PamS11 (Washington)
Posts: 4
Posts: 4
Posted:
I need advice on an appropriate election process for a small HOA with no amenities, a small budget, and minimal member participation.
I live in a small development with 64 homes in Washington State. We have an HOA that has not been functioning for 9 years. Prior to that it was poorly managed. The main reason we even have an HOA is because the community has approx 7 acres of community property attached to the development. This includes 4 acres behind the development, several easements, and an island at the entrance. The back 4 acres has a retention pond on it and the island has a covered gazebo at the entrance for children to wait for the school bus under to get out of the rain. The 4 acres can not be developed as they have several easement agreements with local utilities and so can not be developed beyond grass or vegetation.
Several homeowners and myself went to and paid for a lawyer seeking advise regarding the lack of a functioning HOA and what to do regarding necessary maintenance on the retention pond, community cluster mailboxes in disrepair, and general management of the community property asset. We were advised that we do have an HOA regardless of its functionality as the CC&R state the HOA runs into perpetuity. At a bare minimum we were advised to INSURE the property and to fix our By-Laws. SO we noticed and called a meeting which had a pretty good attendance and a BOD was elected and the members also voted for the Board to fix and update the By-Laws.
In the past our dues were $50/per lot a year. This was to cover mowing of the back 4 acres and liability insurance. This amount is nearly sufficient to cover the same expenses 10 years later. We foresee a minimal increase not to exceed $100 a year.
As you can see, the need for an HOA in the community is minimal as we don't have any amenities to manage. The dues are minimal compared to other HOA's. This results in almost no interest or participation from the homeowners within the community. All current interest stems from the leaking cluster mailboxes that are in dire need of replacing and those few homeowners who recognize that a 'No Trespassing' sign does not release us from carrying liability insurance on a piece of property with a retention pond.
So now to the point of my post.
Our previous By-Laws were embarrassingly inappropriate and in dire need of rewriting. They containe sentences like, "This is not a racetrack, so please don't race through the neighborhood!" There is no clear election process and they read more like a busybody lecture than a business document. Our CC&R's defer to the By-Laws for management of the HOA but the previous By-Laws in place aren't sufficient to the task.
We have no budget for legal counsel so paying to have them written for us is not feasible. We have looked at the By-Laws of several HOAs within the state and have been piecing together a set of By-Laws that fits the needs of our small community. However, we are hung up on one section.... ELECTIONS.
Since we are starting with a clean slate here and anticipate minimal participation we really want to have it simplified and easy to follow. As well as inexpensive to administer. Because of the lack of participation we'd like to see an election process with proxy or mail in ballots to encourage participation but mainly a successful election process is the priority.
What election process would be best for an HOA like ours?
I live in a small development with 64 homes in Washington State. We have an HOA that has not been functioning for 9 years. Prior to that it was poorly managed. The main reason we even have an HOA is because the community has approx 7 acres of community property attached to the development. This includes 4 acres behind the development, several easements, and an island at the entrance. The back 4 acres has a retention pond on it and the island has a covered gazebo at the entrance for children to wait for the school bus under to get out of the rain. The 4 acres can not be developed as they have several easement agreements with local utilities and so can not be developed beyond grass or vegetation.
Several homeowners and myself went to and paid for a lawyer seeking advise regarding the lack of a functioning HOA and what to do regarding necessary maintenance on the retention pond, community cluster mailboxes in disrepair, and general management of the community property asset. We were advised that we do have an HOA regardless of its functionality as the CC&R state the HOA runs into perpetuity. At a bare minimum we were advised to INSURE the property and to fix our By-Laws. SO we noticed and called a meeting which had a pretty good attendance and a BOD was elected and the members also voted for the Board to fix and update the By-Laws.
In the past our dues were $50/per lot a year. This was to cover mowing of the back 4 acres and liability insurance. This amount is nearly sufficient to cover the same expenses 10 years later. We foresee a minimal increase not to exceed $100 a year.
As you can see, the need for an HOA in the community is minimal as we don't have any amenities to manage. The dues are minimal compared to other HOA's. This results in almost no interest or participation from the homeowners within the community. All current interest stems from the leaking cluster mailboxes that are in dire need of replacing and those few homeowners who recognize that a 'No Trespassing' sign does not release us from carrying liability insurance on a piece of property with a retention pond.
So now to the point of my post.
Our previous By-Laws were embarrassingly inappropriate and in dire need of rewriting. They containe sentences like, "This is not a racetrack, so please don't race through the neighborhood!" There is no clear election process and they read more like a busybody lecture than a business document. Our CC&R's defer to the By-Laws for management of the HOA but the previous By-Laws in place aren't sufficient to the task.
We have no budget for legal counsel so paying to have them written for us is not feasible. We have looked at the By-Laws of several HOAs within the state and have been piecing together a set of By-Laws that fits the needs of our small community. However, we are hung up on one section.... ELECTIONS.
Since we are starting with a clean slate here and anticipate minimal participation we really want to have it simplified and easy to follow. As well as inexpensive to administer. Because of the lack of participation we'd like to see an election process with proxy or mail in ballots to encourage participation but mainly a successful election process is the priority.
What election process would be best for an HOA like ours?
