Receivership -- are we in danger? What to do.

Hi, I just found this forum.

I've been a homeowner for 15 years in this community. There have always been issues with the HOA not knowing how to do enforcement properly. They would send harsh letters instead of imposing fines, and the homeowner would just throw the harshly worded letter in the trash and keep offending. I got used to that situation, but in the last 5 years things have deteriorated further.

Most of the board members have been in place for 30 years. They have been using the same Management company for 30 years. The board doesn't seem to like to spend any money and thus the common areas get very neglected for years and then finally their is a spurt of activity from the board and the management company to get things done. But lately the HOA has gone dormant for months at a time and stops communicating with the members. Homeowners were directed to go to the Property Management company with concerns but there is high turnover at that company and calls often don't get returned. We have have had at least 4 different individuals from that management company in charge of our association in the past year or two due to turnover at that place.

Also the HOA is in charge of maintaining fences around our homes and let them rot. They finally knew they had to do something and did a special assessment of $400. This was the first special assessment they had ever done since the community was built. A number of homeowners complained vociferously and failed to pay that $400. The replaced the outside perimeter of fences but delayed doing the interior because they said there wasn't enough money. That interior fence is 30 years old and falling apart.

The homeowners here are completely apathetic, don't show up to meetings, don't run for the board. The only time they get involved is when they are angry because our monthly dues went up $10, or b/c of that $400 assessment.

I don't know if there has been any malfeasance/theft.

Basically, I want to sell and get out of here within the next year or two for about 100 different reasons. I am concerned though because I read if the association goes into receivership you may not be able to sell your home for years because mortgage lenders won't do a mortgage on a property where HOA is in receivership.

I'm not clear if receivership is a real danger here or not. My plan is to read some books on HOAs and petition to join the Board so that it does not suddenly collapse.

Are my concerns realistic or am I overblowing it? Is it really true that you are stuck and unable to sell a house in this situation? Is my plan on how to prevent receivership enough or are there extra things I should be doing?

The HOA didn't let the fences rot, sounds like everyone let them rot by not stepping up and helping out when needed.
Yeah the thing you should be doing is running for the board or at a bare minimum showing up at board meetings and harping how much you want to help. Take the bull by the horns and lead. go for it.

Cities and towns do the same thing. Leave things to deteriorate. Go to the Board meetings, ask questions, get other likeminded residents to become active and run for the Board. Residents on the board for 30 years is too long.

or

Move now!!!!!!

you are the HOA, if you didn't go to a meeting and say hey, how can I help to get these fences maintained? I can calls some vendors and get quotes, etc. than you are to blame just as much as the board.

The amount of money you spend moving is probably a fraction of the time and effort it woudl take to get some phone calls to get a vendor to install new fencing, or whatever your current issue is.. penny wise foolish move IMHO.

As for moving, I'm not moving mainly because of the HOA. It's because of the surrounding area (it's gone downhill), and also because of the some issues with the way this development was built, that cannot be changed. Even if the HOA was awesome I would still be looking to get out of here.

I actually went to the meeting because a hurricane knocked down two panels of my fence, leaving my house exposed to the street where anyone could just walk into my yard. The board said they would take care of it, and then they did nothing and kept making excuses. They are very good at saying just the right things to make people back off, and then failing to do what they promised.

And with all due respect Wendy, you haven't met this board. Trust me even if I had come up with a proposal to replace this fence they would have said it's too expensive, we have to wait. From what I've seen their whole raison d'etre is to never spend any money. On anything. Even if it is desperately needed for the community. We still have homeless people and non-residents entering our pool area because they refuse to spend the money to properly secure the gate.

Melissa the HOA installed and paid for the fences over thirty years ago when this development was built. The fences are under HOA control and are not to be replaced or modified by the individual owners. So we get a decaying fence that looks awful and no ability to replace it on our own.

In my opinion it should have been set up like yours, with the individual owners responsible for their own fences. It should never have been put under HOA control because they've shown no willingness to maintain the fences properly.

I am not on the board. i own a house in this community

I have to try to obtain the budget items and financial documents. Going to call the management company since Board phone numbers' were never given out to the homeowners. Unfortunately I was told on "Nextdoor" that the new person at the management company hasn't been returning calls.

If I can't get responses from either the mgmt company or the board, what should I do? Do I have to hire a lawyer to get them to respond? There have been no board meetings here for months, unless they have been private meetings that the other homeowners weren't informed about.

To request records, you need to follow certain written procedures and I don't what they are in FL or in your HOA. Most common is that your request must be made in writing to th appropriate person, MAYBE the PM. Often you need to provide a reason for wanting the records.

Thank you Tim. I actually don't think we will go into receivership either -- it seems like a worse case scenario. But I don't want to wait until this gets to a crisis point either.

I am willing to get involved.

Is there a good way to motivate others involved too? Even if I get on the board I'm only one person. Board needs at least 3 members. And the current members are old. They could just decide to quit at some point, or have health problems and need to quit.

I have spoken to some others who own here and they either seem apathetic, or they seem to believe the management company can just do all the decision-making if the Board becomes defunct.