HOA not doing their job

I live in a small subdivision with only about 50 homes.....been here for 16 years. Board members have come and gone....my late husband being one of the first. We were very much involved in many HOA's over the years due to many moves. The present board seems to be slacking in their duties as of late. There are homes badly in need of painting....one home has poison oak growing up over the house....We have regular trash pickup on Monday. On Thursday we can put out grass clippings, boxes, household items and such....Several homeowners have begun to put out the grass clipping in bags on Friday or the weekend. This means it stays at the curb until Thursday pickup.....Ok, I am a widow with time on my hands....I have a new puppy and we walk a lot.....I have mentioned to the board of my concerns....the neighborhood is starting to look unkempt....they say they will not address these problems.... One member of the board actually put out yard waste on the weekend after I mentioned it I believe just to piss me off. People are out of work, have personal problems They say.....we all have problems, but we owe it to our community to maintain our property. We are talking about $400.000-$500,000 homes. Nothing is getting done. I had a political sign out in my yard in 2020.....they were right on top of that and made me take it down.....while my next door neighbor had a "My Child is a fifth grade graduate" sign in their yard for two months! I follow the rules, and always have....As far as the sign, we are only allowed for sale and for rent signs per the covenants. I did switch the political sign for a flag....no problem there. I have given up on the HOA, and am just doing my best....But I hate to see what is happening....Is there any recourse? I stated my concerns and they have just let it go.

Are there others willing to run for the board that share your views about enforcement (possibly yourself too)? If so, get them to run and campaign on their behalf. This could include signs, talking to neighbors, even collecting proxies. HOAs are similar to governmental bodies in that you should try to elect directors who share your views of how things should be handled.

If nobody else is interested in running, then your association will have to accept the board they have.

Judy,
As a Wife of an Ex board member you should be aware of a few things. The process can take a long time with warning letters. Waiting for responses and also having the owners play the game of not responding. After a while and all of the first steps are exhausted it could go to a lawyer and then it is out of the boards hands all together. The board members are not allowed to talk about any of this with neighbors.

As a board member for many years it is very frustrating for us as well. For the most part we all want the same things in our HOAs.

You said it earlier - apathy appears to be a problem in your community, and until that gets resolved, there may not be much you can do. You can go to the next meeting and speak your piece on the matter. Don't worry about the board member - she's only one vote after all.

Since there doesn't appear to be a rule, you could suggest that the board enact one. Your husband was on the board and should know if the board has the authority to enact additional rules as long as they don't supersede the CCRs. If you aren't sure, read the documents yourself (you're a homeowner after all). To drive home the point, you can always take photos of some of the sorrier-looking houses - stay on the sidewalk and make sure the house numbers aren't in the photos (everyone will know which house you're talking about anyway). Note this is what visitors see when they drive through the community and it isn't a good look. Sometimes people don't realize it's a problem until they look at it from the perspective of someone else.

Better yet, if you have neighbors who agree with you, perhaps all of you can volunteer to serve as an advisory committee to the board - you say you have lots of time on your hands, this could be a way to use up some of that. Call it a community cleanliness committee or something, to study the issue in detail and make recommendations on rules or other activities, such as sponsoring a monthly recycling campaign where people can toss recyclables, such as broken electronic equipment, which can't go in the trash anyway.

You could file a lawsuit against the association, but this is time-consuming and costly. https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-owners-can-do-if-hoa-common-areas-are-not-maintained.html