How to get detailed HOA financials

I not sure how to get this info. I would like to obtail the most detailed financial info for our HOA. We are a community that the developer is still building and the very brief financial statments dont give us any idea where the money is being spent. How can I obtail this. In addition are all HOA considered 501c3's None profit organizations and if this is the case, cant we request the info through the Goverment. Any info anyone can give would be great.

I guess they do hold meetings they just decided to raise our dues. We as the homeowners feel traped. The developement has been under comstruction for more than 3 years and is less than 40% complete. I just want to ensure they our using our fund appriopriate and that the developer is not making us pay for portion they are suppose to pick up. I looked at thier summary of expenses and I would like additional information on them just to verify evreything is in order. I would rather take the inicitive now instead of when they go into bankruptcy. No offense but this builder is not the most honest and I would just like to verify that they are doing things correctly thats all. If it is a non profit arent all thier record public information?

Carlos,
I think what you are asking is if you, personally, can ask your developer for a more detailed financial report. First Susan knows her organizations so pay attention to what she provides.

My answer to your question is yes, you can ask anything you want. Not likely you will even get a response from developer and no way is he going to elaborate on anything he puts out, he don't have to. You could hire a lawyer and try to make some waves and maybe get a favorable court ruling, but is would be costly. You can gather up a bunch of owners in your group and this would spread the cost around and be looked at more favorably by a judge, most likely.

But first things first:
Do you have a BOD?
Who is on this BOD?
Do they hold meetings?
Do they take minutes?
Are they published after approval of BOD ?
Do they publish financial statements?
Can you speak at these meetings?
Have you spoke at these meetings?
What result did you have?
Do you know other owners interested enough to get involved?
Do you know your documents completely?
Do you have state statutes concerning associations like yours?
Have you looked at state business filing to see if you are listed and found out how you are listed.
Have you been to courthouse and looked up the registration of your Corp or whatever at court house?

You do the above, and you will be able to answer your questions probably better that us. What you want, and probably deserve to have, will not be easy to obtain, but you and your owners do have rights, you just need to know more than you know.

Oh one last question I had. We have no lines for parking they are all faded and and they are telling us it is not in the budget ( not even handicape lines are visable anymore. I am more than willing to do the work and paint them myself. Dont they have to maintain these. In addition we do not have a handicae ramp and they are telling us it is not in the budget to fix this. Isnt that required by law? As you can see I have lot of questions and no answers. Thanks.

Carlos,

Regarding the type of corp your assn is: Some HOAs are organized as nonprofit corp. under the IRS 501(c) designation; however, most are just regualar nonprofits. The declarant can best answer this question for you. A 501(C) corp will file fed. taxes on a form 990; while a regular nonprofit HOA will file fed taxes on a form 1120-H (specific to HOAs) or form 1120 (for corps.). Many states have a state agency that oversees all corporations and require an annual report to be filed. In AZ the Corp. Commission is the gov. entity and the annual reports, which include a financial statement, can be viewed on the Corp. Comm. website. Check with CO state gov. to find out what the requirements are in CO. If you want more specific info that is not shown on a financial statement you will have to contact the declarant and request financial records. Some states have laws stating an HOA member has a right to obtain the records of the assn. Again, check CO HOA laws to see what your rights are in this regard. Also, I would suggest thoroughly reading all your gov. documents to find out exactly what the declarant can and cannot do while in control of the assn. It's not uncommon for the declarant to have certain rights while he is in control that no longer apply after he turns over control to the members.