AndrewJ4 (North Carolina)
Posts: 2
Posts: 2
Posted:
I'm sure this scenario plays over and over on this forum. I'll just lay it out... maybe someone has a few thoughts.
Purchased mountain home in North Carolina with HOA. At time of purchase, the HOA Non-Profit Articles of Incorporation and Restrictions were provided, as recorded in county records. Not much else was communicated, and I didn't know enough about HOA's to ask more. In retrospect, it's surprising how little our realtor seemed to know about HOA's, didn't advise us to ask more questions. Everyone, especially the bank, just seemed to be thankful there was something in place for the road maintenance agreement. I guess many communities don't have anything at all.
For context, there are only about 25 owners, under 10 homeowners that live full time. After moving in, we found 2 of the 3 HOA officers were related, and the third just said "they made him President" but didn't seem to question much. I wouldn't either, he was outvoted anyway, why bother. Apparently someone about 10 year prior, the developer, basically just dumped it on the first homeowners to be up here full time.
Fast forward to our 4th year. They made me the President. I didn't decline the request to serve, but I didn't vote either. I naively just assumed everything was in order. They also voted the other 2 officers from newly moved-in residents, all too happy to be done with it. But the new 2 were also related. Upon 'taking office', I discovered there were:
-no meetings - board or membership
-no tax returns
-no by-laws
-improper voting, sometimes 1 year, sometimes 2 year terms
-don't know specific date when board takes office
-no budgets, no planning
-inadequate records
-no contingency plans
-certain requirements under law, notices, etc not being made
-had no insurance
-poorly maintained
-uncompleted projects, road signage, mailbox/road signage
After they 'made me' President, I attempted to bring these and other things to the other 2 newly elected but related board members. Over the course of 14 months, they cancelled meetings at last minute, didn't reply to email requests, never provided full records of organization, told me in an email they 'don't do meetings'. Basically, they just wanted me to be President in name and not worry about anything. One of the few conversations with the new VP was that they personally wanted to buy a single - valuable - parcel from the HOA. Or how he put rocks in the road 'just to see if someone would move them'. To me, doesn't seem like rational, nice people.
The association only charges about 60% of the true cost it would take to properly maintain our roadway, so it's not like people are making big money by volunteering to run the association. But the place isn't maintained very well anyway. There are a few people who never pay and years/thousands past due. Perhaps it's because they feel the roadway is crap. Nobody attempts to collect.
Despite my efforts, none of the homeowners seem to want to bother stepping up and running for the other 2 offices. They complain, but they're just like everyone else, nobody cares, nobody wants to do anything. So we have still 2 related folks controlling everything - and not well.
After dozens of emails over the course of 14 months, with no board or membership meetings, I finally 'resigned'. I guess I didn't 'really' resign because I don't think it's a 'real' organization anyway. I know the requirements, and the responsibilities of President, and if I have no control or knowledge, I won't be responsible.
My question is what can I do, if anything? I do not want to litigate, and I'm fine just continuing to pay my dues - as long as they don't go up. If they went up without budgets, clear plan that already started on improving, I won't pay more - I guess they'll have to litigate with me to collect.
Purchased mountain home in North Carolina with HOA. At time of purchase, the HOA Non-Profit Articles of Incorporation and Restrictions were provided, as recorded in county records. Not much else was communicated, and I didn't know enough about HOA's to ask more. In retrospect, it's surprising how little our realtor seemed to know about HOA's, didn't advise us to ask more questions. Everyone, especially the bank, just seemed to be thankful there was something in place for the road maintenance agreement. I guess many communities don't have anything at all.
For context, there are only about 25 owners, under 10 homeowners that live full time. After moving in, we found 2 of the 3 HOA officers were related, and the third just said "they made him President" but didn't seem to question much. I wouldn't either, he was outvoted anyway, why bother. Apparently someone about 10 year prior, the developer, basically just dumped it on the first homeowners to be up here full time.
Fast forward to our 4th year. They made me the President. I didn't decline the request to serve, but I didn't vote either. I naively just assumed everything was in order. They also voted the other 2 officers from newly moved-in residents, all too happy to be done with it. But the new 2 were also related. Upon 'taking office', I discovered there were:
-no meetings - board or membership
-no tax returns
-no by-laws
-improper voting, sometimes 1 year, sometimes 2 year terms
-don't know specific date when board takes office
-no budgets, no planning
-inadequate records
-no contingency plans
-certain requirements under law, notices, etc not being made
-had no insurance
-poorly maintained
-uncompleted projects, road signage, mailbox/road signage
After they 'made me' President, I attempted to bring these and other things to the other 2 newly elected but related board members. Over the course of 14 months, they cancelled meetings at last minute, didn't reply to email requests, never provided full records of organization, told me in an email they 'don't do meetings'. Basically, they just wanted me to be President in name and not worry about anything. One of the few conversations with the new VP was that they personally wanted to buy a single - valuable - parcel from the HOA. Or how he put rocks in the road 'just to see if someone would move them'. To me, doesn't seem like rational, nice people.
The association only charges about 60% of the true cost it would take to properly maintain our roadway, so it's not like people are making big money by volunteering to run the association. But the place isn't maintained very well anyway. There are a few people who never pay and years/thousands past due. Perhaps it's because they feel the roadway is crap. Nobody attempts to collect.
Despite my efforts, none of the homeowners seem to want to bother stepping up and running for the other 2 offices. They complain, but they're just like everyone else, nobody cares, nobody wants to do anything. So we have still 2 related folks controlling everything - and not well.
After dozens of emails over the course of 14 months, with no board or membership meetings, I finally 'resigned'. I guess I didn't 'really' resign because I don't think it's a 'real' organization anyway. I know the requirements, and the responsibilities of President, and if I have no control or knowledge, I won't be responsible.
My question is what can I do, if anything? I do not want to litigate, and I'm fine just continuing to pay my dues - as long as they don't go up. If they went up without budgets, clear plan that already started on improving, I won't pay more - I guess they'll have to litigate with me to collect.