oh boy,, Please provide clarification

Hi,

I have specific questions regarding a board acting outside of its authority or refusing to act within its fiduciary duty.

1. Our community has a standing meeting once a month. This is a board meeting. Homeowners don't have a right to participate in the meetings. However, there has always been a right an owner to submit in writing a request for the board to add an item to the meeting agenda for board consideration.

I had requested an item be added to the agenda via an email to a board member with who I am friendly.
He didn't agree with my request. As in, he would not support the request. That's fine. However, he then said since he didn't agree with my request, he wasn't going to pass the request for addition to the agenda along to the board member who was creating the agenda.

At the meeting tonight, The board member asked for clarification from the parliamentarian. If a board member doesn't agree with or support the owner request, do they still have to submit it for addition to the agenda? The parliamentarian told the board member that if the board member didn't agree with the request, they didn't have to submit it.

2. During a board meeting held via zoom. A board member was giving information to other board members that was factually incorrect and left out material information that would prevent thorough consideration of a proposal. If none of the other board members are aware of this piece of information, they are likely to approve the proposal. What is the proper course of action to take to ensure that the board is provided all relevant information?

3. The board passed an increase in monthly assessment for the association. I know this is within their authority. However, did not send an announcement to owners. The only indication given to owners was when we received our preprinted payment book. I do not believe the the legal notice requirements were met for this vote.
according to the state of texas for condominiums. the board can meet electronically provided certain conditions are met.
1. each board member agrees to the electronic meeting.
2. each board member can hear and be heard by all participants.
3. proper notice was given to all board members as required by our bylaw AND proper notice was given to any owners who requested in writing notice of board meetings.

while our documents are silent as to what exactly notice entails. texas nonprofit corporate statute states that, generally, proper notice would include date, time , place and general topics to be covered during the meeting.

The board meeting where the board added to the agenda and voted on whether or not to raise assessments occurred last month. Despite several written requests, I was never provided the general subjects, topics up for consideration. This ends up resulting in no owners being able to voice their opinions or concerns to the board. It's basically stacking the deck to ensure nothing is questioned.

While i agree the board has the right to pass an increase. Isn't it also true that they must follow our documents and statute that govern notice requirements.

I'm pretty sure my legal stance is solid. However, i have no desire to go to court. It's the blatant disregard for proper notice requirements when making decisions that affect all homeowners . The lack of any transparency or information regarding what is going on. When owners do attend meetings(zoom) they are allowed to speak during a 5 minute allocation. However, if they ask a question. the board isnt' required to answer. All access to board members is so choked off that it breeds apathy and resentment.

Is there any way other than going to court that the board will be required to do the consideration and vote over? this time with proper notice and giving owners a chance to comment.

Is there ANYONE in your community that you don't have beef with?? First it was the property manager (at least two that I remember) and now the board.

I have to wonder what your end game is on all this. You have every right to expect the board do its job according to the documents, but what are you really honked off about this time? The assessment increase or the board not agreeing to put your suggested item on the meeting agenda?

You need to pick your battles - in this case, it may be the best thing to start rallying together your neighbors to vote these folks out of office since I have a suspicion your board won't listen to whatever you say because of all the skirmishes in the past. And screaming lawsuit every time something isn't done the way you want gets really old.

I'm sure by now all the homeowners are aware of the increase - if they're just as concerned, I'm sure they will speak up on that or whatever else the board is doing. You said the board has the power to increase assessments anyway, so if that's a done deal, why not ask the reason for the increase? Did you read the new budget? Are there upcoming major projects? Does the reserve fund need an infusion of cash because you have something coming up next year?

Those are the type of questions to bring to the board, but I think you make this stuff personal all the time. You'll never get anywhere at this rate.

Fix it, live with it, or move.

-- Texas statutes do not speak of any such right.

-- AFAIC, if your COA's directors have the right to submit agenda topics, and the director to whom you submitted your topic said, "No, I will not.", then your HOA's parliamentarian got it right.

-- All Robert's Rules says is that either the president or the 'executive team' (the board) sets the agenda. (Not that Robert's Rules necessarily applies here. It depends on whether the Board adopted Robert's Rules or the Bylaws say to use Robert's Rules.)

-- In Texas (and by my reading, in most or all states),owners do not have an absolute right to have topics added to the agenda of a board meeting.In Texas, write a letter addressed to the registered agent (usually, the manager). Send it certified mail, return receipt requested, especially if you think the proposal pr Board action may have either liability or safety implications.I find nothing in either the Texas condo statutes or the Texas nonprofit corporation act to support your contention that owners must be informed of any topic on the Board meeting's agenda.

If you think otherwise, please provide the section number of the condo statutes and/or the nonprofit corporation statute that you believe supports your contention.The only requirements I see in TPC 81, TPC 82 and the BO22 (meaning the nonprofit corporation act) are time and place. From the Texas nonprofit corporation act:

Unless required by the bylaws, the business to be transacted at, or the purpose of, a regular or special meeting of the board of directors is not required to be specified in the notice or waiver of notice of the meeting.

Texas statutes give you no right to know the general subjects or topics up for consideration. From TPC 82.108 (applicable to all Texas condos):

An association, on the written request of a unit owner, shall inform the unit owner of the time and place of the next regular or special meeting of the board. If the association representative to whom the request is made does not know the time and place of the meeting, the association promptly shall obtain the information and disclose it to the unit owner or inform the unit owner where the information may be obtained.

LaskaS, From past threads, I know you are well aware of TPC 81, TPC 82 and BO22 (the two condo statutes and the nonprofit corporation statute, respectfully). Yet it appears you did not bother to check them. Above, you are batting well below 0.500 in your contentions. That is, you posted a number of blatant falsehoods.

If I (augustind) were on your Board and received a complaint identical to your first post above, then at this point, knowing full well you have a copy of the Bylaws and know where the statutes are on the web, I would be requiring you to cite and quote verbatim every bylaw and statute section that you assert supports your contentions.

augstine,, thanks for the clarification.
I did not know that 82 tuca did in fact specify only date and time.

For those critical posters, these are not new concerns, they are the same concerns i've often written about.

Augustine, after reading your responses. I agree. I was wrong on this issue. I thought the texas nonprofit code regarding notice requirements applied. Augustine provided the correct applicable code. Augustine for the record. I did search and seek the answer before posting here. With all due respect, I don't just assume I'm right on issues and then start argueing .. I ALWAYS LOOK TO THE DOCUMENTS. however. our documents are vague or silent on many issues.

Its unfortunate that many of you respond in such a critical way. There's a reason this forum has hundreds of pages of threads . The hoa and property code varies from state to state and there is no real enforcement. Homeowners are at the mercy of boards that often are not required to have any qualifications.

Board members acting outside their authority is not a rare occurrence. Geez.

Anyway, The elections are next month. There are 5 seats up for election( the board is trying to change the number of seats up for election to 4.) There are 10 people running for those 5 seats. This is huge progress. If the 5 candidates(i am one of them) who are putting their name up for election are in fact elected. The board makeup and majority will be changed. It's up to the owners. I've done all i can do.

Laska

My suggestion with respect to the comments of several others is you read the last three paragraphs of your post:

From what AugustinD posted, and with which you have stated you agree, the Board did follow the association documents and statutes.

Your legal stance was not solid. There was not blatant disregard for proper notice requirements. There was no lack of transparency. The five minute Open Forum is all the Board is required to provide owners to address the Board. The Board is not required to respond to questions or other matters raised in the open forum. I know this rankles with you, it does with many others in other associations. It is no different than the Open Forum in the local city or county council meetings. The elected officials are not required to respond and mostly do not. Your Board should treat you and any other owner with respect and listen to what you have to say. Beyond that, they are not required to do anything.

With respect to the agenda items, the agenda item important to you is not necessarily important to the Board. Just because you believe it should be heard does not mean it should or will be.

To be frank, you may have worn out your welcome.

There is no way to reverse the decision of the Board with respect to the assessment increase other than going to court, and, based on the responses you received from Augustin, your plea would not be heard.

As you are well aware, we do not have an "Ombudsperson" or similar HOA/Condo Association oversight agency in Texas. No agency short of the courts will intervene in the matter of the assessment increase.

You were mostly objective in your post until the last three paragraphs. I, and apparently others, disagree with your "fangs bared, sleeves rolled up, I'm going to 'lawyer up' approach at the end.

You did not seek assistance in determining if your facts and assumptions were correct, you automatically assumed they were. You were seeking validation the Board did not cross all the "T"s and dot all the "I"s and therefore must be taken to task.

You mentioned you are running for a seat on the Board. If you are elected, may I strongly suggest you keep your eyes wide open and your voice silent. I know you know the ins and outs of the matters of importance in your association, you will not be effective with what seems to be frequent confrontation. If you believe there are issues, build a consensus with other members of the Board with respect to addressing the issues.

Bill,

thank you for your comments.

I will respectfully disagree with the following.

You did not seek assistance in determining if your facts and assumptions were correct, you automatically assumed they were.

I absolutely was seeking assistance in determining if my facts and assumptions were correct. That's why I created the post in the first place.

My assumptions were wrong. I mistakenly used a law firm's interpretation of the notice requirements . I didn't just make up the requirement out of thin air.
Once Augustine provided the actual correct information. I realized my mistake.

regarding the election , If myself and the other 4 candidates are elected., absentee owners will no longer have total control of the priorities and issues that the association addresses.

One of the overriding problems since harvey has been that absentee owners were the only ones running for the board. The last two years. the annual. elections protocol was significantly changed. While there is no requirement for board members to be residents. Common sense dictates that for governance and upkeep of the common areas, ,residents should be included . Anyway, hopefully next month the balance of interests on the board will significantly change and resident owner concerns will have a say in voting on decisions and priorities.

Required by what statute?

This is good practice, but for Texas HOA/COA Board meetings, I do not think Texas statutes require an open forum segment.

Augustin

Regarding the Open Forum requirement, yes, you are correct, there is no statutory requirement--at least that I am aware of.

We have one client whose documents require the Board to provide a " . . . reasonable period for owners to address the Board, either before the meeting is called to order, or following adjournment."

Regardless, all our clients follow the practice, as do the sub and master associations in which we reside.

the formal procedure for our community pre harvey was, submit a request by contacting the office manager at least 3 days before the board meeting. and an owner would be added to the agenda.

That hasn't been followed since pre harvey.

Augustine, I had seen the article you referenced before. I too like a lot of the things it says. And when i reread it today, I realized that maybe the board member who i am friends with may have a point in not wanting to present my request. He knew it wouldn't pass. I knew it wouldn't pass. I wanted to add it to the agenda because it's something that the association office should be doing. Most of the board agreed it was needed. But 6 months ago they delayed implementing it because" it would be too hard on the acting property manager," who is actually a board member and was only supposed to fill the office temporarily. So now 6 months has passed, i'm sure everyone thought it would be forgotten. .. Well, there still is no centralized , scheduled maintenance log for the owner requests and common area repairs and maintenance work that is done. I wanted to add it to the agenda to have it on the record and then have a record of the board not insisting on it.

anyway..

what I like about 209 is the requirement of transparency and due notice when the board is going to be considering certain items.

anyway, the annual meeting is next month. but as per usual. there won't be enough proxies or in person owners to meet quorum, thus, The actual election will take place in march.

Im considering setting up docusign and sending an email to all owners. asking for their support and making it easy for them to assign their proxy using docusign.,
it's been done before when we had a recall vote.

attention to their intelligence? are you calling me smart. thanks melissa it's the first time you've said anything positive.