Member Requesting HOA Financial Info in Michigan

Myself and other members been requesting our HOA Detailed Yearly Financial Records for the past few years.
Our HOA Law Firm keeps giving us the runaround with Michigan Laws stating we need a specific reasons to see
The Finance’s. We'v gotten copies of the IRS 990’s (15 yrs worth) and we see that our Board has Cell Ph Bills
And Charge Cards on the Tax Forms. Our 157 member HOA is Managed by our Member Board (No Mgt. Co.).
We don’t have a Hot-Line for our HOA, also we want to see what items were put on the HOA Charge Card.
Question: Under what laws can we (the members) compel the HOA Board to show us the Detailed Financial Records?
We don’t want to see Members stuff, but exactly how the Board spent our money.

We were in that situation several years ago. We hired an attorney to write a demand letter to the board. It was not that expensive, like $100 or somewhere around there. He wrote it in such a way to suggest that if they didn't turn over what we were specifically asking for, we were going to ask for ALL the records to hyper inspect. We got the docs we wanted within a week of them receiving the letter by certified mail, probably because the last thing they wanted was all the records inspected - no board is perfect, there are always a few unintentional skeletons in the closet.

Regarding your association attorney's response, you clearly stated the specific reasons right here in your post - give him/her those exact reasons in writing with the request for the documents and if they still refuse, get the demand letter.

This is going to be sticky though if your board is managing the community themselves and there is no property manager. They are volunteers and are under no obligation to pay for cell phones out of their personal funds if they are specifically used for association purposes or to pay for any costs incurred to run the association. Be careful what you wish for - they're putting in the hours to run the association for free. If they throw in the towel and hire a management company instead then that cost will get added to the operating budget and result in increased assessments, which will likely cost owners way more than funding their cell phones.

Max

Time to round up like thinkers and do two things:

1 Have a lawyer send a demand letter for what you want.

2. Work toward electing like thinkers to the BOD.

We’re a HOA, 157 Single Fam Homes

@ AugustinD, Thank You very very much. You gave me a Wealth of info. I will start working with an attorney to get a demand
Letter out asap. Again Thank You.

A HOA's law firm are responsible to the concerns of the Association, not its board members. Allowing a board to have access to a credit card, since members of the board are constantly changing, it very dangerous. There's no reason for a HOA to have a credit card, since all major purchases are normally required to be discussed before the members during Board meetings, and approved by the Board.

I hope someone can clarify this for me, because, I disagree with Board members having their cell phone bills covered using HOA funds. If the Board member(s) submits documents to confirm the usage for Association purposes and seeks reimbursements then perhaps it makes sense to reimburse. But, if Board member(s) having their cell phone bills covered outright, isn’t that considered fringe benefit, violating the volunteer act because that person(s) no longer a volunteer.

Our board has credit card and they justify it as great having it. Wink wink. Our prior Board members(two) for years purchased personal items(grocery, household items) on HOA funds. No consequences. We are blessed with apathy.