Hurricane shutter / Christmas lights

Jose,

Welcome to the forum.

You have already identified the problem, membership apathy.

The way to fix this is to start knocking on doors, have social gatherings and listen to hear if others feel the same way you do. If they do, gather support (in the form of proxies), a slate of candidates (perhaps you being one of them) and elect a new board who will address the issues you and your neighbors see.

However, if you hear that others are happy with the way things are being done, then you will have a hard time finding support. In this case, you simply need to educate or, simply consider moving.

As far as violations affecting the value of your home, I doubt failure to force the removal of hurricane shutters or holiday decorations has any major bearing on the value of your home. Now, if the common area was not being maintained and houses allowed to go into disrepair, that may have an impact on attracting buyers.

I would talk to members of your board and ask why they don't enforce these violations. Is it possible they have a good reason?

I know in our HOA we often have people wonder why we don't enforce certain violations and the answer is usually that the thing they are complaining about is not a violation or the restriction is so vague that we couldn't enforce it. Many people also assume all HOAs have the authority to issue fines but many don't.

This isn't unusual. It's not right, but it's that way in many HOAs, unfortunately.

You should think of ways to encourage the owners to vote in the next election. Look at your Bylaws. If they permit member voting via proxies then walk around the neighborhood, talk to your neighbors, and ask them to give you their proxy. If mail-in ballots are permitted, give your neighbors a stamped envelope and encourage them to mail in their ballot when the next election takes place.

My HOA has been operating the same as yours for 25 years with one exception: we do get people to vote at the annual meetings. The problem is no one ever wants to be on the board and we regularly end up with Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss situation. No enforcement, no fines, almost total negligence. Over half of the 100 homes here have new owners within the last 5 years and we, too, are experiencing an escalation of violations of our covenants and rules as new people come in, push the envelope to see what they can get away with, and it gets worse each time they do get away with it (which is almost always). Board after board tries to do as little as possible. Nobody cares. The president last summer told an absentee landlord whose tenant did over $1,000 worth of damage to the common property, "Don't worry about it." Nobody cared. The president stood in the middle of the street during another conversation and loudly proclaimed, "I don't care what the law says." Nobody cared.

Good luck.