Management and BOD Apathy

I paid for 5 custom Private Property signs and posted them in locations throughout our community with the approval of our (so-called) BOD. I have requested (via email) reimbursement from our newly hired management company but have not received a check for my expenses. It has been over 30 days since my request for reimbursement. I am ready to file a small claims suit to recover my expenses. Any suggestions to avoid legal proceedings?

Present the emails (Board approval for project, and the request for payment), the invoice for costs, and the unanswered submission to the Board at the next meeting.

If board meetings are not schedule until later date, send above certified mail to the the M/C, and President. Might sound like overkill, but if you have properly submitted to M/C and were up to now ignored, then requests should go to directly to board and President.

Understand that mistakes do occur, there are a dozen "what if's" which may have occured (especially since you noted that this is a new M/C). Give it another go to seek payment from M/C and the board, in transitioning to new M/C it is not that unusual to have doc's lost, misplaced/mis-filed, etc.

Clearly emphasize the request for payment for services rendered.

If payment is not recieved in thirty days, then take matter to small claims court.

Glenn, your problem is probably either the expense was not preapproved or there is miscommunication between you/Board/MC. Call the Board members who authorized your expenditure and forget about the suit.

Normally we prepare checks once a month unless a special request is made by a representative of the Board. We only prepare checks for authorized expenditures. So if you bought the signs without documented authorization for the expenditure as your MC we would not be able to provide a check.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who replied to my post for your thoughts and advice! I finally received my reimbursement check from our management company (on August 3rd, 51 calandar days from my first request for payment and without having to hire a lawyer or file a claim). Instead of dealing with CDC's (bimbo) "property manager", I cc'd the company's president and payment was made promptly then, and a new "property manager" was appointed by CDC.

Since then, one of our BOD members quit the job, an election was held to replace him, but it seems that the replacement board member is invisible...no announcements whatsoever. I have also heard (through the grapevine) that 2 additional board members have been appointed. I have no idea what is going on within our HOA. There is absolutely no enforcement of our CC&Rs, we have no website, we lost our landscape/mowing crew and now there is only one man that has accepted the insurmountable task to mow our lawns, 148 lots and common areas. Can someone please give me some direction on what I can do (as a non BOD Volunteer) to make our HOA much less dysfunctional? HELP!!!!!!

Thanks for you post Susan. I would be happy to attend any board meeting as an observer, if we had board meetings. These are the facts: The BOD doesn't have any meetings, or, if they do, we homeowners don't know about them. There is no communication from either our M/C or BOD at all, unless a BOD vacancy develops.

I continue to observe countless and repeated CC&R violations within our community and this scenario has not changed for the last 8 years. I'm simply trying to figure out why our HOA does not have a website and why are the CC&Rs and House Rules are not being enforced and I want to come up with a functional solution to our dysfunctional HOA.

Susan, weird as it may sound, many boards don't hold more than maybe 2 meetings a year: the annual meeting and a meeting just before or just after it.

Our board meets once a month, the second Tuesday of every month. But I've run into some that hold meetings quarterly, or "as needed," which sometimes means only a handful of times a year.

However, I'm somewhat concerned about a resident who is ready to go to small claims court so quickly after turning in his receipts and not getting reimbursed in 30 days. And then who also wants to know what he can do, short of joining the board, to -- what?? bully the board?

Frankly 51 days may not be a finger snap for you, but even when I was working, the Fortune 800 company I worked for often didn't provide reimbursements for expenses in under 60 days.

I know I'm reading between the lines here, but it seems to me there is a bit of knee-jerk and hot-headedness going on.

I mean, what do you mean WHY doesn't the board or HOA have a website? Do the CC&Rs specify that they HAVE to have one? You can do a search on all of the known HOAs in my immediate area, and there are a slew of them, and you would find an online presence for only about 3 of them.

You want to come up with a "functional" solution for your (allegedly) "dysfunctional" HOA, yet you yourself don't want to devote any sweat equity into the situation by volunteering to be a board member?

I am always suspicious of people who want to dictate from the outside looking in, but don't want to shoulder any of the responsibility of the actual day-to-day decision-making and/or duties.

Here's the thing, you say you "continue to observe countless" and repeated violations in your community.

To whom do you report these "countless and repeated" violations? TO the M/C? To a board member? To anyone?

I do see that you did go around and put signs up for them. Apparently you had somewhat of a good relationship with a board member in order to be tapped to have made and put up Private Property signs throughout the neighborhood.

Is that person no longer on the board?

I'm sorry if I sound skeptical, but it seems to me there is a great deal more here going on than is in your posts.

Glenn,

I know that many states do not have an "open meeting" law (or sunshine law, as some state call it) that require all board meetings to be open to the members. In fact, some states don't have any state laws governing HOAs. Is WA one of those states?

Since you are so interested in knowing what is happening in your assn and seem to want to become somewhat involved, I would suggest contacting the board Pres and asking about board meetings, etc. You might want to point out the CCRs violations you've noticed and volunteer to serve on the A/C committee. Or perhaps you can volunteer to set up a community website or to edit a community newsletter, either one of which would be helpful in communicating with the membership. Try to strees the importance of communication. Instead of portraying a confrontational image, let the Pres know you're only goal is to be helpful. It's always good to remember that sugar works better than vinegar!!