Getting records from old board.

On January 26 I was voted to be the president of our HOA. I have already met with our HOA lawyer to request the records from the old board. The only thing she did was email to previous president, I was not satisfied with that. It’s already February 11 and I still do not have any records, HOA mailbox key and bank account updated etc. I have emailed the old board requesting all of that, but I’m not getting any response. What can I do to request all the documents? I am meeting with the lawyer again on Tuesday February 16 what can I request from her?

What records do you need and why? You probably don't need everything from the beginning of time - starting with the last five years or so (board meeting minutes, owner list, financial reports, most recent reserve study) would be a good start. Anything older than that should be stored somewhere and you do need to find out where that is.

You didn't say if your community is self-managed or has a property manager - if you have a property manager, you might want to start there. You said "the old board" - was everyone replaced? If so, some of them may also have records, especially the treasurer and secretary. Call all of them and see who has what and then give them a deadline for turning that over to you. By the way, you do know we're still in a pandemic, right? I don't know what the weather's like in your area, but that could also be a reason for the delay.

If you don't get anything, talk to the HOA attorney - and this time, have him or her send a formal letter (certified, return receipt requested). Spell out everything you need, so you can check against what you do get. If nothing happens and you don't get an explanation, the attorney may have to take legal action against the previous board members.

Once you get everything, the next thing you need to do is come up with some sort of formal storage system so you or your successor won't have to run all over the place. It's not appropriate to shove everything in a box and put it in a garage where it can get damaged and forgotten about. Or someone moves away and tosses the documents as junk, or he/she passes away and the family does it because they don't know what it is and it still looks like Junk

You will also need to talk to your association attorney and master insurance company about developing a document retention system to ensure you hang on to the important staff and destroy other things in a secure manner that doesn't reveal personal owner information. As for keys and all that, the policy should address turning these things over to the new administration within a certain amount of time - and what happens if it's not done (which should include legal action, if appropriate).

-- Is this a condominium?

-- Ask for all records listed in the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation statute that the HOA corporation is required to maintain. See https://casetext.com/statute/code-of-georgia/title-14-corporations-partnerships-and-associations/chapter-3-nonprofit-corporations/article-16-records-and-reports/part-1-records/section-14-3-1601-required-corporate-records

-- Ask for any records expressly mentioned in your covenants as being records of the HOA.

-- Good riddance to the two who wanted compensation (an unlawful waiver of dues) for their volunteer service.

-- Would you please indicate by name the person to whom you are responding? Some of us don't respond unless we are expressly called out.

The Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Act's requirements for Board quorum appear here:

https://casetext.com/statute/code-of-georgia/title-14-corporations-partnerships-and-associations/chapter-3-nonprofit-corporations/article-8-directors-and-officers/part-2-meetings-and-action-of-the-board/section-14-3-824-quorum-when-director-deemed-to-assent-to-action

That a one-director Board constitutes a quorum for all Board meetings is entirely possible, even likely, under Georgia law.

AugustinD It’s condos we have three buildings with 23 units. Yearly budget for each homeowner with dues $1,600. No one else wants to be on the board so that’s way I’m planning on bringing up about hiring a company. No homeowner wants to spend any money on a company or attorney fee so hopefully I can push someone to be on the board.

Read the statute section I linked. Note the qualifier regarding governing documents.

Why don't you and another board member go and knock on their door?

Anya

Do not be surprised if there literally are no records. Not every BOD/person keeps good records.

Read you Bylaws as to what the size of your BOD should be. Many will say 3 to 7 members. Go around knocking on doors to recruit. As the only BOD Member you can appoint at least one other and now the two of you can agree on who to appoint as the 3rd and so on. Once a 3rd then 2 of you 3 can appoint the 4th, etc. With a total of 23 owners, I expect a BOD of 3 would be sufficient.

With a budget of $36K I doubt you can afford a management company. Look at hiring a Bookkeeper only.

I need more context here. How could there have been 1 member prior on the HOA? Was this HOA developer owned or is it owner owned? If so, where are you Articles of Incorporation to make you a legal non-profit corporation to collect dues? Where are you current dues being sent to be collected?

Am I missing a bouncing ball here if your sending in dues where do you send them to? How do you have a HOA lawyer for an HOA that has no records? How are you paying the bills?

If you can't get the pre-existing records why not start a new?

This message was meant for everybody not anyone specific.