Bad board just won't quit being bad

Kewl. I especially like the report that the judges were irritated with the HOA attorney and the ridiculous defense. I remember you worked hard on this and showed great expertise on both the technical issues and pursuing this legally. Congrats!I cannot tell how much of this is about a safe response to COVID-19. At least the board is sending out Minutes.

Yeah, the cancelled the physical meeting due to Covid and chose to do it by telephone. In Texas telephonic board meetings are LEGAL and perfectly acceptable. What makes it illegal is they sent out a notice saying the physical meeting was cancelled and did not give any homeowner any way to be part of a telephonic meeting. When I was president we did these by telephone quite often and always gave out a phone number and even allowed homeowners to participate and ask questions. Our open board meetings were actually open. The meeting minutes were published shortly after I started this thread. Even the minutes are utterly inaccurate since they are required to make note of all unanimous board decisions done via email since the last meeting.

In the end they are doing what I told everyone they would i.e. shutting down the flow of information, targeting specific homeowners and causing harm maliciously (That's a thread by itself and they lost a legal challenge on that front too).

Eh, the ruling on the other case just came out and they probably don't even know about it yet. I'm going to let the HOA attorney give them the bad news and if they don't act I will file a contempt of court action on day 31 if the repairs are not complete.

Nah. It's 2020 and freeconferencecall.com exists. Furthermore Covid has nothing to do with crafting accurate meeting minutes. What they did is wrong on many levels. Regardless I have no plans to run out and file suit. It'll be months before I act because this is only part of a much larger picture. If our board ever decided to act in good faith my response would be very different. Sadly this type of thing is typical of our board. Heck, they were sued no to long ago because they tried to hold an election and only allowed certain people (they were in favor of) to vote. People who wanted to vote against them weren't allowed to vote at all! Yes, that got shut down too. It never ends.

Jared,

It isn’t the 21st century to some people.

Will wait to hear how this goes down in the age of SARS Cov 19.

I consider anyone who, like me, has sued a HOA as a potential soulmate! Thank you, JaredC!

I despise HOAs.

Paul,

I don't dispute for one minute that some HOA communities are poorly run and can end up being a terrible place to live. However, when someone like you makes wide sweeping generalizations 99% of the time they are based on their own personal experience and give no merit to anyone elses. HOA communities can be a great solution for someone depending on their needs and their personal circumstances.
I'll use my situation as an example. I had a massive heart attack seven years ago and lost my wife to cancer four years ago. I was living in a large house with a large yard. I came to hate it. I couldn't maintain it physically and there were no social activities in the neighborhood which caused me to isolate more than I should have. I reached my breaking point and finally sold the house and downsized to a side by side condo community. I no longer have to mess with a yard, worry about painting my home, replace rotten siding, repair the deck or plan for a roof replacement, etc., etc. For me personally, this was literally like lifting a huge weight off my shoulders. In addition, we have a lot of social activities that have led me to form new friendships and help with the loneliness that I was experiencing. I don't regret for one minute the decision I made. It fits my life style and the phase of life that I am now in.
My daughter lives in a HOA community consisting of single family residences. She has 3 young kids. Their community has a pool, playground, gym, etc. They also have a ton of kids there and as a result there are many planned activities for her children. It fits her life style and the phase of life that she is now in.
I readily agree that some HOA's are run poorly. Now that I'm on the Board, as president, I've seen first hand what happens when it is not managed properly. In my daughter's case, it appears their HOA is well run. The real truth is that the experience that people have with HOA's will vary and your belief that they all suck and that they are somehow evil is nonsense and gives a one sided view to whomever happens to stumble on this website.

Or, the poster is simply clueless about their situation.

Again, the point of this forum is to be positive about HOAs, not to nitpick every disgruntled member circumstance, but to be helpful to board and committee members.

AND, 95% of the posters are not Board or Committee members, just homeowners who have issues with their HOA. So Paul or I aren't the only ones not in love with HOA.

As much as issues I have with HOA's, my wife hates them 500% more, and she was the president of the one we lived in. She said NEVER again!

Georgie, it's really time to get back on your meds and go nighty night. Lights out!

No meds, just tired of the continual childish crap on this forum, from folks who apparently have a need to be on an “anti” forum. These fora exist, go whine about how much you hate HOAs on one of them.

There “should be” a moderator to put a stop to this nonsense.

No more “Georgie?”

C’mon, be adult about this - go find a group that needs to hear the constant whining about how much you hate HOAs. Maybe you’ll meet others who appreciate your perspectives - you can tune up an entire band of whiners and really rip into those darn HOAs.

Childish nonsense.

Childish nonsense.

I hope posters understand what is happening here.

Perhaps, also we can make this negative enough for the supporters of this site to take note.

For such a smart person, and I sincerely means it, you completely missed the point. Not all HOA's are bad and there are valid reasons they may be a good fit for some people. When it comes to HOA's the old saying "the truth is in the middle" applies. There are good ones and there are bad ones. For those that assert that they are all bad it is ill informed and quite frankly childish.

Yup, I do. I do not believe in either herds or promoting herds. You're obviously technologically proficient, and I think that's well needed on boards. You obviously for the greater part want to see boards following the governing documents. You do not promote herds. That's all I need to know to justify continuing to read your posts. FWIW

Maybe the BETTER idea would be for YOU to start one where YOU could be the BOSS of it.

As far as rules are concerned, I have followed the rules, you just have an problem understanding them! The rules ask that you keep your TOPIC Blah...Blah...Blah..., not your response. The mission statement, not the rules, state this is a positive place for Blah...Blah...Blah...If that was the case, as someone said, this forum would be a ghost town.

For the record, I have a hell of a lot more experience with HOA's than you'll ever have. If you disagree with me, prove me wrong, or don't comment at all. I will only respond to posts I feel I have some expertise in. I won't respond just to raise my posting numbers. There are some very well run HOA's throughout the country and I applaud them for there efforts. There are many, many others that are horrible, either because of management or boards, or both. If there weren't, this site would not exist!

Ah crap, and I thought we could be friends.

That's just how we roll now days. It's the hip thing.

George, "keeping things positive" surely doesn't mean to withhold negative opinions about HOA's, but rather is referring to destructive comments aimed at those who post (e.g. insults, name calling). Keeping it constructive is how I interpret this rule. If we tear people down, it discourages some from posting, because they don't want to face the insults.

This board would suck without disagreements, including those who tend to hate most (or even all) HOA's. The diversity of opinion is part of what makes this board so awesome.

My personal opinion is that in general HOA's that have individuals who "sue the HOA" are most often "unlucky" HOA's that may have been better off without that person who filed the lawsuit. Note that I say "in general", and so I'm sure there are cases where it's appropriate, including this case here. But in some cases, it just discourages ANYONE from wanting to be on the board, and be exposed to this crap, which then makes the HOA weaker, not stronger. This is especially true, in general, of those who only want to sue, but won't volunteer themselves to lead the board in a manner which they find acceptable.

So even if the board is doing things wrong, doesn't necessarily justify a lawsuit. But if the board not only refuses to comply, but also uses it's powers to "remain in power" and prevent other leaders from taking over who are willing to "do it right", IMO, it's not appropriate to sue. If no one else wants to lead, then lawsuits are generally a bad idea, IMO. That's how our HOA would view it.

I am not posting to disagree with you, but to offer my own perspective.

In my lawsuit, I sued because the HOA board lied, violated the HOA's bylaws, etc., was illegally in office and without valid authority raised HOA dues, paid for repairs to board members' homes and did all sorts of things. And the HOA's lawyer (!) lied and broke Federal law. Their attitude was, "we're the HOA board and we're a HOA lawyer and we can do whatever we want, and we're coming after you if you challenge us."

Well, no, you can't, HOA board and idiot HOA lawyer, according to the law.

I incurred significant monetary damages due to what they did. I sued, the bad board members were removed from office and replaced with better ones, and I got many times over what I had originally asked for (the agreement that I signed with the HOA is confidential, so I can't discuss the outcome).

In my view (of life generally), you can do whatever you want to me, but if I incur damages due to what you did, then you simply need to pay me for those damages. I don't see why a HOA should be exempt from that obligation.

Much more informative posts rather then Mark and George pi$$ing back and forth.

Yeah, John ... it seems like that. I’m not really interested in fighting with anyone - I am interested in this site being used for it’s intended purpose.

Sure, it’s clear what I think of Mark, but that is because he continues to believe his task on this site is to be negative ... vice positive.

I’m certainly going to make sure advice he provides, if counter to the site’s purpose, is called out as such.

Paul,

You may also be part of the problem.

The purpose of this site is to be positive wrt HOAs ... if you have a problem with this, expect to be called out when you post negative opinions.

No biggie to me, but I will continue to make sure you and others are reminded of our common responsibility to abide by this site’s purpose.

Follow the purpose?

Or, start an “anti HOA” website?

I was thinking more along the lines of... you can follow rules, you can follow guidelines, you can follow instructions, but the "purpose" of anything and everything is subject to subjective interpretation.

I agree. If it is anything to do with association living, it is fair game.