HOA that's a scam

Hello everyone, new to this website and likewise for posting in this forum.

The reason for the title is simple. The CC&RS and By-Laws that created our HOA have not been amended since it's inception (over 25 years ago) although there has been an active board and officers. In the CC&RS and By-Laws, nothing detrimental is in these documents stating what you can and cannot do. And nothing has been voted in. Most of this current board is investors with only their self interests at heart; instead of what is best for the homeowners and community as a whole. A majority of what has been going on is the board has been dictating new by-laws without approval from any of the homeowners, and imposing fees for non-compliance. As for meetings, there hasn't been an open public meeting for any of the homeowners as of late. A majority of the board has surpassed their term of one year and it is some of our (a few homeowners) beliefs that they are trying to avoid the open forum for fear of us calling them out on it. Another reason is that only one of the board members lives in town locally, the others must drive a distance, but regardless, meetings were held for a reasonable amount of time until just recently. Dues for the HOA has spiked, without the approval or mention to homeowners other than a message sent out, handed out, or taped to doors and fences saying that either this is happening for this reason etc. As far as disciplinary actions go, we get a notice taped to our doors or fences stating what must be done within a insanely short amount of time or face the consequences.

I am willing to be on the board and have been educating myself on Davis Sterling Act, local and federal laws so that we can have a legitimate board for once and make the community a favorable place to live instead of back dealings and not involving the community as a whole. But there was legal proceedings that forced one of the current board to be voted in by proxy.

I'm fairly young, and most of who live here are on a strict budget who are either barely above poverty or retired and don't want to deal with the hassle we just went through previously. Note: I can't afford lawyer fees and support my family. But I cannot also just sit idly by and let this HOA get away with everything that has been going on.

Any advice, or suggestions, will be greatly appreciated; flack will be received with tiny violins and a grain of salt.

Thank you for your time and patience with this post/rant/frustration.

Thank you Tim for your quick response.

The meetings should be held monthly and I will look into seeing if I can get a hold of the minutes tomorrow when I get off of work. Although they may say that I can see them, but turn around and block my attempt.

As for the website, they have one but it is outdated beyond belief. Unfortunately, I am not skilled in managing or creation of websites.

We have mentioned to the board and have even volunteered our time with little in the way other than quiet smiles and small boasts of support.

That maybe the case for one member of the board seeing as the properties owned by this individual constitutes a good portion of the development, and was the instigator for the primary development.

As for talking with the homeowners, I will have to do some digging and see what they think and say. Firstly, I will have to separate which are renters vs actual homeowners.

I would love to be able to share the CC&RS and the By-Laws and see if there is anything that I am missing or misreading in these documents.

Tim's advice is good, as always. I have posted a few pages here and there from my own HOA's governing documents BUT I carefully redact the associaion/community name and the names of any identifiable person or company (using Adobe Acrobat) before doing so. If you can't do redactions like that then I would avoid posting anything.

Eric,

I personally don't care if the names are left in or not. That is your option.
The redaction is needed if you choose to make them available from this site (due to posting rules).