Strange Happenings

In 2020 I served on our HOA BOD and also as the President of a small 189 unit single family community. Values are about $400-$500K. In 2021 I relinguished this job and just went back to being an HOA memmber and occasional volunteer.

In the July/August 2021 time frame I stared getting calls, texts and the occasional neighbors asking me one question "HOW DO WE GET RID OF THE MANAGEMENT COMAPANY" that the new BOD hired. Until then I had heard some rumors but I had very little interaction with the new BOD and thier new managment company. I listened to some of thir complaints and I was somewhat appalled at what I was being told. Not one family had issues but at least 14 differnt homeowners shared the problems with getting ZERO response from the management company. (Later I discovered there were amny more) The HOA BOD had dropped all it's email addresses and also the HOA website. EVRYTHING goes to managment and from some of the letters I was shown by my nighbors I couldn't believe what I was reading. I'll not get into this but by late August I was being unindated with the same question. How do we fire these people.

I told them that unless they wanted to hire an attorney, a very expensive process, with no gurantees , the best way was to vote the curent board out and a new BOD in. The new board can then decide not to renew the contract or possibly terminate it early. Having not seen the contract terms I couldn't say which was best.

Three weeks ago 7 people ran for the HOA BOD postions. We are allowed 3 BOD members/officers. About 90 people and 35 proxies were present for the meeting and election. A little over 60% of our HOA. A great turnout.

Long story short I and 2 other "newbies" were the top vote getters. (I'm told the old BOD got 3 votes total) At the end of the night it was very clear the outgoing BOD was not happy!

Here's the problem. Over the past 3 weeks the newly elected BOD has reached out to the old BOD to obtain keys, lockbox combos, passwords and other bits and pieces of information to allow us to begin the process of runing the HOA. We have gotten NO RESPONSE. They do not answer the phone, do not respond to emails, text messages and 2 USPS deliveredd letters askinng to set a time and date to provide us keys to the buildings, the lockbox combos, access to the security system, which is locked away and password protected. (A note. My old BOD turned over keys and vital stuff the following day in 2020.)

Today I instructed the other BOD members to make no further efforts to reach out to the old BOD. I have also twice reached out to the managment comapany and advised them of the situation. They haven't responed.

Worse yet is the fact that the day after the election my new Board signed a letter asking for all the records, fiancials, bank statements, and a copy of the contract with the HOA to be deivered to us within one week after the election. I was told by a former BOD member who quit earlier in 2021 that all records wer didigtized and were normally sent via email/email attachements. I am not sure where any original documents are.

As of today, 3 weeks after the election the managment comapany has not provided us with a single document. A face to face meeting request with the property manager has been ignored and we were told in an email we can set up a 1 hour Zoom meeting with him the 3rd week of December. I am somewhat flabergasted at this type of treatment frome some we are paying and lack of help from both the outgoing board and the management company. My colleagues want to contact an attorney but I see thousands of dollars being wasted.

Has anyone else ever run into this issue. If so, any ideas?
Thanks.
DennisG7

My ex-board was taken over by the group I had spent years protecting the rest of the membership from. Knew they were going to ruin the HOA if they ever got in charge. Unfortunately, I was correct and it happened sooner than expected. Ended up just letting it all go and moving on with my life. However, in your case you jumped right in! Good for you!

Now what would I do? Not waste time/money getting a lawyer. That just will make things worse. Just take a breath. Step up and start from scratch on a few things. They won't give you all keys? Hire a locksmith to change them out. Have proof you are a HOA member and have the right to do it first of course. Just have a vote to vote to make new keys. Much cheaper option.

For records, keep requesting in writing for them. It may take 30 days to produce. So be a bit more patient. They have to provide them sooner or later. In the meantime, do what you can to "reinvent" what you need/want. Plus review what you all want a PM to do for the HOA. Time to go shopping for a new one.

It sounds like your old board got sucked into a PM that offered them the world. May not have checked them out properly. Something got them sold on using them. Start making plans on getting alternative bids so when their contract is up or proven violated, you have one in line.

Good luck. It's not going to be easy. Consider this a "clean slate" in order to start doing business different. I started bringing a copy of our rules to each meeting. Referred to them directly when questioned. Set new rules up for 3 bid process. Established a 6 month lien/1 year considered foreclosing policy. Recommended owners put in a clause for tenants to follow HOA rules. Just time to start living for the future if the past isn't catching up in time.

Stranger things have happened. The previous board is in a tiff. The MC knows that they were part of the change and the member's grievances.

I agree with Melissa as far as collecting everything you can and starting from scratch. Move forward on what you can while collecting information. Talk to anyone who might know about happenings prior to the previous board. Treat it as a puzzle and collect pieces.

Securing a copy of the MC contact should be at the top of your list. Schedule the Zoom meeting. Start interviewing new MC's.

You may need to hire an attorney. To minimize those costs, have 1 Board member for point of contact with the attorney. Organize your concerns into 1 email. Begin with your main concern. Record turnover. Our attorney requires board approval for consultations. Provide that up front.

Even under the smoothest of transitions, allow at least 3 months for things to settle down and expect surprises for at least 6 months.