All of our Board members resigned

Question - did the Officers resign or did the Directors (who were filling officer positions) resign?

Question - How large of a Board do you have (3, 5, etc.) i.e: Are there directors serving?

Things that should happen:

1) Your board should ask for volunteers and appoint them to the positions.
2) If there are no volunteers, the Board should petition the court for receivership.

NOTE: Receivership is a lousy option but the only one left if nobody volunteers. The receiver works for the court, not the membership. Assessments will increase to pay the salary of the court ordered receiver. The Receiver, regardless of what your governing documents say, only needs the courts permission to increase assessments or impose a special assessment.

I wish ours up in NH would. If they simply followed the CC&R's the strife between the the BOD and Owners would end. Our annual meeting this past saturday was a scene right out of animal house.

Good luck,
John

We are a very small community . Our community is 6 households. We have one household who owns 2 properties , so they have 2 votes .
Definitely strife is involved . The president and treasurer are one household , married couple . The secretary is another household . There was drama and fighting and they all quit. We received emails of them leaving their posts , they were dated and said effectively starting sept 18 we are no longer acting as president or treasurer .
The secretary asked to resign but I think is staying now . That leaves the remaining three households to volunteer and be president or treasurer . We do not live there , just a second home . I do not think a treasurer and president should be from the same household . Going forward I would like to see that changed . No one has communicated since the resignation , so I’m a newbie to HOA and not sure who takes pats payments for Hoa dues, who pays the gardener , who hires workers??
I feel our small community needs to address this , and I thank you all for your responses!

I am actually surprised that you even had a President, Treasurer and Secretary with just 6 households in the community. That requires 50% participation. I am not sure what amenities your community has and if you are 6 homes, townhomes or condos. If your community is just houses I would consider dissolving the HOA entirely. I am not sure about the laws in New Mexico. Tell us a little bit more about your community. You could just agree amongst yourselves to each pay the gardner two months out of the year.

Small communities have unique challenges - the size seems to amplify some of the issues you can see in HOAs/COAs, including cost per unit for routine expenses (lawyer, accountant, auditor, D&O insurance).

I actually lived in a 6-unit condo community. We had a 2-person board, officers were Pres and Secy/Treas - it worked but it would not have if the two directors had been drama llamas.

I kind of like the idea of dissolving the association if possible. Depends on the nature of the jointly owned property - and the legal expenses may discourage pursuing this option. But that's a longer-term solution. Patricia's community has an emergency since they can't legally operate without a board. Somebody will need to step up and get the community on the same page, explain the painful realities of receivership, hopefully get past this hurdle and then look at other options to prevent something like this from happening again.

-- I would address what the Bylaws, Articles of Incorporation (if any), CC&Rs (a.k.a. "Declaration") and applicable state statutes (at most, two) say about having a board.

-- I would address (1) the need to pay common expenses such as insurance on common areas; landscaping and any building maintenance to which all owners must pay en masse; and (2) the need to collect assessments, if any.

Please consider answering all questions here. The more questions you answer, the better this forum can assist.

Pat

It is not clear if they resigned their Officer Positions, but not from the BOD. Who do you pay your dues to? If you do not live there full time and are not willing to step forward and help, you might be part of the problem.

We are in the process of getting our house for sale , my husband would volunteer for treasury but not sure if that is a good decision since hopefully we will be selling .

The president and treasurer did resign , they are husband and wife .

Just reaching out for some opinions of more experienced people on this subject .

Maybe this is a common occurrence ? Just reaching out for input

Thank you for you input
6 members of our hoa

It's called receivership. Prepare for your assessments to skyrocket because the receiver board will spend money like a drunken sailor, regardless what needs fixing.

Time to rally your neighbor owners to inform them what receivership means and perhaps someone will fill those board vacancies.

There is a lot ! I can’t believe how complicated this is !

Should and required are two different things.

I'm following as someone new to this as well.

You are just seeing the tip of the iceberg I'm afraid. I would never and I mean never have purchased in my hoa in NH if I knew all he complications and drama of hoa living. The first 10 years of living in my vacation destination HOA were great because I never paid attention to any of the politics. Once I started paying attention and trying to understand everything as you are things changed for the worse.

Good luck

John

You're right about it being complicated.

Sometimes folks on this forum talk about the problems that result from homeowners buying without understanding what they're getting into. The information is out there, but I think it's counterproductive to make buyers search - you won't look for something if you don't know that you should be looking for it. It's also ironic that condos attract first-time buyers since condo ownership is more complicated than owning a single family home IMHO. The insurance alone can make you pull your hair out.

I didn't truly understand what I'd bought until I had a few years of board service under my belt.

Unfortunately I don't have a good solution. People are busy and won't want to take a class when they don't see the need for it. So we're left with learning things the hard way.

This forum is absolutely the best thing since sliced bread. There are many great posters that are very inteligent, but there are a few and I'm not mentioning names that are truly outstanding, I might miss someone. I made the mistake of butting heads with one in my early experience and now we get along great. And that person knows who I'm taking about.

Cathy,

You are 1000% correct. I am one of these owners that walked into this completely blind. We still have many owners in our HOA that are completely blind. Many owners insist that they own their land, they don't, the deed is clear. We have restricted use to a "limited common area" campsite and we own a mailbox. When I tell owners they own a $150K mailbox they are not happy, but that is the truth.

John

It’s very beautiful !
We do have a crew that maintains the property , it’s just confusing now thst there is no treasurer or president . We paid our dues to the treasurer , and her husband the President made decisions on what the crew needed to be working on .

We will have our property listed next week , so I will know more about what is in store for us .

I do see web sites saying the directors should arrange for a receiver, and this observation is 'not for nothing' in my book. At least one of the web sites said a director could be sued if he/she does not arrange for receivership before resigning. Which cracks me up. If an owner is thinking of suing a director for not arranging for receivership, one would think the owner would quickly realize it makes more sense for the owner him/herself to just agree to be on the board or petition directly for receivership.

As noted above, I do not agree with volunteer directors being expected to (1) get an attorney (when there may be little funds to do so); (2) file in court; and (3) wait out the machinations of the court system.

For a director, I think seeking dissolution would be the superior choice. This is not to say dissolution would necessarily happen. Merely seeking dissolution might turn up people to volunteer.

I know that, when common areas are involved, dissolution is tricky. We're probably talking years for the dust to settle.

Also if even one person is willing to serve as the board, then in most (all?) states, I believe this is preferable to receivership. Claims that the board is illegal under these circumstances can be attempted in court. Though anyone suing had darn well better be willing to serve on the board.

The New Mexico HOA statute requires providing the governing documents and a disclosure certificate. The disclosure certificate is sufficiently detailed. In New Mexico, it appears to require:

-- The amount of any capital expenditures anticipated by the HOA and approved by the HOA Board of
Directors for the current fiscal year and the two next succeeding fiscal years.

-- The amount of any reserves for capital expenditures and of any portions of those reserves designated by the HOA

-- The most recent regularly prepared balance sheet and income and expense statement, if any, of the HOA.

-- The current operating budget of the HOA.

-- Does the HOA have actual knowledge of any unsatisfied judgments or pending suits against the HOA?
If yes, identify the judgments and/or pending lawsuits and provide the status of
any such judgments or suits: __________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

-- Does the HOA provide insurance coverage for the benefit of Property Owners and its Board of Directors? If yes, describe the policy:

-- Is there a leasehold estate affecting the HOA?

-- The HOA's contact person and contact information is _______

The OP should hire a HOA or real estate attorney.