JamesB37 (California)
Posts: 351
Posts: 351
Posted:
The court kicked our 'Sham Board' to the curb, thanks to TerriS6's help
Some of you may remember my situation from Aug 2023. Our HOA held it's annual election in which all (5) seats were open. Due to Cronysim, Nepotism and Corruption that appeared to be rampant with this board, I pushed a slate of (4) Directors in the election. (3) new homeowners, including myself, and one incumbent. For the first time in several years, we met quorum and held an election. (The board was definitely not expecting this) The four of us won handily and the HOA President and his cronies were voted out.
During the week that followed the election, and before we could hold our Organizational meeting, the old HOA president with the help of our property manager (who knew they were going to lose their contract with our HOA), hired a new law firm. (The three new homeowners/directors, the majority of the board, knew nothing about this). During our Organizational meeting, the property manager made some questionable decisions and the old HOA president *somehow* ended up back on our Board...
I was elected as the new HOA president, and it was my belief that what the Property Manager did at this meeting, was not in compliance with our governing documents. They sent me the new law firm's ‘legal memo’ which clearly ‘cherry-picked’ certain sections of our governing documents to support what they had done. In return, I called for an executive session meeting to discuss the situation and try to resolve my concerns by basically just following law.
At the meeting, and before we could even start, the old HOA President claimed that HE was calling the meeting to order and then pulled out his cell phone and called his new Attorney. He then placed the cell phone on speaker and set the phone down so we could all hear. The new attorney opined that there were problems with the election, yada yada yada, and that the Old Board was now back in control. Note - The 'old board' had the full support of the Property Manager, who was also the owner of the Property Management Company.
In the following days, I sent directives to the Property Manager as well as the new Law Firm, but they refused to follow them. There was nothing the new Board could do without the support of the property manager. Two of the five old Board Members immediately resigned, leaving just these three Directors in charge - the old HOA President and his two supporters. (who were never elected in the first place, they were appointed to replace two directors who had resigned a couple of years ago).
The Board claimed that I had "challenged" the election by questioning what the Property Manager had done at our organizational meeting, and they were now forced to take control of the board because of this. They sent numerous memos to the entire membership, mentioning me by name, that basically I caused this, yada yada yada, and now we had to hold a new election, because of me.
At the next board meeting, it wass very well attended by a lot of our upset homeowners. During the meeting, the Directors were actually whispering amongst themselves in a fashion that no one else could hear what was going on. (Several residents even told them to speak up). We came to find out much later, that during this meeting, the HOA President assumed the vacant seat of one of the resigned directors. His seat was one of the seats up for election that year and by changing he got another year. (This apparently is permissible per D-S.com)
I thought that once these three Board members saw the outrage from the community, that they would step down - after all, why would they want to stay on a volunteer board under these conditions? But they didn't. The next board meeting was cancelled and after that we were into the new year and meetings were now held on Zoom, in which these three directors did not turn on their video
After discussion on this forum, I got into contact with TerriS6 and she helped me file a small claims action, asking for the court to validate the election. In the meantime, the board held a new election for two seats and two of us from the original election were again elected to the board, but they had the controlling majority.
To shorten things up, the board asked for a continuance for the small claims case, which was granted and at the hearing - they lost. (They had changed their story from me challenging the election to 'mistakes had been made' that necessitate a new election). The judge ordered our Association to validate that election and even told the board members/property manager that appeared in court - that if there were mistakes made, only a court of law can invalidate an election.
In small claims court in California, there is a 30 day 'appeal' period in-which the defendant can appeal the court's decision. Also, the court's order does not go into effect until after these 30 days are up. The board waited for three weeks and then filed their appeal. A completely new hearing was scheduled, they of course asked for a continuance, which was granted enabling to drag this out as long as they could.
At the appeal hearing, under a different judge, the HOA paid to have TWO attorneys from Los Angeles appear in court to present the Association's defense - mistakes in the election had been made. (L.A. is about an hour away). The judge announced at the start of the day, that she would not be making any decisions that day, that she would take all the cases under submission and render a decision, which usually takes about 2 weeks.
It ended up taking over a month and.... surprise surprise, the Association lost again! The court for the second time ordered the Association to validate that election.
Note - I was able to discover the court's decision from their website - I was checking it several times a day, and I don't think the Association was even aware of it yet. When I found out, I called an emergency board meeting for that day. During the meeting, the new board decided on several 'directives' that were to be sent to the Property Manager and their new Law Firm along with the court's order. Those directives, basically shut them down, and did not permit communication between the property manager and any legal counsel, etc etc.
The next question was - would 'they' honor the court order, or would they force me to go to court again to pursue a 'contempt of court' filing. One of our directives was for the property management company to do certain things by 5 PM the next day, which was sort of a 'litmus' test, and in fact, they did comply. The duly elected Directors from the original election are now firmly back in control of our Board, and we can begin 'righting the ship'.
An interesting fact is that during the appeal hearing, the Association's attorney testified, trying to persuade the judge, that if the judge was to find for the Association, all the contracts that were signed, fines imposed, foreclosure proceedings that were started, etc. would remain 'valid'. The implication of that statement is if the judge was to find for me, all of those items would now be 'invalid', which now appears to be the case, and has created quite a mess for us, going forward.
(/rant on) In closing, there are several 'nay sayers' on this forum that appear to me that all they want to do is attack TerriS6 whenever she posts. In my opinion, backed by real life results, TerriS6 knows what she is talking about. She has been there and done that.
These people, and you know who you are, need to just sit down and shut up! You are clueless and you have no idea how things work in California and apparently no experience with a corrupt board of directors. (/rant off)
This total thing cost me about 10 months of my life and $500, but it worked. I could not have done it without TerriS6's help!
Some of you may remember my situation from Aug 2023. Our HOA held it's annual election in which all (5) seats were open. Due to Cronysim, Nepotism and Corruption that appeared to be rampant with this board, I pushed a slate of (4) Directors in the election. (3) new homeowners, including myself, and one incumbent. For the first time in several years, we met quorum and held an election. (The board was definitely not expecting this) The four of us won handily and the HOA President and his cronies were voted out.
During the week that followed the election, and before we could hold our Organizational meeting, the old HOA president with the help of our property manager (who knew they were going to lose their contract with our HOA), hired a new law firm. (The three new homeowners/directors, the majority of the board, knew nothing about this). During our Organizational meeting, the property manager made some questionable decisions and the old HOA president *somehow* ended up back on our Board...
I was elected as the new HOA president, and it was my belief that what the Property Manager did at this meeting, was not in compliance with our governing documents. They sent me the new law firm's ‘legal memo’ which clearly ‘cherry-picked’ certain sections of our governing documents to support what they had done. In return, I called for an executive session meeting to discuss the situation and try to resolve my concerns by basically just following law.
At the meeting, and before we could even start, the old HOA President claimed that HE was calling the meeting to order and then pulled out his cell phone and called his new Attorney. He then placed the cell phone on speaker and set the phone down so we could all hear. The new attorney opined that there were problems with the election, yada yada yada, and that the Old Board was now back in control. Note - The 'old board' had the full support of the Property Manager, who was also the owner of the Property Management Company.
In the following days, I sent directives to the Property Manager as well as the new Law Firm, but they refused to follow them. There was nothing the new Board could do without the support of the property manager. Two of the five old Board Members immediately resigned, leaving just these three Directors in charge - the old HOA President and his two supporters. (who were never elected in the first place, they were appointed to replace two directors who had resigned a couple of years ago).
The Board claimed that I had "challenged" the election by questioning what the Property Manager had done at our organizational meeting, and they were now forced to take control of the board because of this. They sent numerous memos to the entire membership, mentioning me by name, that basically I caused this, yada yada yada, and now we had to hold a new election, because of me.
At the next board meeting, it wass very well attended by a lot of our upset homeowners. During the meeting, the Directors were actually whispering amongst themselves in a fashion that no one else could hear what was going on. (Several residents even told them to speak up). We came to find out much later, that during this meeting, the HOA President assumed the vacant seat of one of the resigned directors. His seat was one of the seats up for election that year and by changing he got another year. (This apparently is permissible per D-S.com)
I thought that once these three Board members saw the outrage from the community, that they would step down - after all, why would they want to stay on a volunteer board under these conditions? But they didn't. The next board meeting was cancelled and after that we were into the new year and meetings were now held on Zoom, in which these three directors did not turn on their video
After discussion on this forum, I got into contact with TerriS6 and she helped me file a small claims action, asking for the court to validate the election. In the meantime, the board held a new election for two seats and two of us from the original election were again elected to the board, but they had the controlling majority.
To shorten things up, the board asked for a continuance for the small claims case, which was granted and at the hearing - they lost. (They had changed their story from me challenging the election to 'mistakes had been made' that necessitate a new election). The judge ordered our Association to validate that election and even told the board members/property manager that appeared in court - that if there were mistakes made, only a court of law can invalidate an election.
In small claims court in California, there is a 30 day 'appeal' period in-which the defendant can appeal the court's decision. Also, the court's order does not go into effect until after these 30 days are up. The board waited for three weeks and then filed their appeal. A completely new hearing was scheduled, they of course asked for a continuance, which was granted enabling to drag this out as long as they could.
At the appeal hearing, under a different judge, the HOA paid to have TWO attorneys from Los Angeles appear in court to present the Association's defense - mistakes in the election had been made. (L.A. is about an hour away). The judge announced at the start of the day, that she would not be making any decisions that day, that she would take all the cases under submission and render a decision, which usually takes about 2 weeks.
It ended up taking over a month and.... surprise surprise, the Association lost again! The court for the second time ordered the Association to validate that election.
Note - I was able to discover the court's decision from their website - I was checking it several times a day, and I don't think the Association was even aware of it yet. When I found out, I called an emergency board meeting for that day. During the meeting, the new board decided on several 'directives' that were to be sent to the Property Manager and their new Law Firm along with the court's order. Those directives, basically shut them down, and did not permit communication between the property manager and any legal counsel, etc etc.
The next question was - would 'they' honor the court order, or would they force me to go to court again to pursue a 'contempt of court' filing. One of our directives was for the property management company to do certain things by 5 PM the next day, which was sort of a 'litmus' test, and in fact, they did comply. The duly elected Directors from the original election are now firmly back in control of our Board, and we can begin 'righting the ship'.
An interesting fact is that during the appeal hearing, the Association's attorney testified, trying to persuade the judge, that if the judge was to find for the Association, all the contracts that were signed, fines imposed, foreclosure proceedings that were started, etc. would remain 'valid'. The implication of that statement is if the judge was to find for me, all of those items would now be 'invalid', which now appears to be the case, and has created quite a mess for us, going forward.
(/rant on) In closing, there are several 'nay sayers' on this forum that appear to me that all they want to do is attack TerriS6 whenever she posts. In my opinion, backed by real life results, TerriS6 knows what she is talking about. She has been there and done that.
These people, and you know who you are, need to just sit down and shut up! You are clueless and you have no idea how things work in California and apparently no experience with a corrupt board of directors. (/rant off)
This total thing cost me about 10 months of my life and $500, but it worked. I could not have done it without TerriS6's help!