ChristopherM6 (Colorado)
Posts: 4
Posts: 4
Posted:
I recently joined my HOA board. We are a small self-managed 26 unit condo in Colorado. Built in 1995, so we are covered under CCIOA. I joined the board after a rather turbulent period. I have lived in the complex for roughly twenty years. We have been self-managed for about fifteen years. But, it seems to have spun out of control in the previous few years. The first red flag was that the President/Property manager dropped a petition to remove a board member at the yearly meeting. It was not on the agenda. The reasoning for the removal was missing too many meetings. He did not have the votes and was unsuccessful. Roughly a year later I had a pressure regulator valve fail on the water main to the building. It was whistling in all four units in the building. But I essentially got no help from the HOA. I got loud about it not getting fixed, and the HOA did fix it. Billing the four units for the valve. Which is not what bothered me, it was the stonewalling. And they, of course, they slow walked the repair dragging it out over six months. While that was going on I was dropping in on all the board meetings. That is when I discovered we were being sued by an owner over the behavior of the board. Our longest resident was suing after an altercation with the property manager during an inspection. The police were called, but outside of her spraying the property manager with a hose when he rushed her nothing really happened. She is a problem resident and the two have been at each other's throats for the whole twenty years I've been here. But it had never bubbled over like that. I also found another police report of a near fight between the property manager and a renter. I also discovered the board member who had the failed attempt at removal was in a dispute with the board over his renter's usage of visitor parking. The renter had been in a terrible car accident and a live-in nurse was parking in the lot too often for the the president's liking. That whole situation spun out into both of them throwing questions at our lawyer, and a whole new attorney written policy on how, who, and when we should contact the attorney. Just ugly and tons of in fighting on the board. Having discovered all of that, I decided to throw a test a the board and asked for the invoices from our attorney. None of them that were to do with collections on a unit, but all of the rest. We had a failed amendment at the first red flag meeting. It was to limit the number of rental units. A good excuse to ask for some records to see why our attorney costs were so high for that amendment. The board refused. I told he to ask our lawyer about that, and he did. He also asked the attorney if he could bill me for the question. The attorney told him to hand them over and not to try and bill me for the question. But they did not, in fact, hand them over. Instead trying to rely on the idea that only the attorney could properly black out any privileged information and that it wasn't in the budget. I made a little noise, but eventually I just contacted the attorney myself and asked him, since they had said they had asked him to perform the task. They had not asked him, but he got on it right away and sent them over. They still sat on them until I contacted the attorney again a week later. I am not exactly sure what the attorney said, but I had them in the next 30 minutes.
I ran for the board a our annual meeting. There were two slots open, and three candidates. He had enough proxy votes to be sure I was not selected. At that point, I just disengaged. I had made the president so angry with me with the attorney invoice demands that he was literally shaking mad at the annual meeting. As long as he and his best friend were running things, I wasn't going to be helping by antagonizing them. He chased out the other board member. She quit in frustration in dealing with his antics. Leaving her off pretty much all communications and just basically disrespecting her in any way they could. He found another resident to appoint, but she was in WAY over her head and just didn't understand anything. I know that because she called me for advice several times. They set her up a treasurer, but essentially gave her nothing. She didn't have access to the books or the bank, for example.
Last summer, the friend of the property manager moved his family out and into his BIL's place out of town. He stayed behind to get the unit on the market. I figured it was time to run for the board again. I ran and replaced the lady who was in over her head. They have not exactly welcomed me with open arms. Mostly just petty stuff. But it also took me five months to finally get our records as secretary, for example. I was content to not try and make too many waves and just let the property get sold, worry about it with a new board member. I gave them a little gruff for not having a valid towing contract for eight years, but that is about it.
However, after our board meeting last Saturday, I have discovered something I am not sure I can shrug off. It turns out the friend isn't selling his property, he's filed for bankruptcy. He announced it publicly at the board meeting as he should. It was the first I heard about it. He was very sure to tell everyone that he didn't owe the association any money. I decided I had better take a look through the books. And what I discovered was that he had actually broken he payment up in two payments that month and had just made the second one the day before the board meeting. But, I didn't find out on our ledger. Our ledger still listed him as paying the full amount in the first week of the month. I only found it by looking at the bank records. At that point I sent a message to the two asking why I hadn't been notified of the late payment. They both responded that it wasn't late, but a bankruptcy payment plan. I dug further and found an unexplained cash deposit at an ATM for the exact amount of our monthly dues. That was on March 19th, and in the ledger, sure enough the friend had been listed as paying in full on the 5th. He is current on dues at this point.
I am gobsmacked. This all seems very, very dodgy. Of course, you cannot be on the board if you owe money to the association. I think I need to ask at least one of them to resign. And if they do not, I think I need to bring this to the owners. Am I wrong here?
I ran for the board a our annual meeting. There were two slots open, and three candidates. He had enough proxy votes to be sure I was not selected. At that point, I just disengaged. I had made the president so angry with me with the attorney invoice demands that he was literally shaking mad at the annual meeting. As long as he and his best friend were running things, I wasn't going to be helping by antagonizing them. He chased out the other board member. She quit in frustration in dealing with his antics. Leaving her off pretty much all communications and just basically disrespecting her in any way they could. He found another resident to appoint, but she was in WAY over her head and just didn't understand anything. I know that because she called me for advice several times. They set her up a treasurer, but essentially gave her nothing. She didn't have access to the books or the bank, for example.
Last summer, the friend of the property manager moved his family out and into his BIL's place out of town. He stayed behind to get the unit on the market. I figured it was time to run for the board again. I ran and replaced the lady who was in over her head. They have not exactly welcomed me with open arms. Mostly just petty stuff. But it also took me five months to finally get our records as secretary, for example. I was content to not try and make too many waves and just let the property get sold, worry about it with a new board member. I gave them a little gruff for not having a valid towing contract for eight years, but that is about it.
However, after our board meeting last Saturday, I have discovered something I am not sure I can shrug off. It turns out the friend isn't selling his property, he's filed for bankruptcy. He announced it publicly at the board meeting as he should. It was the first I heard about it. He was very sure to tell everyone that he didn't owe the association any money. I decided I had better take a look through the books. And what I discovered was that he had actually broken he payment up in two payments that month and had just made the second one the day before the board meeting. But, I didn't find out on our ledger. Our ledger still listed him as paying the full amount in the first week of the month. I only found it by looking at the bank records. At that point I sent a message to the two asking why I hadn't been notified of the late payment. They both responded that it wasn't late, but a bankruptcy payment plan. I dug further and found an unexplained cash deposit at an ATM for the exact amount of our monthly dues. That was on March 19th, and in the ledger, sure enough the friend had been listed as paying in full on the 5th. He is current on dues at this point.
I am gobsmacked. This all seems very, very dodgy. Of course, you cannot be on the board if you owe money to the association. I think I need to ask at least one of them to resign. And if they do not, I think I need to bring this to the owners. Am I wrong here?