HOW TO VOTE THE CURRENT BOARD OUT!

the subdivision ho's have many complaints about the current board. what is the legal procedure to get them voted out. the board president is an attorney, we have no management company overseeing the financials. she controls everything! she has changed the by-laws that only a few of us are aware of. she has put in place barriers so no one knows what's going on. she has been in office for 2 years now. she has filed several lawsuits against different ho's. Many HOs are afraid to step up because they don't want a lawsuit filed against them, they feel harrassed and bullied by her. we are having a hard time trying to get appointments to view the books. she has all the records. we are desperate and want her out. if you have suggestions on what we can do, please send it asap. please outline step for step, because as I said. she is an attorney and will do everything to block us.

BunnieE - Michelle's reply to you is 100% on target. There must be governing documents, cc&r's, rules and procedures to remove a Board member. You may be desperate and want her and the entire Board out, but in reality you all have the time in the world on your side. So take it. Be methodical. Follow the removal process to the letter. But, who is going to step up to run the association and get things back on track long-term when or if your efforts are successful?

BunnieE: You have recd responses which are right on! Further, IF this acting President was ELECTED to the Board by the membership, it is the membership who can remove this person from the Board altogether, through a petition and Special Meeting for this purpose.

Not certain IF the majority of your membership is unhappy with the entire current Board or just the person holding the President position. As Roger has stated, the one in the President role can be removed from office by the rest of the Board, but you have not stated the rest of the Board is in agreement with doing this.

As the President, who is also an attorney, this person must follow the official document restrictions and guidelines just as any other member of the Association, no more and no less. For you to know if they are following the dictates of the documents puts the onus on you to know and study the documents.

Regarding viewing the books, your documents will dictate the process by which you are to follow to do this. Usually it involves making a formal written request to the Prop.Mgr. if you have one, or the Board, and setting up an appt. to go to the 'office' to view the documents. Again, what do your documents state?

Bunnie, I am going to ASSUME that you have first hand knowledge of the facts you presented and not unsubstantiated rumors. What type of lawsuits has she filed? Were they to collect monies owed the Association or to enforce covenant restrictions or something else? The others have already stated the way to remove her or the whole BOD. I would add that if she is doing anything improper and you can PROVE IT, I would also file a complaint with the Texas State Bar Association. But if she is not doing anything wrong and you libel her be prepared for the lawsuit.

Hi MicheleD, I truly appreciate your reply and guidance. Let me say that this is a huge problem and my initial comment is a desperate move to try to get things moving along without having to hire an attorney. to give you a little back ground about myself, I am a former Board President. I was elected to the board, which was the very first board after the new subdivision was built. We had a management company who guided us while I was serving on the board. The next annual meeting, the board/current board was voted in..(although we suspect it was not done fairly as the board president walked out with the proxy statements after meeting) the management company did not have a chance to see if the proxy signatures where legit. It's been a mess from the beginning. Prior to the annual meeting, the current board president file suit against myself and the vp, falsely accusing us of not allowing her to view the records. At the time our attorney advised us not to talk about it. since then she has filed 2 more lawsuits against stating that we have embezzled funds from the HOA, which is impossible...not true. We had a management company that handled our finances. Since the contract with the management company says they cannot be sued..this person decided to sue us. Anyway, it's quite frustrating..Yes, I have the bylaws but since she has been in office, she has refiled new bylaws that only a few of us HOs know about. (the folks she has filed suits against are aware but no one else) I didn't mean to go babbling on but the current HOs who are frustrated and want her out are looking to me to help them. Therefore, I'm trying to gather as much information as I can to help everyone, as I am a HO too. By the way,the judge feels the law suits filed appear to be a personal vendetta and frivilous. She is wasting HOs funds. As you can tell this is a big mess. And I'm trying to do what I can without going further in to the HOs pockets. But at this point, we have to hire an HOA attorney. I can attached the lawsuits if you want me to. I must say too that this is my first experience and I never thought this kind of thing happened to good people. Ugh!

I didn't know about this angle but it won't work..the VP and secretary/treasuer are present, however, the board president makes all the decisions and instructs the other board members on what to say, act and do. When this board was elected in the VP, came to the former board (myself and vice president) and told us she thought the current board president was doing things improper and questionable. they had several arguements about it and then the president kicked her off the board and replaced her with someone new. a few of us who are knowledgeable about the current boards behaviour, want her out sooner than later. However, she is doing everything she can to counter act our plans. I know we will have problems the day of the meeting. the current plan is to hold a meeting to inform those who are not aware of whats going on. We will have a list a facts, etc. I know all of this information I am giving you may sound crazy and confusing...which it is..but I have to do something, even though she has these lawsuits against me and vp. I can't stand back and watch her continue to take complete control of everything, without the HOAs knowledge or vote on changes. I appreciate your guidance and suggestions.

This is how it is, it is very hard to get people to serve on a HOA board most people will say they don’t have the time and if they are on the board they don’t attend the meetings. When I was on the board we always had people attending the meetings and with this new board they can not even get a quorum for the last two years, they said last year after the first time after failing to get a quorum they came back and did it again and got just the right amount of people, but when ask to see the documentation they refuse to let us see it.
The only ones that are on the board are the ones that want to violate the by-laws and get away with it as you can see on our web sit that we have informing the homeowners of what is going on within our community. http://www.cp2hoa-info.com

They don’t put out newsletters that have not told us anything about the annual meeting they just had which we feel that again they did not get a quorum to go on with the meeting.

So it is very hard to get people on the board..

Good luck

If there is such a large groundswell for her removal, you shouldn't have a problem with calling a Special Meeting for the purpose of recalling the President.

How do your bylaws direct the membership for removing officers, especially the President?

She is ONE person, and everyone has one confidential vote.

The sub-division ho's? There's one to make Don Imus proud......

Ha!

Bunnie - I am not sure why the president is even touching the ballots, but if there is no Election Committee, Teller or polling place, then

I suggest that someone brush up on Roberts Rules or your parliamentary procedures. Start making motions at the beginning of the meeting, even before the election, to get it out of her hands.

She is only assuming all this power because no one knows how to get it back to the right place. Running amok, I'd say - with the permission of the H/Os

this is funny, I mean hilarious! thanks for pointing it out! LOL...hehehhe.. I was so tired last night and didn't realize it.

We have a problem with our board. We have done a recall twice with 50 of 90 homeowners voting the board out. We afailed. We then called a Special Meeting per our by-laws and voted the board out and a new board in. The board refused to step down and has now served ALL of the owners 50! with a lawsuit to recover attorney fees. The Board president has often and liberally used the hoa attorney to keep herself and board in office. The homeowers are sick over this. Currently 25% of the HOA are in arrears. The board refuses to have any discussions over alternatives. Its is the worst nightmare and even though we held a legal vote she will not step down. What would drive a person to stay in an unpaid position when over 50% of the HOA wishes them gone? We are now faced being sued to pay "her" legal fees that she incurred using our HOA atty to stay in office.

I now understand why people hate HOA's. We have a horrible housing market and she had stated owner's who cannot pay - need to move out. $20,000 in 2 years - lets be realistic - the market is awful and many of us cannot get equity lines because our values have dropped.

Do you know of ANY way legally that a heartless dictator like this can be stopped. It is so bizarre that we cannot really understand her thinking. 3 times 50 have voted to have her removed. 3 times she has refused. Our only recourse is law-suit and we have no money. She can use the HOA O & E and atty to ward off the unit owners. I actually hate living in here now afer 10 years of loving it. One mean President has ruined what was a peaceful and lovely community and we feel as if we are living under a horrible dictator and we really are.

Peggy,
You do have options in order to complete your recall. Hopefully your membership has followed the 720'303 State guidelines, using the proper procedure for the recall. Below is the later part of the section to use in the event that a Board member refuses to step dow. You will need to involve the State for help. "D" is the instructions on how to procede
720;303--
2. The board shall duly notice and hold a board meeting within 5 full business days after the adjournment of the member meeting to recall one or more directors. At the meeting, the board shall certify the recall, in which case such member or members shall be recalled effective immediately and shall turn over to the board within 5 full business days any and all records and property of the association in their possession, or shall proceed as set forth in subparagraph (d).

(d) If the board determines not to certify the written agreement or written ballots to recall a director or directors of the board or does not certify the recall by a vote at a meeting, the board shall, within 5 full business days after the meeting, file with the department a petition for binding arbitration pursuant to the applicable procedures in ss. 718.112(2)(j) and 718.1255 and the rules adopted thereunder. For the purposes of this section, the members who voted at the meeting or who executed the agreement in writing shall constitute one party under the petition for arbitration. If the arbitrator certifies the recall as to any director or directors of the board, the recall will be effective upon mailing of the final order of arbitration to the association. The director or directors so recalled shall deliver to the board any and all records of the association in their possession within 5 full business days after the effective date of the recall.

(f) If the board fails to duly notice and hold a board meeting within 5 full business days after service of an agreement in writing or within 5 full business days after the adjournment of the member recall meeting, the recall shall be deemed effective and the board directors so recalled shall immediately turn over to the board all records and property of the association.

(g) If a director who is removed fails to relinquish his or her office or turn over records as required under this section, the circuit court in the county where the association maintains its principal office may, upon the petition of the association, summarily order the director to relinquish his or her office and turn over all association records upon application of the association.

(h) The minutes of the board meeting at which the board decides whether to certify the recall are an official association record. The minutes must record the date and time of the meeting, the decision of the board, and the vote count taken on each board member subject to the recall. In addition, when the board decides not to certify the recall, as to each vote rejected, the minutes must identify the parcel number and the specific reason for each such rejection.

Note.--Former s. 617.303.

I had to look twice to make sure you weren't from my HOA. We have the SAME problem except ours is not a Atty. We have mounted 2 full recall efforts followed the book on them. The board refused to certify due to technicalities. The 3rd time we looked and saw that we could call a special meeting if we had 25% of the hOA on board we had more than 50%. We called a special meeting, had a legal quorum changed the by-laws and voted out the board and in with the new. The old board refuses to step down and they are now suing everyone who signed the recall ballots for damages and atty fees that she used to keep herself in office. Good luck when you get an unstable person running the board its like an illegal tenant - they use the law against you or the HOA and our experience reads like a Stephen King nightmare. I wish I could sell and move - I hate living in a HOA with a whack job running it. The laws do not protect the owners - they lean heavily in favor of the HOA.