New Board Member questions

Short of filing a lawsuit, your hands are pretty much tied until the developer does not control a majority of the board.

Other veterans will post here soon. Stay tuned.

Well, AugustineD and John have given you a good head start. The developer pretty much runs the show until the community is turned over to the homeowners. Usually, they (or he, in this case) also hire the property management company, but after the homeowners take charge, they can decide whether to stay with that company or hire another.

If the clubhouse landscaping is looking dreadful, it could be John and/or the property manager are fighting with whoever's been hired to maintain it. I suspect if you spoke to the landscaper, you might hear something about not being paid to do what's already been done, and therefore, there won't be any watering, mowing or anything else until the account's bought current.

This may also mean John is having money issues - 250 homes built and 600 planned doesn't sound like progress, depending on how the community currently is, and the current financial issues of the country thanks to COVID isn't helping. Hold on to your knickers, you may be seeing the beginning of money drama.

What to do in the meantime? Since you're the resident board member, keep on speaking up on behalf of your neighbors, noting to the others that if the property starts to look run down, potential buyers may move on. If the clubhouse's landscaping is crappy, what will you find if you go inside the building?

Meanwhile, start looking at the HOA documents to see what the association is supposed to provide, and then start keeping some sort of punch list of things in the common area (like the clubhouse) the developer should have completed before the homeowners take over. When it gets closer to the time of the takeover, you and the new board will need that if you end up having to take legal action to blast the developer into getting things done. If the developer ends up going bankrupt and bailing on the project (which happens far more than you think), you'll need to know what you're looking at in order to set assessments to pay to finish everything up.

I often recommend people take a look at the Community Association Institute's website - it's a national organization of HOAs, property management companies and related vendors. It has a lot of good educational materials out there for new and experienced board members, not very expensive (cheaper if you join) and there's a book on transitioning from a developer to a homeowner run community. In your case, that's the first book, I'd get so you can talk to other neighbors on how to proceed (you may be the genesis of the future board).

There are also books on reserves, hiring property managers, rule enforcement and other HOA stuff that will be useful to you, and if you're really lucky, there may be a local chapter in your area, where you can attend seminars and meet people from other communities to exchange ideas and horror stories on what to avoid. Good luck!

Like others:
- start collecting every possible record of every possible transaction
- archive every discussion
- maintain a log of every discussion
- try and get as many promises and information as possible by email
- review county code and see if there is a circumstance where they will do enforce tall grass, etc

By all the above, be clear with the declarant that you are putting him on notice - notice he will be tracked and everything said and done, or not done, will be recorded and archived.

Consider getting an attorney to start working the file up - make sure the declarant knows this is ongoing.