Fiefdom

Yes, it's legal. The remaining board members can appoint whomever they choose to replace the director who resigned.

Second, yes the board members are the decision makers. Owners have input into a limited number of things: namely voting for candidates for the board at the annual election and voting on amendments to the CC&Rs. A smart board will listen to what the community has to say about things, but they are not obligated to do what owners think should be done.

To be blunt: if this is your first condominium, you have a lot to learn about how things operate. A condo community is not a social club or a fraternal organization or a democracy. It is a corporation with a corporate governance structure. The board makes the decisions because they have fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the association and they are held accountable for those decisions. Owners have no such duty, they're free to act in their own self interest even if that self-interest is harmful to the community, and they are not held accountable when things go off the rails. Who would you want in charge of a multi-million dollar corporation whose stability affects the financial well-being of everyone in the community: someone who makes decisions for their own personal benefit, or knowledgeable and experienced folks who have a duty to do what's best for the association as a whole?

It's unfortunate that buyers can purchase homes in HOAs or condo communities without having a better idea of what they're buying. Many of the things that new owners get upset about are normal, prudent business practices. I strongly recommend searching online for education resources that are directed at people who own property in a community association. It will save you a lot of unnecessary aggravation.

NancyM29, with one caveat, condo associations for the greater part are legally set up as fiefdoms. The caveat is that at every annual election the owners can select one or more new directors.

Also the courts say that, as a matter of law, all owners knew this before buying a condo unit. This is because the Declaration of a condo association is recorded with the county and so is public record.

Do you understand that the board's letting any entity other than the board make the decisions is a violation of the board's legal obligations under state statute?

After asking nicely and offering to do xyz, if the Board refuses, your only option is to replace the board, preferably at the next annual election.

Neither the CT Condo statute nor its nonstock corporation statute require board meetings to be open to owners. Do your bylaws require board meetings to be open to owners? If not, then there was no collusion.

Connecticut statutes do not require community interaction. I am betting neither do this association's bylaws.
The owners can ask politely for input. The owners cannot require the board to either seek this input or accept the input.

If anything is illegal here, I think it is some of the things your group seems to expect the board to do.

I also see no statutory requirement for the directors to take input at their board meetings.

Well said.

Good for you, Nancy! To me, your willingness to learn about HOAs is so refreshing and even exciting. Supporting the Board is a good plan, at least until you learn a lot. Kick your powers of observation & attention-paying into high gear, too.

From what you wrote above, it seems like there is -- perhaps a very small-- group of owners who are critical of the current Board. Get to know one or more of them, but do NOT get too cozy since there are, in fact, owners, or tiny groups of them, who are "professional dissidents" and complain a lot often with no knowledge about how HOAs function. OR they have personal vendettas. Could it be the former president resigned because of them? Be neutral with everyone at first.

Pay attention to who asks questions of the proposed community manager and the way in which they ask them. You might want to politely ask the candidate about the topics that concern you, e.g., rejuvenation." Do you happen to know if the group opposed to hiring a manager is opposed because they don't want dues to increase, which they will if you have no PM now? Or is the opposition for some other reason? It is possible, by the way, that the Board did consider more than one candidate in an executive session meeting, which is legal.

Jackie of CA mentioned the Davis-Stirling.com website. It's compiled by a CA HOA legal firm and can be an excellent resource for you because of its fine Index. The thing is, some of their writing and opinion are specific to Calif. So make sure that what you're reading is generalizable to CT. Some of the language is a little. different too. In Calif. we talk about "Articles of Incorporation," but in CT it's maybe "Certificate of Incorporation."

If you don't mind, it'd be good if we knew the size of your condo HOA. Are there now any committees comprised of owners? Even if not, it's hard to know why not. One reason might be that there were committees in the past, but they were so much trouble and took up so much of the Board's time that they weren't worth having.* Or it could be no one has volunteered or offered to start a committee and the Board doesn't know how.

I'm hoping a wise veteran of board service, Shelia, will join this discussion!

* Our condo of 200+ unit HOA's experience with committees has been mostly positive. We usually and presently have three.

We've talked about committees on this website a number of times.

Many communities use them successfully, my community did not (our committees attracted the folks Kerry called "professional dissidents" who used committee membership to undermine the board). Right now our board is using ad hoc volunteers for specific chores. I and a few others remain concerned about the liability risks involved, although it appears that we're adequately insured. However, not having an insurance claim at all is preferable to having enough insurance. The reason is that insurance premiums have been rising sharply for HOAs and condo communities, to the point where some boards are talking about high deductible policies or self-insurance because they can't afford the premiums on traditional policies. Limiting your claims is a good way to help keep your premiums down, and that means not taking risks if you don't have to.

I think most would agree that volunteers should not be doing physical labor because of the risk of injury. Associations that are trying to save money may be tempted to go that route, which I think is short-sighted. The regulars around here have heard this before, but here's why I think it's short-sighted.

* Volunteers aren't free. You have to beef up your insurance to make sure you have enough coverage (see previous paragraph about insurance challenges).

* You don't get professional quality work. You won't get warranties or guarantees, and you may even void existing warranties. You have no recourse if a volunteer walks off the job with no warning.

* Using volunteers is not sustainable, especially in condo communities, since people don't buy condos in order to do free yard work. You may have a bunch of retirees right now who have time on their hands, but community demographics can change and you may no longer have willing workers in the future.

* Using volunteers creates more work for the board since they need to manage and supervise them, and board members already have too much on their plates.

* Using volunteers misleads owners about the true cost of ownership. This is a big problem if your governing documents or state laws give homeowners the right to vote down assessment increases. Once your assessments are unrealistically low, you may have dug yourselves into a financial hole that you can't climb back out of.

Something like a social committee or finance committee where people don't do physical labor is better. However, if you're in condos, you need to make sure you're actually allowed to spend money on things like social events (in my state, unless our CC&Rs specifically mention social events, we may not spend association money on them).

And keep in mind that committee members usually don't have any separate authority of their own, although there are occasional exceptions. Normally committee members serve at the pleasure of the board, take direction from the board, and may be removed with or without cause. You can see why a committee member who already has a problem with the board would be upset, and why committees can cause more problems than they're worth.

Well, Cathy, I'm wondering if by "candidate," Navy' referring to a management company vs. an individual candidate for her HOA. Either way, to restate my above, as fleshed out by Elle & Cathy, it's a terrible idea. It also suggests to see that the current Board is pretty green naively unaware that they may be sabotaging their own preference. It could turn out, after all, that the questions asked (hurled?) by owners of this candidate might cause that person to reject working for this HOA.

Btw way, I put "professional dissidents"I quote because it's not my phrase. I actually thought it was Cathy's.

RE:committees: I would never ever recommend that an HOA committee be permitted to touch any common area items. Landscape committees are very common, but they should look, not touch.

You mean we shouldn't have volunteers wielding chainsaws and taking down trees?

With BillD, while my HOA seems to usually have enough candidates for board positions, we often see here that many HOAs do not. That the newly is president has uncertain meaning. Maybe neither of the remaining directors want the position. Maybe the new president has a good HOA background or a good background in presiding at meetings, which is the main job of the president.

Good to tro remember that HOA presidents have only one vote like every other director. In non-profits, boards govern; not presidents.

Back to committees: Our HOA's CC&Rs requires that have an Architectural Committee (ARC) of three members. This may be common in condo HOAs? It might be required in Nancy's condo HOA. If not, I imagine they have an ARC. After learning about the ARC guidelines and ARC materials in the CC&Rs, seems like a good way for Nancy's project manager spouse to volunteer.

Unlike board spots, our HOA does have trouble finding enough members of the ARC. Now we only have two members. If one of them resigns and no volunteer comes forward, a board member would be required to take on the role. That, indeed, has happened to us a couple of times over the years.

I think Cathy's many observations about "committees" seem to focus on those that might be somehow hands-on. I agree those should be avoided for many of her reasons. But, an a Finance Committee and Social Committee both can be very useful.

We've had lively debates here about HOAs spending funds on social events. But there are ways t have social activities at no cost to the association.