New Board Reverses Decision of Prior Board

The prior Board had assessed two large dog fines against an owner-- A Board Meeting was held and requested that the dog owner attend to discuss the 'charges' in a closed session. The member didn't attend but her attorney sent an email a few days later stating the HOA had no proof of her dog going in another member's yard. A new Board is now in place and feels the way the fines were determined and assessed were out of line:

1. The president of the prior Board was not notified of the fines assessed to the member. (this action of fining the member was the work of the treasurer)

2. There is no proof of the dogs pooping in the yard (but there are emails and letters in this members file of notification of older complaints regarding her dogs)

3. 1st fine was $100, 2nd fine was $250 (Dog owner had received a certified letter prior to this that the next time the dogs pooped in the neighbor's yard these fines would be assessed)

4. After the certified letter was sent to the dog owner; it was soon after a monthly charge was made for the $100, next month $250, and 3rd month; their was a 3rd fine $400. The 3rd fine was waived after considerable discussion with the one last remaining Board member from the 'old regime'.

5. The treasurer charged her monthly without notifying any members of the Board (it his yard that the dog is charged with going in.)

This dog owner has access to an attorney at no expense we think - but more importantly the new Board feels why Risk paying legal fees for a situation that the HOA would lose. The new Board wants to hold another closed session and have the dog owner come to discuss - and the new Board wants to waive all fees due to all outlined above.

Question -- can the new Board reverse the 'settled matter' of the prior Board?

We have an irate prior Board member who is insisting the dog fines remain....and he is ok if we need to pay legal fees if she takes us to court.

Thank you for the quick response -- I'm in Illinois.... what resource would be available for me to reference when I announce this? We are small only 17 units - we are registered as a non for profit corporation.

Thanks for responding.... we had some ego-crazed, control freaks, and 'masters of the universe' wanna bees.... they have been detrimental to the HOA. We will reverse this decision and move on. (I'm on the new Board - failed to mention). And yes our Board can fine.

I believe that Tim's cites are appropriate. So long as the Board's decisions or resolutions don't conflict with what's in higher level docs, the Board can rescind previous decisions or resolutions.

What it will come down to is what the Owner’s attorney stated ... DOES the BOD have PROOF of any wrong activity??? A photo could be offered as proof ... if you do not have any such proof it should be another he said / she said issue. Any BOD should avoid any such scenarios because most likely if it goes to Court ... their question will be “show me your proof”. When you cannot offer any such proof ... you potentially loose a lot of $$$.