BOD shakeup, Thankyou for all the help!

In December, I started a grassroots movement to make our homeowners aware that their apathy had created a rogue board who had violated multiple texas statutes, besides our own covenants in their quest, it now appears to keep Dues static and keep their home values low. By appointing their friends to the board and committees and making arbitrary "resolutions" the discouraged other homeowners from running for the board. Our community hall has seen no revenue from rentall since this past board took over 4 years ago. Our pool and outbuildings are crumbling.

We formed a group of neighbors and told showed them our concerns. Word spread. We petitioned the board to hold a special meeting to address our concerns about lack of open meetings and transparency, lack of decorum and civility, and a need to update the CCR to reflect the changes in Texas HOA Laws.

The board claimed they appointed because nobody else wanted to run. There were 4 terms expiring. They had 3 names. In the course of a few weeks, we recruited 6 more to run. They found 2 more. It went from "nobody wants to run, to 11 people running for 4 slots.

Three of those slots were filled by our candidates. One of them is now president. One is the new secretary.

I got a call from the newly elected president asking if it was SB 1588 I had been talking about when campaigning that our HOA is delinquent in following the laws and I said yes. He had spent an afternoon reading everything and declared "Barbara was right on everything".

Actions do speak louder than words.

Thankyou all for your help and support.

The job now is to build trust with the owner's/residents. Develop a monthly newsletter, President does walk abouts being available to chat with. Work closely and honestly with all Board members and ensure each Board member knows what the President knows. Have open Board meetings and make sure that the owners know how to access Board minutes and the financials. Trust building is vital.

Your success is a big pat on your back for accomplishing what many owners would not be willing to do.

What a wonderful accomplishment, Barbara. You demonstrate how the willingness to learn a little HOA law and your own governing documents provide the information needed to rally homeowners to take back control from an abusive, secretive board of directors, that ignored laws and your docs.

Others may want to follow your story in your previous posts to see that it takes very hard work, but that uniting with others and pulling together can effect positive change. You and your group should be very proud of yourselves!

I entirely agree with Michale that building trust is crucial and his suggestions are perfect.

Please remind me: How many SFHs (or condo?)? Does your HOA have any kind of community manager? Does your association have an HOA attorney? Do wither offer training serivces? It seems it would be really wise if your new Board could attend some sort of HOA 101 seminar so that your all learn the same "language" and comprehend the basics of HOA governance.

good job, first order of business should be to put out a survey to see what members want done.
obviously you want to spend more money on the pool, but it might very well be that a majority don't give a crap about the pool and actually would prefer to have it shut down and filled in.

you never know until you ask the questions and give them ALL the choices they deserve.

In other words don't write a survey that says
How should we upgrade the pool

without also asking if they want to spend more, less or the same on the pool.

biggest issue with new boards is they have pet projects they implement with little to no owner input.

Thankyou Kerry,
We have 114 SFH. No Manager, pretty sure there is no atty. I was asked to be an advisor and I declined as I am no expert and told them they needed to get at atty to get them up to speed on their governing documents.
The newly elected president is extremely smart and he and his wife are all about keeping the peace by promoting discussions, starting a newsletter again and creating more social events.

Great suggestion on HOA board training.

We are very proud of ourselves, yes but we have a lot of damage control right now. Building back trust will be number one priority.

Beware public accommodation laws. Beware the tax implications of the HOA's accepting income that is not exempt because it is not assessment income. Beware the member of the public who slips and falls in the "community hall" and sues the HOA, whence the HOA discovers the insurer will not cover this.

As long as the board checked that the insurer knows the hall is open to the public on occasion, and if I were on this board, then I would not raise a ruckus.

:-)

Wink duly noted.

Duly noted.

There is liability for our members as well. The pool deck coating is shatter and missing in places with potholes. Chunks of it are blowing in the pool and a members guest stepped on a shard which luckily only caused a bruise.

Another member fell of a ladder while decorating a Xmas tree in the hall last month.

Verifying insurance is a huge concern for us as we just learned our policy was dropped effective end of this month as we are too much of a risk. 320% usage over the last 9 years due to storm damages. Questions. Questions. It really is a mess right now.

320% usage is what the outgoing board stated at the annual meeting. It is on a list of "discovery" items to sort thru.

First one is believable.
2nd one maybe, but the last one sounds laughable. People are gonna pay more for a home because the HOA has a monthly bingo tournament with a chilli cookoff? I guess I need to educate myself on what makes 55+ HOA's desirable.

You must urge the Board to get insurance ASAP. Owners must understand that their dues MUST go up to cover (1) insurance and your (2) maintenance needs that are safety hazards, i.e., present liability risks to your entire HOA. Related: please urge the board to NOT permit any owners to climb on ladders or "help" in ANY way that causes them to injure themselves, e.g., no "fixing" electrical, using power tools, etc. WE DO have insurance, but it does NOT cover engaged in dangerous activities.

One way to help owners understand the necessity for proper insurance and common area maintenance is for the Board to hold an emergency open board meeting to vote to to literally close the pool until the trip and other hazards are repaired. Owners will be able to see that they simply must pay more to bring your HOA at least up to minimum safety standards.

Because of these current serious issues, I agree the Board should hire an HOA attorney VERY soon to keep your HOA out of legal trouble, and one hopes to offer some training to board members.

There is NO immediate need to bring the CC&Rs up to date match TX statutes; they prevail anyway. A potluck does sound like a good idea IF where it's held is safe. It is important to build a new sense of community and cohesiveness among owners.