Truly Awful Residents and Contemplating Resigning

Hey all,

I've been on my board for about a year and a half and have really enjoyed it for the most part. It is one of the more stressful things I've ever done (even more so that owning a multi location business for going on 11 years now). The management co has been awful and since a builder was our third member for a year most things became a fight.

We've finally got some new members and things were starting to look up but a dispute with a resident had really made me reconsider continuing on the board. There was an argument about them tossing their tree trimming over the fence onto our trail while I was walking my dog on the trail one night. I recorded the entire ordeal, they did not. Lots of neighbors came out too since they were being so crazy. When the cops finally showed up the said they wanted to press charges for assault. I never did anything to hurt them and the video proves it. The cop has helped us before with issues like this and says nothing will probably come of it, but they didn't record my videos like they usually do. I hired an attorney (cost me $2000) to help before it turns into anything. He said any prosecutor that sees the videos will know they're crazy and lying, and he's going to try to get those videos to the prosecutor. He said if anything, they'll suggest pressing assault charges against them for all the physical threats they made. It's an awful situation to be in and it's been consuming me. I've always feared retaliation from an upset resident, but never lying to the police about something like that.

I've mentioned it to a few of the board members and our manager and they all hope I don't quit. They've said things like no one else in the neighborhood cares as much as you and have mentioned how much it'll help the neighborhood.

I really do care and have put a ton of my own time and money into this. We've got 652 homes and I've only had to deal with 2 or 3 super-Karens. I've never been as stressed or depressed as I've been because of this latest situation. I've never wanted to be at war with any neighbors and go out of my way to make everyone happy here.

I've been researching resigning and was considering forming a trail and pond committee then resigning. I'd help around the trail but not deal with any of the resident stuff. I don't think I can quit via the zoom meeting with residents without crying though, and really don't want to do that infront of all my neighbors. The three new board members all said they joined because I was on the board. I'm torn and don't know what to do.

Attorney has suggested a protection order due to the harassment I've been getting from these guys since the ordeal, but fears these guys may retaliate in a major way if I send anything their way.

Yes, they can be awful. I had my next door neighbor (condo renter) threaten me in front of a police officer because I and some neighbors reported him for a dog off leash/poop violation. We had a problem and were reporting everyone.

I am now in possession of a "No trespassing" card I can pull if he even rings my doorbell. He still makes comments after 4 months every time he sees me. I just ignore him, but sometimes it is hard. He's a renter and as an owner I'm not going anywhere.

Don't give up. I don't confront anyone anymore, just observe and report. It's crazy out there. Use the MC as a buffer whenever you can. I also went out and purchased a wireless camera for my front and back door areas. With it I can see my front door, back door, and any activity around my car. I found it to be great investment for my peace of mind.

I've been on our Board for almost 9 years. Resigned 2 times. Not because of resident's but because of other Board members. Kept getting asked back after they all resigned. Been on now for over 6 years. Have Board support, but sometimes it's hard to want to stay. No one else wants this job and I really don't blame them.

Savor the accomplishments and keep going!

You're a volunteer. You spend your personal time to help out the association. Why not just make a personal decision to only work on the trail and pond work and decide to let others handle the resident stuff?

It's one of the great things about being a volunteer is you choose exactly what you want to work on and what you don't.

For me, I am primarily on the board to manage our parks. They take a lot of time, and I think it's fun working on it. I don't really care to get involved in compliance, house paint colors, or other things like that, so I don't volunteer for those activities.

So first they fight with the builder then they fight with management and now they fight with homeowners. Sounds like a personal problem and dysfunctional board and not following business basics, I say correct the process for complaints or resign. I’m on the side of resigning because you don’t sound like someone who resolves issues without making things more complicated.

"If you do stay on the board, you should be aware that it's not your job to correct owners one-on-one. If you spot a violation of your CC&Rs, document it and write up a formal complaint to send to the rest of the board. This is the correct way to handle these things, and it's safer. Even getting into less-serious spats with other homeowners will hurt your ability to do your job, so it should be avoided.|

Absolutely this is very important advice. I am our sole resident board member while we are under developer control, and I have people urging me to confront people who are violating the rules; such as if an under-aged grandchild is in the swimming pool at our 55+ community. I explain to them that I am not a hall monitor of a police officer. We have a process for handling violations, and that process does not involve confrontation at the time of a violation.

You write it up, send them a notice, and going through the process. The problem in this post was confronting the other resident. That is a recipe for disaster.

I’m sorry this is making you feel this way but I can relate and after 7 years I also decided to resign this week. And it’s a huge weight off my shoulders. We volunteer our time for pretty much nothing and at the end of the day no one truly cares what you do or did to make things better, easier, nicer for your community - they only remember how horrible the board is, how stupid the HOA is. I don’t get why people who hate HOA’s so much would buy a house that has one? Baffling, most of them existed before you bought so it’s not a secret. Anyway good for you and best of luck!

JonL

It sounds like you confronted some people and they confronted you back. Why did you not walk away and just note the violation?

I did resign in July. Our management company would not help us (and still won't). It was only myself and one other board member that did nothing but he did not want to switch companies. The manager called me and apologized for not helping and said RealManage wasn't helping her. She quit a few weeks later. The replacement has already quit too and couldn't even go over the budget. Now there are five members and nothing that i was begging for help fixing due to fixing it all myself is getting done. The neighborhood looks like shit. Pond/trail is flooded since no one is fighting the beaver or unclogging it anymore, the lawn guys wrecked into the $500 trash cans we put along the trail and they're just left there, full of wasps (I did a good job securing them!).

The people lied to the police. I was sick of cleaning up their trash every day. I had the whole incident on video. Detective wouldn't watch it and said "I don't care I'm pressing charges anyway". Attorney is doing a great job getting it all dropped. She told the 911 operator that I didn't do it, and didn't see the video before giving her statement, which proves everything she said was a lie. They've offered a plea of basically a traffic ticket but I'm not taking it. I'm going to sue them.

Residents reach out once or twice a week for help. I tell them I resigned and share my review of the management co with them so they can see what we were dealing with. Other guy is Pres now and just keeps delegating stuff to other people and nothing gets done. So many people complaining on nextdoor. I really want to help with the pond clog but it's not my place anymore. I have a greenbelt/pond view from my backyard so I'm enjoying the extra water!

JonL8 wow, I agree that resigning was the best thing in your case. What an awful situation. I hope it is able to be rectified somehow. Its terrible when something as benign as an HOA devolves into such chaos and drama!

652 homes in an Association is nuts!!!! Way too large for a group of volunteers to manage even with a management company. This size of an Association is structured to have a lot of stress caused by individual owners or by the everything demands of running the Assocation. Do not put in your own money into running something that is the responsibility of everyone. People will encourage you to stay because of your work ethic and your money.

The reason I think anything over about 100 homes is nuts is because the greater the number of owners in a HOA/COA, the greater the chances either the HOA/COA will sue or an owner will sue. These lawsuits often are all-consuming.

We have 825 homes in our master association and it works very well, but we do have management company and 2.5 full time employees. I think there's a huge jump from a small, self-managed HOA to a larger managed HOA but a larger one isn't inherently bad or difficult to run.