board meeting. An issue with the wording on the first try doesn't preclude you from correcting the mistake and trying again.

Lots of things people are against get thrown out because of technicalities.
Therefore, it's important to understand the procedures and follow them as written.

Judith,

To be honest, you can't force any individual on the Board to comply with the governing documents. You can only punish them for not following them. Unfortunately, punishment for that type of issue is minimal (as you can gather support to have them kicked out of the job and, perhaps, get a bad reputation around the development). Therefore, punishment may or may not keep those with questionable character on the straight and narrow.

What you need to do is be willing to serve yourself and encourage others to become involved and serve or at least vote. This way, the Board will be composed of individuals who are willing to do the work required while complying with the governing documents. Otherwise, to be blunt, only those who are willing to serve will be the one's who serve (regardless if they follow the governing documents or not).