AndrewL6 (Florida)
Posts: 8
Posts: 8
Posted:
Hello all - I found this group randomly today, and I'm hoping y'all can provide some guidance.
I successfully led a repeal/replace ballot against our previous board of directors, and now reside as President over a 138 single family home HOA with a number of challenges.
The previous President came to power in July of last year. He was almost immediately informed by an attorney he hired that our covenants had expired for all parcels under MRTA (oh no.. not another MRTA thread, right? Just wait.. it gets juicy). The attorney advised him to "do nothing" until covenants were revitalized. The former President instead choose to extort homeowners and operate as if the association still had authority, to include threats of liens on people for being a few days short on an illegal demand for annual assessments. We suspected we were out of compliance with MRTA, but it wasn't until later, during binding arbitration that it was identified by the HOA attorney. The binding arbitration was necessary because the previous board voted to reject 6 of our ballots repealing and replacing all four members - which at that time were two husband/wife duos (a tradition for 2 decades prior, with different people.) The summary judgement order was in June, yet as of today, the previous board has refused to hand over any HOA property.
We are literally operating on donations to maintain our grounds. We have no true amenities - 4 common areas - 2 that abut a lake (the lakefront itself owned/maintained by a secondary master HOA), 1 that has a small area for dogs. All have drainage features - essential in Florida. It is therefore in our best interest to revitalize.
I'm working with an old college friend - a real estate attorney, who is providing some pro bono assistance on our matters against the previous President - the mastermind and the obvious person to pocket the money (he has a criminal record from Texas). He orchestrated a consult with another attorney who's better versed on MRTA. I almost choked at the fees.. more than $7000. We're barely hanging on as is.
My treasurer and the previous President share easement that connects the rest of the neighborhood to the lake. He's using that, and some other subterfuge to wreak havoc on my treasurer's family, and every time LE is called.. it reverts back to being a civil matter because they either can't prove that the rocks thrown from his back yard into hers (which almost hit her children once) came from his hand.. or because he was walking in the common area and therefore can't be trespassed when he's spraying weed killer all over the grass adjacent to their house. So.. we have good reason to move things forward with revitalization. We placed a civil theft demand letter on his door last week, so he's even more sour now..
The problems (knowing this isn't a place for legal advice, but also knowing someone else might have some first hand experience):
1) We have no bylaws. The previous board provided a photocopy of bylaws from somewhere else, signed them and submitted as part of the arbitration process. The document itself wasn't even complete when we received a copy. Does that matter? Arbitration was through DBPR, but they're not the courts.. so I would think we'd need to write new bylaws - which I would prefer.
2) When I consulted with that second attorney, she disagreed with me that we had the ability to provide an altered version of the CCR's to remove out things we no longer agreed with. Being we're an existing corporation, 720.405(3) seems to support her - but it only refers "existing articles of incorporation and bylaws," and not the CCR's. I'm assuming that CCR's are considered included within this.. as it would support her statement. If she's incorrect here, then would our ridiculous 90% approval (of all homeowners) of amendment apply here, or would the simple majority have that capability?
3) We're going to have to revitalize ourselves, without the help of an attorney. We'll be speaking with a title company to assist with the fact finding. Any other advice is appreciated.
4) Assuming we revitalize CCR's as is, any advice is appreciated for how to get 90% of homeowners (including roughly 25% of those homes being owned by absentee landlords) to approve of an amendment adding "at a meeting with a quorum" - which would at least make it far more feasible to pass reasonable amendments in the future
5) We communicate with 50% of the homeowners via email. I'm assuming that even in the case where we have direct communication with a homeowner, we still must provide a physical copy of all documents as opposed to emailing them a scanned package for their review and signature?
Thank you for your time!
I successfully led a repeal/replace ballot against our previous board of directors, and now reside as President over a 138 single family home HOA with a number of challenges.
The previous President came to power in July of last year. He was almost immediately informed by an attorney he hired that our covenants had expired for all parcels under MRTA (oh no.. not another MRTA thread, right? Just wait.. it gets juicy). The attorney advised him to "do nothing" until covenants were revitalized. The former President instead choose to extort homeowners and operate as if the association still had authority, to include threats of liens on people for being a few days short on an illegal demand for annual assessments. We suspected we were out of compliance with MRTA, but it wasn't until later, during binding arbitration that it was identified by the HOA attorney. The binding arbitration was necessary because the previous board voted to reject 6 of our ballots repealing and replacing all four members - which at that time were two husband/wife duos (a tradition for 2 decades prior, with different people.) The summary judgement order was in June, yet as of today, the previous board has refused to hand over any HOA property.
We are literally operating on donations to maintain our grounds. We have no true amenities - 4 common areas - 2 that abut a lake (the lakefront itself owned/maintained by a secondary master HOA), 1 that has a small area for dogs. All have drainage features - essential in Florida. It is therefore in our best interest to revitalize.
I'm working with an old college friend - a real estate attorney, who is providing some pro bono assistance on our matters against the previous President - the mastermind and the obvious person to pocket the money (he has a criminal record from Texas). He orchestrated a consult with another attorney who's better versed on MRTA. I almost choked at the fees.. more than $7000. We're barely hanging on as is.
My treasurer and the previous President share easement that connects the rest of the neighborhood to the lake. He's using that, and some other subterfuge to wreak havoc on my treasurer's family, and every time LE is called.. it reverts back to being a civil matter because they either can't prove that the rocks thrown from his back yard into hers (which almost hit her children once) came from his hand.. or because he was walking in the common area and therefore can't be trespassed when he's spraying weed killer all over the grass adjacent to their house. So.. we have good reason to move things forward with revitalization. We placed a civil theft demand letter on his door last week, so he's even more sour now..
The problems (knowing this isn't a place for legal advice, but also knowing someone else might have some first hand experience):
1) We have no bylaws. The previous board provided a photocopy of bylaws from somewhere else, signed them and submitted as part of the arbitration process. The document itself wasn't even complete when we received a copy. Does that matter? Arbitration was through DBPR, but they're not the courts.. so I would think we'd need to write new bylaws - which I would prefer.
2) When I consulted with that second attorney, she disagreed with me that we had the ability to provide an altered version of the CCR's to remove out things we no longer agreed with. Being we're an existing corporation, 720.405(3) seems to support her - but it only refers "existing articles of incorporation and bylaws," and not the CCR's. I'm assuming that CCR's are considered included within this.. as it would support her statement. If she's incorrect here, then would our ridiculous 90% approval (of all homeowners) of amendment apply here, or would the simple majority have that capability?
3) We're going to have to revitalize ourselves, without the help of an attorney. We'll be speaking with a title company to assist with the fact finding. Any other advice is appreciated.
4) Assuming we revitalize CCR's as is, any advice is appreciated for how to get 90% of homeowners (including roughly 25% of those homes being owned by absentee landlords) to approve of an amendment adding "at a meeting with a quorum" - which would at least make it far more feasible to pass reasonable amendments in the future
5) We communicate with 50% of the homeowners via email. I'm assuming that even in the case where we have direct communication with a homeowner, we still must provide a physical copy of all documents as opposed to emailing them a scanned package for their review and signature?
Thank you for your time!