Special Assessment - wrong place at the wrong time, PLEASE HELP

first, you need to know the rules better than the opponent. I suspect that your by-laws cannot be changed by the board (most by-law changes require a lot of hoops to jump through, including votes of the membership, recording, etc.). Read your by-laws carefully, and know them, know what can and cannot be done.

Once you know the rules, you will know what to ask, and whom to ask it of. You may want to ask the board to explain their procedure, and point out why it was wrong. You may want to inform the members of the proper way, and get them involved. you may find a way to call a special meeting, or recall election. Bottom line, the best thing you can do is know your contract (the by-laws) inside and out, then you have some ammunition to fight with.

As an example, CT state law (and our CCRs) limits special assessments by the board to no more than 15% of the regular assessment. Anything more than that requires approval of the homeowners.

State laws and HOA documents vary widely. Check yours to see what the special assessment requirements are.

Also, special assessment provisions are usually stated in the CCRs or Declaration. Even if they are stated in the bylaws and even if the board is at liberty to amend or change the bylaws without homeowner approval, the CCRs or Declaration still prevail. If there is a difference between what is stated in the CCRs and what is stated in the bylaws, the provisions stated in the CCRs are the ones that apply. The provisions stated in the bylaws are meaningless.

Evelyn, here is what the Florida State Condominium 718 Statutes say about amending the bylaws:

h) Amendment of bylaws.--

1. The method by which the bylaws may be amended consistent with the provisions of this chapter shall be stated. If the bylaws fail to provide a method of amendment, the bylaws may be amended if the amendment is approved by the owners of not less than two-thirds of the voting interests.

You can go to flsenate.gov to read all the condo statutes. Make sure you look up Statutes 718, which are specifically for condo associations

Everyln - you said:

"The community proposes that a special assessment be drawn to fix the 5 roofs & replenish the reserves without a 1.6 million dollar loan. The other roofs which are still in good condition can be considered for reroofing in a year or two when hopefully the economy improves."

I agree - If I were on your board, that is what I would back as a proposal.

Our HOA will need about $300,000 in Spring 20011 for a resurface of the road system. We went over our Reserve Fund and identified what absolutely HAD to be done in the next 5 years. We have decided to put $25,000 into our community center this year, and then not to have to do anything for the next 3-5 years to any other asset. Then we can tackle the roads at that time without compromising the reserves set aside for our bridges and water system and other assets.

Everyone should buckle down for a few years. The economy is really going to hit HOAs. This is going to be a NATIONAL Katrina!

Please try to avoid diverting this thread away from the OP's questions.

The community's "recorded" docs. should be avaialable on the web. If you wish to surrender your anonymity you could locate them and provide a link for us to review.

Meanwhile,the idea of replacing all the roofs is a good one. Otherwise everyone is paying but only a few get the benefit. Notwithstading the economy, it will cost more later to complete the remaining roofs.

In regards to condos: sometimes the needs of the few (need roofs) outweigh the needs of the many (roofs OK).

If the BOD is acting within their rights, all the letters in the world will make no difference.

It may be a mystery to her.

I don't assume such things.

There's a lot of possible options and unanswered issues here so sorting them out may help

First, this sounds like a condo, not an HOA, so in Florida, the owners can vote to not fund their reserves. A 50% +1 majority of all owners can override the state requirement for reserve funding. Unfortunately, this is not unusual in Florida condos. There have been a number of stories during the past two years of associations facing massive additional assessments because they had severely under-funded reserves. The economy has only exacerbated the problem, by adding additional revenue shortfalls, and financial hardships on the owners. The problem is that the maintenance still must go on, but there really needs to be some serious studies and planning to deal with it. This may" explain the "mysterious" shortfall in the association reserves - there may have been years in the past when they opted not to fund them. We don't know and it really doesn't matter

The question about the roofs and the loan needs to be looked at based on real numbers and "best estimate" projections about how long the roofs that wouldn't be repaired without the special assessment would last, and the potential for damage. On the one hand you would have the cost of the loan (interest) balanced against the probable lower cost per square foot for repairing all of the roofs at once. On the other hand, you have the probable higher cost per square foot for doing the roofs in multiple segments. The unknown here is the potential for damage by stretching out the repairs over multiple years. f you spread out the repairs and nothing happens you win. If you spread out the repairs and roof leaks cause damage, the cost of the deductible (assuming the cause of the leak is covered) may be more than the interest cost of the loan.

In either case, the assessments are going to have to go up. Whether it's to pay for the loan, or to fund some of the roof repairs on an annual basis, there's really no way around it. The board can't choose to not maintain the common areas - their job is to find the most cost-effective way of handling the maintenance and repairs, and yes, the financial problems of the owners should be a part of that consideration, but not the only one.

It's probably the board's decision to make, as documents often allow the board to assess as needed for the purposes of maintenance and repair, often without an owner vote. (In many documents there is a differentiation between an "additional" assessment, for maintenance and repairs; and a "special" assessment for capital improvements - you will need to carefully check your documents to see if these are defined separately) It's your job to make sure they carefully consider all of their options, but once they have, they were elected to make the decisions, even when it hurts.

Joe

Evelyn,
You sound as if you have the good sense to read and understand all that is being said here. I can't add anything other than in Brian's first post, first line he made a statement I hope you don't overlook. He said to get to know you documents better than your adversary , If that is the case. Vital information to absorb. There are big gaping holes in your post that need to be investigated and corrections made, most include information you are not privy to, but should know and should know how to root it out. Everyone here feels your problem, no doubt of that, it hits close to home for all of us, and probably will get worse, but it will fall heavy on those not prepared and knowledgeable about their association. If it has not been mentioned, I would add, get some help among the other owners, safety in numbers, and a wider power base.

Bruce, you mention CT law on the amount of Special Assessments, could you elaborate on that or give me the Chapter/Article number of CT Statutes?
I am very interested in this for my own CT HOA and all I have found is Chapter 825 and 828 in CT Statutes. Sounds like you have done better research than me, could you enlighten me with where I could find that?
Thank you in advance for your help!