HOA Companies and special committees

Hi

Currently my HOA is still under the control of the builder. We do have a HOA Management Company who just recently formed a Steering Committee and selected the Chair and the Vice Chair. The committee was announced and homeowners applied for specific positions. But the actual members that were put in charge of the committee were friends of the General Manager of our HOA Management Company. This General Manager has since been replaced. My question, is it legal for a HOA management company to form a Steering Committee and then select its board members? I thought that only the POA/BOD, who is the developer at this time, had the right to select a committee. Unfortunately this Steering Committee is causing havoc across the entire community wherein many of the original committee members were "fired" by a very aggressive and tyrannical chairman. Many residents have been bullied, harassed, or intimidated because many of their issues are not going through this committee before they are addressed with the HOA Management Company and on forward to the builder if necessary. This committee now has been authorized to form subcommittees. In summary our HOA Management Company formed a Steering Committee, selected the Chair and Vice Chair, has essentially no ground rules in place, and technically has become the go-between between the residents and the HOA Management Company. Although the developer and the POA have stated on numerous occasions this Steering Committee is unrecognized and unofficial the HOA Management Company are still giving the Steering Committee authority to do specific things. Is this legal?

I suspect that the MC was told to do that by the Board/Developer

What do you mean by "HOA company"? Little confused. Usually the developer is the "HOA" and can hire a Management company to run it. Since it's their company and employees, they can choose whom they want from that pool of people to be "Board" or a "committee". It will change once the owners in the HOA take over. The HOA will then be made up of ALL the owners. That HOA can then hire it's own MC if it wants. They can also make up their own committees. However, those committee members will now be made up of homeowners and not MC choice. The MC is a paid contractor to the HOA.

Yes ... There are FL Statutes; however, YOUR state gives ALOT of leeway to Developers which other States DO NOT ALLOW. In FL a Developer can pretty much change anything in the CCR's ... in my State a Developer must "Reserve" the right to make changes and disclose to consumers prior to their purchase what they reserved the right to change and a specified timeframe to make any such changes. Potentially in FL a Developer can go fishing for Consumers to purchase high dollar properties and then after fishing and reel them in to purchase ... turn around and defraud both those Consumers and their Mortgage Lenders (sorry ... this is wrong!). My mom when looking to purchase a family vacation home was looking at FL. Because she wanted a "newer home" I told her DO NOT purchase a home where the developer still has control and my reasons why. She found that many homes 10+ years old were STILL under Developer control ... so needless to say she finally purchased in another state. Which made my day because I am her executor and would have to deal with anything she chooses.