Absentee Landowners not allowed to vote

As an absentee landowner we are not in the area a lot, but we want to be informed of what is happening in our subdivision.

We had a hostile take over about two years ago. The current board threatened all sorts of things but it was useless to fight them mainly because of the nasty attitude of the new board members towards the past board members.

Our bylaws state that we can vote by proxy and/or absentee ballots in our elections. The meetings have been changed to a weekend that is not a holiday. It used to be on a holiday so that more of us could attend.

We get a bill for our dues and a sparse budget for our financials, at least we used to, not sure anymore. It typically comes the end of December.

We have elections and our general meeting sometime in the 4th quarter of the year. We did not have any meeting or elections last year due to "Covid."

This year we were not informed of who was running for office, if anyone was, we were not sent a proxy and we still do not have any information on who is running the association. I asked the question via our private Facebook page on the elections and why we did not get any proxies. I was told they would accept proxies but we would have to provide them. If I do not know how is running how could I even vote? When I started asking questions on Facebook I was deigned access for anymore questions. I can only send an email, and those typically aren't worth the time to send as the answers are useless.

We never received any information and the supposed election was in October. I am one of the past board members of the HOA, I will never do it again.

The current board does not let the absentee land owners run for a board position, do not let us know what is going on, do not post or send us copies of any meetings, will not allow us to have any copies of anything unless we make an appointment 10 days prior to meet with someone. This would require several hours to drive there and spend 10 minutes to be able to look quickly at the information.

According to law we are allowed to have a contact list of our neighbors but we never get one even when we ask.

As far as I am concerned this board is withholding information and are secretly meeting.

At a complete loss as to what to do.

First a full disclosure - I really don't like absentee landlords. Granted, there are some good ones (I served with two on our board), but for the most part, we had too many who let anyone who could fog a mirror rent the units (I live in a townhouse community), didn't educate them on the rules and basically used the association as their pseudo property manager while they sat back and collected rent checks. Some wouldn't pay assessments and so we spent a ton of money chasing after them. Most were LLCs and so we ended up having to write off most of what was owed.

So, there is a part of me that gives a side eye to offsite owner-landlords who start complaining about how the community is run. Maybe if you spent more time in the community, at least introduce yourself to the people living next door, maybe you'd have a better idea as to what's going on.

Now that I got that off my chest....you ARE a homeowner and therefore you're entitled to know how assessments are being spent, what the board voted on during meetings, etc. COVID has been used as an excuse for too many boards - there were alternatives such as the old-fashioned conference call, and options like Zoom (and they aren't the only online meeting platform out there). It may be the current board dislikes owner-landlords and so this is their way of retaliation. Which really doesn't make any sense - if cra-cra tenants are the issue, rule enforcement is critical and the heat should come down on the homeowners (owner-occupants and other folk) who rent to them.

If you don't have ANY information on anything, start by checking with the property manager, if there is one. Make sure all your contact information is up to date and tell him/her you'd like copies of monthly income/expense statements for this year (through November, because we're not done with December yet), along with board meeting minutes, the date of the annual meeting, how many spots are open on the board or at least who's running for election or re-election. Get as much information as you can by email because it's faster. The proxies and ballots will likely have to be mailed and since Christmas is upon us, it may take a little longer for that to show up.

Once you have the election information, make plans to show up, whether it's on Zoom or a live meeting (wear a mask - Omnicon or whatever the new variant is called, is supposed to be more contagious than Delta). Introduce yourself and tell them you may be an absentee owner, but are still interested in making the community a better place. Then listen - if there are complaints they may not necessarily be about your tenants, but if they are, fix it.

After that, show folks you mean what you say by visiting the community more often, making sure YOUR tenants are behaving. If they have issues with their neighbors, YOU need to take the lead in helping sort them out.

That's just a start and I hope you can prove me and other folks (maybe the board and your neighbors?) about absentee landlords. Good luck to you - and I truly mean that!

The property is vacant land that we have built homes on. The property is actually in New Mexico, that is why it so difficult for the absentees to attend meetings.

There are no condos.

We do not have a property manager, all of the board is volunteer.

Our election was in October, I didn't mean to confuse anyone. When I was on the board we tried to have our yearly meeting over a holiday so that the absentee land owners had the opportunity to attend. But now the new board is not interested in any thing that the absentee owners have to say and do not want them on the board. They made a resolution to not allow absentees.

We spend our summers there and would like to be part of the subdivision even though we may not live there full time.