New HOA forming

I am currently building in a community that the HOA is putting together by-laws. I am concerned because unlimited powers are being given to the board of 5 individuals. This same group has already put the HOA into debt and they assessed each lot $200 to pay for roads after they assured us there was money in the budget and no assessment would be necessary. Does this seem right, or am I being negative? I seem to be the only person concerned.

Thank you for responding regarding the new HOA. First of all it is a Florida gated private fly-in community and the developer turned over the association in 2006. They elected the board and were operating with CC&R but not by-laws. They had a meeting and voted to pave the roads and at the meeting was told there were sufficient funds in the budget to cover the cost, no assessment would be needed. The paving was done but somehow there was an assessment of $200 per lot. I would guess the paving went over $25,000 There was a taxi way paved that directly benefited the president of the association as he had a spec house and his hangar needed the taxi way. That was the only common area belonging to the association. The taxi way was paved without any approval. They also wanted to chage me and anyone else $500 to build on the lots they purchased years ago. Every lot owner has paid dues since the developer started the community. I attended the last BOD meeting and was treated like a leper beause of my concerns. Those concerns are the draft of the by-law I recieved. This will be a second home for me, so I offered by-law from my homeowners association (which is a WCI community) and those limit the powers of the board. The new HOA wants to give power without limitation to the board. My problem is that nobody seems concerned about these matter but me. I feel helpless and wondered if it is the norm to give the board power without limitation? Am I being negative?

You have every right to be concerned. Why shouldn't you be? You have invested a lot of money in the property and will pay a yearly fee to maintain it and the surrounding area.

The price could have gone up on the paving contract between the time they got the estimate until the time the actual work was done. You don't say how many homes were involved but if a taxi way was paved that was probably a lot more than $25,000. We just seal coated our streets and it cost more than that. A vote was not needed because they did not have By-Laws to tell them that a capitol improvement needs a vote. Check your CC&R's you may find it in there.

If they do not have By-Laws and you gave them a copy of WCI you did a good deed. WCI is very comprehensive and usually (depending on the year they were produced) align themselves with FL 720. If and when it comes to a vote to approve the By-Laws scan them well. If you have a concern about a certain statute in them, object.

The By-Laws will guide the management of the community and the BOD has to have guidelines of what they can do and what they cannot do. If you don't have the By-laws now they have to follow FL 720. Look this up, it has a lot of language that should be included in the By-Laws.

Good luck.