Street light outage

Hello everyone.

3 of our street lights have been out since June and when they first went out our BOD's were right on top of the issue and were going to get quotes from electricians and fix the problem. Here it is September 3rd and the street lights are still out and our BOD's are telling homeowners "Well...It's a little more complicated than we expected, but we have been using our time diligently to interview management companies instead" and now our board has sent out a memo that they will no longer be doing any projects until the management company takes over in October.

As a matter of fact, our board really hasn't done much of anything this year so far except spend money. We have a retention pond that needs to be graded because the water doesn't drain properly and just sits there (technically it's a mosquito breeding pit). The board told the homeowners they would be painting the mailboxes in June (that did not happen). Roofs were "scheduled" to be done in July and August and nothing has been even discussed yet on that.

I was wondering, since our board doesn't seem to be doing their job properly, can the homeowners threaten to not pay their fees until we see some results or do we need to find a lawyer and file a lawsuit against the board? A lot of our homeowners are older and on Social Security so they are hoping to be able to take care of this without any added expenses.

Thank you in advance for any advice.

You want results? You can read your governing documents. They probably allow a special meeting to be called and then you need to have enough members attend to vote in a new Board.

That is if you have members willing to be elected during the special meeting that was called.

Are your street lights private? Ours aren't, they are leased from our local utility. Sometimes it takes time and multiple requests to get street lights working again.

I think IL has open meeting laws for HOAs. Do you attend meetings and ask the board why these matters aren't getting handled?

In your opinion, does your HOA have enough money to complete these tasks?

Does your board have a property management company to assist the board with these routine matters, e.g., getting bids?

It's true that your covenants (declaration, CC&Rs) most likely say the board's main job is to protect and maintain the common areas.

Are there detached homes, condos, or? in your HOA? How many? How many directors are there? How many do your bylaws say you're supposed to have?

As other wrote, never withhold dues. Also as others wrote, you can gather support to recall the board. Or you can wait for the next election and be a part of a slate of candidates Or you can encourage others to run and give them really good support.

Thank you so much for the wonderful advice.

I talked everything over with my husband last night and we have come to his decision...We are going to pay our fees and an election is supposed to be held in October. My husband is going to talk to a few neighbors and see if he can get a group together to run against the current board.

We really appreciate all the advice that you gave us and thank you again.

You don't mention how big your association is, but if you want change, you might want to campaign for your candidates beyond a few neighbors. Depending on state law and your governing docs, you might want to gather proxies. It is common for entrenched boards to gather proxies themselves and use that to keep voting themselves back in.