Developer refuses to finish roads

Hello and thank you for any help.

A year ago I bought into a neighborhood that was just 14 months old at the time and I always heard about the problems the developer and builder left unfinished with the HOA. Currently I heard there was a lack of participation on the Board so I volunteered to see what I could do to help.

The Problem >>> The Developer never finished the roads (top coat and inspection to turn over to the city) after the neighborhood was complete and this past January the owner of said developer passed away and left the company to his daughter and she let the bond lapse and claims she has no money to finish the roads. The city is taking a neutral stance so far and no that I am trying to find a solution, I am looking for ideas I can follow to force the completion outside of court but also be prepared for court if needed.

call the city and get all the info on the bond. how much was the bond worth? how did it lapse? where did the money go?
I doubt there will be enough money to repave the roads, but at least you know if there is money somewhere.

I engaged the city this week and actually found out I am friends with the city attorney and hope to get some direction from this.

This is a almost certainly going to involve lawyers.

Generally a Developer is an incorporated entity and not an individual. If the owner of this corporation died without a succession plan in place, there may be no developer at this point. A daughter inheriting assets is not the same thing as a formal plan that recognizes the authority of another person to head up the corporation. Sometimes heirs are the new corporate owners/officers, and sometimes they're not. Sometimes the corporation dies with its founder. So this is the first set of issues that needs to be ironed out. You may be able to find out some of it yourselves. For example, the Secretary of State's website may have information about corporations in your state.

After sorting out the first part, you should have an idea of whether or not any corporate responsibilities survived the death of the original developer/corporate owner. If the corporation itself is defunct, the bond may be as well. If the corporation is still a going concern, then the bond should still be in effect. So this is the second set of issues.

Assuming the corporation still exists and the bond didn't disappear into the ether, the next set of issues will require forcing the corporation to fulfill its obligations. This is the third issue and will probably need a lawyer. HOA lawyers deal with this sort of stuff all the time - individual board members won't have the necessary knowledge or skills to handle it.

Before getting started, it would be a good idea to get a ballpark figure on the cost of finishing the streets. Given all of the legal questions you're facing, it's possible that paying for the roads yourselves will be cheaper than paying for the attorney(s). If I were on your board, this would be my first order of business, along with finding a good HOA attorney and maybe some preliminary research on whether or not you there actually is a developer at this point.

If this is true, be REALLY nice about things and block off a couple of years for the process to unwind. Be persistent. If there's no money, the daughter won't able to pave a neighborhood and may have inherited a mess she didn't know about. Your best bet is that the city takes over the maintenance immediately.