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Posted By BrianP19 on 11/20/2024 9:09 PM
The community is 5400 lots and it is run by a board of directors (who are all appointed). I worked with a real estate agent to verify the sales and then cross that with the member list. That is how I found all of the errors. When I brought them to the board- they ignored me. When i did the little analysis- i only checked 1 month... because its very time consuming for my agent friend to cross the check the transaction data with the current ownership data (real names). But i do see your point- i should call the recorders office and see how hard it would be to get the owner list myself.
Again- im just asking if anyone has heard of an HOA doing this. I cant tell if they are not updating the list out of lack of resource- or something else. I will say- we havent hit quorum in 14 years and the current board reappoints themselves each year. They have used people not voting as justification- it makes me wonder if the reason people are not voting is due to the member list not being updated.
It could be people aren't voting because they're not getting information on meetings and elections, but apathy is a huge problem in at least 90% of the conversations on this website, so that may be the real problem here. In fact, I'm sure that's an underlying problem because you said you haven't had quorum at your meetings (I assume you mean the annual because that's usually when board elections are generally held.
If you've read your documents, you shoukd know what the quorum is for an annual meeting and if you don't get it, there is no election. If there's no election, the current board stays until they get voted out or step down. Or recalled, which requires a special homeowners meeting. Your documents will tell you how they're called. In any case, THAT'S why you have the current group.
I know there are various requirements for HOAS under the Davis Stirling law, but you said yours doesn't fall under that. As I understand it, those HOAS would be governed under their bylaws and/or the state corporations code. So you may as well take a long look at your documents to see what the association is supposed to do, homeowner rights and responsibilities, etc. If you've lived here for 14 years you should already know some of this.
Then consider what type of problems your community has,, but it doesn't seem the board is aware of them or just don't care (unfortunately, it may be no one else cares either). To turn things around, you'll need to get enough homeowners involved to vote these folks out and put in a new group (which may need to include you) and then you can start addressing long neglected issues.
Often people pay their assessments and go back to watching TV because everyone was told "the association will take care of everything", not realizing they ARE the association and should be keeping track of what the board does and why. This is the thinking you'll need to tackle and you'll need help. Start walking around the community and talk up some of your neighbors- there may be others who 5hink as you, but jo ones figured out how to get the change started and with 5400 homes, it may take a minute to find them.
Another approach-have you asked the board what it might need help with and offer your services? They're also homeowners and have a life outside the association. Has it occurred to you that if a few people helped with cleaning up the owner list, it might be the start of getting others to help out and perhaps stepping up to serve because these folks have been at it for 14 years with no break? If one of them asked YOU to take their place (the board can appoint homeowners to serve out a term), what would you do?
If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. Marcus Aurelius