Hoa president takes a check made out to a vendor

hello. our rogue hoa president has been continually overstepping her legal authority. The problem is, the rest of the board don't seem to know or care. The owners are in the process of calling a specail meeting to recall the current board president.

we have a third party accounts payable and receivables company.... the way it's supposed to work,, a vendor presents an invoice ,, if the board approves the payment. one member of the board will enter a check request into the strongroom software. The office manager of the hoa also needs to approve that request.. once the third party sees those two approvals. .. they cut a check made out to vendor and sends it to the office. The vendor would then come and pick it up and it would only be released once the final checkoff on work is done etc.

The current property manager was hired less than a month ago..
the current board president has been in the office every day acting like she runs the show.
The current property manager assured owners that he was holding the check for said vendor , and would not release it until all the work was done .

the president last week was in the office and asked the manager, what checks are you still holding.. the manager pointed to a folder and there were two checks.. one for 20,000 that was made out to the vendor whose work is in question.
the board president took the check from the folder and said, "ill take care of this"....

the property manager didn't stop her, he assumed she was going to pay the vendor herself.. However, that defeats the whole pupose of holding a check and not releasing it until the work is done.

does a board president have authority to take vendor checks from the office and say,"i'll take care of this one".... i'm not saying she stole the money, I'm saying, she bypassed the checks and balances present in an hoa . Please don't tell me that a board president can assume authority wherever they decide to...... Help..

owners are in the process of filing a police report.. this was clearly outside of her authority.. but i'm trying to find the statute that explains this.

the vendor has not completed the job,, and he has not performed the required oversight of the other contractors.

the vendor did not give the hoa president authority to come pick up his check.

the board president taking the check and informing th property manager that they(the board president) will take care of this...

that's a clear violation of internal procedures and protocol..

the entire reason why the property manager holds the check until the final inspection with the vendor is so that the hoa doesn't end up making final payment when the work wasn't completed. The president taking the check and meeting with the vendor privately prevented the vendor from having to complete the rest of the work.

Was the check cashed? If so, then by whom? It's not clear. Just taking a check doesn't clear up the issue. Have not heard if the President paid the vendor with it or kept it for themselves. We don't know how the check was written. Was it blank or was it the amount owed via the contract?

I agree the President shouldn't have walked out with the check. That's a bit odd. It's also just as odd to not know if the check was cashed. Knowing that information would lead you all down what road to travel down. Right now it is the President took a check earmarked for a vendor who didn't do their job right. The HOA was doing the same thing. Not paying the vendor till work was done were they not?

Yes. But you do NOT have a crime for the police to act on. You do not have any proof of payment to the vendor, so still the SAME status. The vendor still NOT paid. So your ONLY issue is that the President by passed what you feel is your "financial" controls. Doesn't sound like those were actually working if you ask me...

That is your Secretary's responsibility to keep the notes. NOT the President's. The President can NOT act as the Secretary. That is typically the rule in most HOA's. Why are you all trying to contact your Attorney or MC for the notes? They have nothing to do with it. Plus the Attorney may charge you money for contacting them. The MC isn't contractually obligated to take them are they?

So I would question what the Secretary's role is in your HOA. They aren't doing their job. I will note that meeting notes are NOT immediately available after a meeting. The NEXT meeting has to be held to approve those notes. So until they get accepted by the board, they are still waiting in la-la land.

melissa,

I know who is supposed to keep minutes.. what i said, was,, THERE ARE NOT BOARD MEETING MINUTES FOR THE LAST 10 MONTHS, .. we asking the lawyers and the managment company, becuase the board members ignore our requests...

This board is made up of people who have never been on a board. The president has repeatedly mocked homeowners who question the way things are being done , and how no minutes are available. at the last homeowner meeting, when an owner questioned the boards actions. which were clearly in violation of the procedures set out in our bylaws.. the president said "sue me"..

this is not just run of the mill disagreements over paint colors... this is a board who has informed owners that the board had decided on a certain contractor.. and the next month,, a completely different contractor is hired,, who wasn't even on the original bid list.. and his prices are 3 times higher .

we have another owners meeting tomorrow.. several owners have gotten together and are gathering the required signatures for a recall vote.. we need 51%... the problem is,, half of the owners aren't living here, because they are still waiting (a year later) for the board top give the go ahead that they can start rebuilding..

we have 34 percent after one meeting last saturday and i've gotten a couple dozen signatures this week from owners i see when i'm walking my dog. Tomorrow. we hope to get ther remaining votes necessary.

The president has abused her position to arbitrarily make some owners life miserable. She has threatened homeowners who lost everything in the flood, "If you dare question me, I will see to it that your unit gets done last".. even though, the board doesn't even have any authority to do any work inside a unit.. This board has taken it upon themselves to go ahead and install sheetrock ..our bylaws clearly say,, the wall coverings including drywall, stucco etc. are the homeowners responsiblity...

See we still disagree on what side of the wall the HOA is responsible for versus the owner. If it's on the bottom floor and considered "Common property" then the walls in that area ARE the HOA's responsibility. The other side of the wall INSIDE of the unit is the owner's. The HOA may take on the electrical/plumbing just to take care of any liability issues.

I am reading between some lines here as only getting 1 side of the story. That is in bursts of information. The HOA lawyer does NOT work for you. They work for the board. The MC also works for the board/HOA. So they would not be necessarily a good sounding boards.

Think you may have the relationship between you as a member and board mixed up. Which adds to your frustrations. Do not see where your willing to get on the board. Just remove who is there. It takes more to it than just removing people. It takes people willing to do the job as well.

May I also include the difference between the HOA paying a bill and the individual is this: The HOA paying the bill means ALL owners are chipping in a portion to pay the bill ALTOGETHER. Having an individual pay their own bill is just that. Now guess which way is harder for a HOA to handle? Letting individuals do it on their own time and own dime leaves very little time frame or control. The HOA doing it, means more hands in the pot to complain about the costs and details. Honestly, to me it sounds like the latter that your doing...

I have to agree with you Kimberly... I kind of feel like I am talking to the "Chief Complaining Officer" on this one. Sorry if that is an offense but got to say reading between the lines that comes out. Especially when you say they didn't want you in attendance of a gathering. I can't take that at face value as they are excluding homeowners how horrible my HOA treats me. Can not also take that them hiring a contractor that charges more isn't do more work for the money. You get what you paid for.

As having done large projects for my HOA that were necessary, I've had many complaints about contractors hired. Which have been some of the BEST contractors. We hired one company because of drainage issues. They hand dug the drain ditches and put in drainage pipes. Did a great job. What did I hear? Oh they were "Mexican"... Oh we didn't NEED that work to be done... Why are we taking care of this? Well guess what? It was AGREED to by the board and the member who showed up at the meetings!!!

If you want the work to be done and you don't want to do it yourself, then stop wanting the heads of people who are willing to do the work!

jennifer,,!!! yes,, we are getting the proxies!!... we have 112 out of 122 necessary so far!!

melissa,, your "reading between the lines" is completely out of line,, I have written very long posts. to make sure i didn't leave anything out.. because every hoa documents are different and every situation is different..

again,, i was on the board,, I know how thankless it is,, but i also know, HOA's boards can abuse their authority. but also, mostly don't know what the legal documents even say.. I was the only board member who actually referred to the documents when anyone, including me, had a question....

I'm very aware. that what i may think is right, might be wrong according to our documents.. so I am very careful to always refer back to the documents.. when I would point out black and white specific language in our documents that clearly allowed or did not allow something.. .. many times,, if the documents did not support what a few board members were trying to do. they would ignore the documents.

mellissa, actually,, there are several different contractors that are involved... some have already been paid.. it turns out, they billed for work that they did not do.. and the board hired a project manager who wasn't required to actually be there....

So invoices came in , and the president approved them, without first getting confirmation that the invoices were valid.,, and then to add insult to injury.. the president then unilaterally sent a strongroom request for a check to be cut.. the second layer of fraud prevention in our interanl controls was also bypassed.. We had a brand new property manager who the president instructed to approve the strongroom invoice.. Because the property manager had no hoa managemnent experience. The property manager did what they were told... the proper internal control is that the board votes on approval of invoices..its recoreded in the meeting minutes.. then the president would inform the property manager to sign off on a payment request,. The manager would check the meeting minutes to confirm the board had actually voted.. This was not done. Therfore, another layer of checks and balances was removed from the process.. ... again.

I have read dozens and dozens of posts regarding bad boards.. Most involve abuse of authority,, and basic bullying.. andn ot listening to owners..

our situation is that the first floor was flooded by harvey.. and instead of the board hiring contractors to handle the common elements , and only the common elements so the owners could then start rebuilding.. this board decided to redo 22 of 24 foundations at a cost of over 400,000... the extensive work was the recommendation of the engineer who the board hired to evaluate the property, However, the engineer that provided the report was not supposed to have any part in the actual rebuild...
what ended up happening is,, the board received the report and recommendatoins and then took the report to other engineers and companies,,and other companies then came out and checked the buildings.. not a single other company suggested we need major underground piers on 22 of our buildings.,, off the record,, they were aghast at the suggestion that a 60 yr old property should commence foundation work when the buildings all were structurally sound and owners were waiting to get the go ahead to rebuild..