Confidential info?

About a year ago, we purchased a house in a small HOA in Southern California (~130 single family homes). It appears that I have run afoul of our HOA regarding some home improvements that the previous homeowner made about 10 years ago.

We have been going back and forth with the management company and at one point the HOA President became involved and it is safe to say, we are not happy with how he handled the situation.

Anyways, we joined a small, private facebook page for the community (a neighbor told us about it - I have a disdain for Facebook and this is the first time I actually signed up). There was a discussion about another issue where the HOA president also responded (it wasn't my topic) and after I made a post that he apparently didn't like, he posted some information regarding my ongoing violation dispute that I felt was inappropriate since it had embarrassing info that I would consider to be confidential.

I was quite surprised that he did that and so I started googling around, but there is a lot of info out there. From my little experience I have in HOA's - it appears that he should not have done that but what recourse do I have. Along with posting info about our situation he also made a couple of statements about me that just aren't true.

Needless to say, I was upset and during my search, I came across a website, davistirling, and it appears that there is a process to help try to informally settle disputes, but when I asked the property manager about it, I was told that it didn't apply to this situation?

That's the trouble with social media - people think they're saying things in private, but the embarrassing and/or nasty things have a way of coming out anyway. On one hand, it's been great for catching politicians, crooked cops and others with their pants down (sometimes literally), and then there's this stuff. As far as the sensitivity of the information is concerned, that may be a matter of opinion. You may think it's embarrassing, and perhaps it is, but usually information like bank account numbers, medical conditions, and sensitive information like that is more devastating if revealed to the wrong people.

I would write a letter to the president, but copy it to the rest of the board with my concerns. Note you are taking the proper steps to appeal your violation notice, but it was unprofessional of him to disclose this, as CCR violations of any type are usually between the board and the homeowner. You might want to request the board discuss the president's behavior and direct him to issue an apology to you. If you know who the organizer of the Facebook page is, consider speaking to him or her as well - no need to get into gritty details about your situation, but it would be helpful for him/her to remind the group that decorum is still expected when posting, even if this is a private group - and repeat violators will risk being tossed.

Member discipline is confidential. It is restricted to executive sessions where other members are not allowed.

In California, there is a statute of limitations to enforce anything created by a restriction - 5 years. They should have known about it when prior owner was there. Now it's too late.

https://findhoalaw.com/tag/statute-of-limitations/#:~:text=Statute%20of%20Limitations%20–%20The%20statute,the%20violation.”%20(Code.

Max,
The reason I mentioned about the PMC or PM is they sometimes have a balancing act on their hands. If the president says send a violation letter to an owner, they usually will follow this direction. They must work with the president and since they basically work for the board, they should have a good working relationship. If the president has poor intentions, they can also not take the PMCs advice on how to stay out of litigation.

Thanks to all who replied, I really appreciate it

I will try to answer some of your questions

We received a letter in the mail regarding the violation. I immediately gathered all the paperwork we had and sent an email to the property manager to show that when we bought the house, that is the way it was. I even took a screen grab of a google map photo. (If you use Google Earth Pro, there is a time slider that shows you previous photo's that they had. I found an older photo (over 5 years ago) and sent it to them. They ended up asking us to a board meeting - it wasn't a hearing, it was just me and the board before the regular meeting started and we talked about the violation and the fact that I didn't know anything about it, that is the way the house was when we bought it, and shouldn't they have brought this up with the old owners.

I did some more reading on D-S.com and this afternoon I sent an email, so that it would be in writing, requesting the internal dispute process and that I didn't think it was right that the HOA president posted information from my meeting with the board, or the fact that he believes we are in violation when we didn't even have a hearing.

I got a really quick reply, which surprised me, because it usually take a day or two. The manager wrote that this would not be an issue that falls under internal dispute and that my request was denied.

I do feel that they violated the confidentiality, because that is the only time I talked with the president or the board about the violation. But what can I do since the manager denied my claim. (I do feel like the manager is backing up the president, and he has probably done this before)

When I look into internal dispute on D-S it doesn't really spell out when you can use it or how it applies. Is there a law or legal code that I could reference to show that internal dispute would apply?

I'm trying to understand what your Board & PM are doing, BillyK. You wrote: "They ended up asking us to a board meeting." In CA, "board meetings" must be open to all owners, so the meeting was something else. But, what? Who invited you and what, exactly did the person call the meeting's name? In your HOA's Bylaws, you'll see that meetings in CA HOAs have names. If this was a real meeting per your Bylaws, someone--the PM or a board member--would have needed to take meeting minutes. Did that happen? What was the result of this "meeting?" The thing is, I can't tell if this meeting was "confidential," and only could have been if it was called an "executive session. " In that case," it would need to have been posted 2 days before it occurred. What will be the outcome of your alleged violation?
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You received a statute-required Annual Budget Report & Policy Statement between 30 & 90 days before the end of your HOA's fiscal year. In it, the Association is legally required to include a "Summary of the Association's Dispute Resolution Procedures." Our policy statement begins:
"Civil Code Section 5900 requires that Community Associations provide a fair, reasonable, and expeditious procedure for resolving disputes between an Association and any homeowner involving the Member's rights, duties, or liabilities under the Davis-Stirling Act, the Nonprofit Mutual Benefit Corporation Law, or under the governing documents of the Common Interest Development or Association. Unless you are notified otherwise, the Association will continue to provide fair, reasonable and expeditious procedures for resolving disputes by adopting the IDR procedure set forth in California Civil Code Section 5915, which is summarized as follows:

A. Either party to the dispute (either the Member or the Association), may deliver a written request to the other party seeking to meet and confer in an effort to resolve the dispute. A homeowner may refuse a request to meet and confer. The Association may not refuse a request to meet and confer."

There's more, of course. Though I'm inexperienced, it appears the Association cannot say "no" to your request. I'm not so sure the PM even has the authority to deny your request. There also should be something in your CC&Rs and/or bylaws about IDR. We do have a CA poster who's gone through IDR with his HOA and perhaps he'll check in with his insights. We also have A PM with many years experience managing numerous CA HOAs. While it's possible he's never experienced an IDR with one of his boards, perhaps he's willing to help.

I'm still feeling like you shouldn't have to go that far. And you shouldn't have to waste your time getting the Board to do the right thing, which is to somehow rein in or dismiss the prez. Are you willing to speak up at the open forum portion at your next open board meeting? Would you be willing to say something like: "A Board member publicly defamed me. The director's allegations are false. Will the board investigate this matter? Will I receive an apology?" Or some such. You might even write a letter to the Board ahead of the next open Board meeting letting them know of your intention to speak out about the president's misconduct. I suppose your letter would go via the PM, but perhaps it's good to alert that person too.

Did I misunderstand? I thought that Billy said the improvements had been installed by a previous owner ten years ago. If this is beyond the statute of limitations for enforcement *or* if there was an estoppel letter indicating no outstanding violations or other issues at the time the property changed hands, either of these should stop this dispute in its tracks. Even if the improvements were unapproved at the time, or they were grandfathered with the understanding that they'd be removed if the home was sold, that doesn't give the association the right to a do-over if either of the previous things is true.

If I were dealing with a rogue board, I'd be tempted to skip the IDR and pay a lawyer a few bucks to write a letter explaining these things, ending with "I trust that this will be the end of the matter." (I'm assuming that IDR is not a required first step in resolving issues in CA. If it is, never mind.)

As for the posting on social media, it depends what it is. If it's tittle-tattle, I'm tempted to just own it, whatever it is. A friend of mine once said that some random person told him "You're weird." Friend responded: "Well spotted. You're not the first person to say that. My life got immeasurably better when I decided that I don't care if I'm weird or not." If it's more serious, then the lawyer in the previous paragraph would address that as well.

(It's depressing how often board members shoot themselves in the foot. This situation shows why our lawyers were so adamant about board members staying off of social media and not responding to anything outside of a board meeting or other official channels. Nothing good ever comes of it.)

Doing some more reading - I believe the meeting we had with the Board and the manager was an executive session meeting. I was the only home owner there and as I left, several people were waiting outside, so I hung around and then they went it and looks like the directors had another meeting, (sorry, my first experience with living in an HOA and not familiar with the lingo)

some of the things the president posted on facebook were things like, they considered us to be in violation and were waiting to hear from me on what we are going to do. That there was going to be a dues increase next year and it was all my fault because apparently they got an attorney involved and their legal fees went up. That he is going to quit the board next year so now he can 'openly talk about all the misinformation I am spreading to the members'

I’m sounding like a broken record here but the statute of limitations has run out. It is too late for the board to enforce it. You don’t need IDR. Just do what another poster said - have your lawyer write them a letter saying buzz off. CCP 336b

Billy wrote: "some of the things the president posted on facebook were things like, they considered us to be in violation and were waiting to hear from me on what we are going to do. That there was going to be a dues increase next year and it was all my fault because apparently they got an attorney involved and their legal fees went up. That he is going to quit the board next year so now he can 'openly talk about all the misinformation I am spreading to the members' "

But unless you've misunderstood OR the PM has not communicated with you correctly the board must formally call you to a hearing executive session in writing per your governing documents, the year-end letter I mentioned earlier and state statutes. I don't think the "private" meeting you attended was executive session UNLESS it was posted 2 days ahead of time for all owners to see. If it wasn't a true executive session, it was not confidential. With Cathy, and this has been my sense all along, the PM and Prez probably aren't following statutes or even your own documents. DO read your bylaws. I can't tell if the rest of the Board is rogue too.

We do see here, boards that defer to terrible presidents. Sometimes they're ignorant and think the president is "the boss," which is incorrect. Sometimes, they're just lazy. Sometimes they are intimidated by a bullying president.

In addition, look up "executive session" in D-S.com and you'll see that no former directors may reveal anything from executive session unless the Board votes to release the info.

Terri's right to keep insisting that the statute of limitations is just 5 years, but ElleN also notes that if the violation wasn't noticed until more recently than that, the board may have a case. Let's say your CC&Rs state that no trees may block views of other homes. And "yours" didn't 10 years go, but do now. This is why knowing something about your alleged violation would help us here.

I still think the IDR just won't work for you given what we've learned about your Board prez & PM. Maybe a letter form an attorney a Cathy suggests would be your best bet. OR perhaps your next letter to the Board via the PM will state that you've contact legal counsel and are ready to have the send a cease & desist letter and to insist that the Board follow proper procedure or alleged violations