HO Silenced at Quarterly HOA Meeting

Right now, it appears the developer runs the show until the community's turned over to the homeowners, so there may not be a lot you can do about being able to speak. Remember, this is a BUSINESS meeting, and you can't have people interrupting or spend a ton of time on assorted questions because there's an agenda and no one wants to be at a meeting for half the night.

That said, I think association meetings should allow a brief period for resident comments. In case you're not familiar with them, resident forums are usually 10-15 minutes where owners can make general comments, criticize or make suggestions on any association issue. The board isn't obligated to address the issue immediately - sometimes the topic might already be part of the agenda. Other issues may call for more investigation and either the board or property manager will follow up with the homeowner. For a Zoom meeting, some organizations use the chat feature for homeowners to make comments without interrupting the meeting. These are usually monitored and sometimes the monitor will note certain questions or comments for the board's response at that time.

Governing documents are usually written for the developer's benefit and there is a lot of cut and pasting going on because that's faster than tailoring the documents to specific communities. Reviewing the documents periodically is something the board should strive to do at least every 5-7 years as state and local law can change, and you may also find some original provisions don't work for the community, depending on how it's evolved since the homeowners took over. In your case, once the developer takes over, job one should be to review the documents with the association attorney so all references to the developer are deleted. You won't address everything at once, but another think you could look at is virtual meetings. Remember, this has really hit its side in the last three years, mostly because of COVID and so I wouldn't expect the documents to address them.

You might want to suggest to the developer that Zoom meetings (or Microsoft Teams or whatever the association uses) allows time for a resident forum

In Texas, it is acceptable and legal to prohibit owner input and comments at board meetings. See TPC 209.0051 at https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PR/htm/PR.209.htm.

You can always write the manager with any concerns you have.

Wayne

Typically a time will be set aside for owner input. That said you will only be allowed to speak during that time. Typically you are not allowed to speak any time you feel like it. A meeting is not done in a Town Hall format.

Owners have the right to attend and observe board meetings. They do not have the right to speak or participate in them.

Many boards find that it is helpful to their relationship with the membership to allow an open forum for owner questions, but there is nothing on the state property code that requires it.

This how I see it.

Also, the reason I ask this is because looking at a map, our neighborhood is built out way beyond 75% but my HOA Manager (board member) and our HO rep are tight with the developers. None of the current group want to turn over the neighborhood to HOs.

Wayne

We live in a 105 SFH sub-association of a 9,300 member master association on the NE side of the DFW Metroplex. The master association was incorporated in 1986, it took over 20 years to reach the 75% threshold for turnover so don't let the number of years involved mislead you.

There is no reason the association office should not be able to tell you the existing percentage of build-out, they undoubtedly know it to a couple of figures to the right of the decimal. It certainly should not be confidential information. The builder/developer advertising brochures may be helpful as they often specify how many homes will be built. If you run into a stone wall, you may be able to obtain a reasonably close estimate of build-out from the county Central Assessment District database by comparing the homes on the tax rolls to the number planned to be built.

As to your original post, the scenario you describe is exactly the process followed by most associations in this state in my experience or based on the posts of others in Texas who participate on this forum. As was described, there is often (closer to always) an "Owners Forum" when the Board (not Owners) meeting begins (or sometimes at the end), owners are allowed to speak for up to three minutes on a topic of their choice. Once the meeting is called to order, while owners are welcome to attend, they may not speak unless invited to do so--meaning even if you raise your hand, the person leading the meeting may not call upon you. If the meeting leader is doing a good job, he or she may take a timeout for a moment to explain that owner comments are not allowed once the meeting is underway, even if a hand is raised. In smaller associations, like our sub-association, the Board often permits those in attendance to comment as 10 in attendance is a large turnout and there is little to nothing at all on the agenda that is in the least controversial as all the amenities, architectural changes, and compliance matters are managed by the master association.

The Board of our master association meets monthly, often as not the meeting minutes contain the statement "no owners appeared to comment during the Owners Forum" If owners do appear to comment, it is always less than five or six persons and many of their issues appear as though they could have been solved by a quick call to the Association office.

Assuming the current Developer run HOA is not interested in handing over the neighborhood, what steps are to be taken to press for the transition? Is it the current Board's obligation to turn over the neighborhood when the qualifications are met or is the burden on the HOs responsibility to force the issue? I know we have over 75% capacity and we are locked in space wise. Now may be a good time to make any notices or whatever with teh annual meeting in September.

Since you don't know if the developer is really interested in leaving or not, you may as well ask them and see what happens. They may tell you the truth, ignore you or give you an estimated timeline (and since it's an estimate, you can't really nail them to that). As Bill noted, it could take years to reach 75%, 90% or whatever is the magic number to prompt the departure.

I suspect some of this depends on the real estate market - currently, the housing inventory is said to be low, although I wonder about that (it's still very difficult to find affordable housing) Perhaps this developer wants to squeeze as much money out of the community before they depart (making money at any cost is the American Way, after all).

To get them to leave now would likely mean the homeowners would have to make a bunch of concessions to push the deal through (e.g. your documents said the community will have a clubhouse with a fitness center and indoor pool, but if you leave by the middle of next year, we'll release you from that). That would likely mean a vote by all the homeowners because this is a significant change to the sales agreement. You might want them gone right now, but what would you be willing to give up for that to happen? And do you think your neighbors would agree?

yep you better start writing letters and getting responses now so you have this nailed down by Sept. it can take some time.