Can a member be in two boards in the same community

Started by GordonD1 • 8 replies • 1303 views

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GordonD1 (California)
Posts: 131

Posted:

My community has two homeowners association. The first association is for the master community that covers the houses and the townhouses. The second association is only for the townhouses. I own one house and one townhouse.

My questions is: Can I be part of the two homeowner association boards?. Would this be a conflict of interest?

Happy New Year to all of you,

Gordon

MicheleD (Kentucky)
Posts: 4,491

Posted:

I know of at least one very good source to find out that answer:

Your governing documents.

That is probably your first step in determining whether it is kosher.

If the documents do not address that issue, and the laws in California (which others on here can share with you where they are located and how to search them), then most likely you can be on both boards.

My next question, then, is this:

Why would you want to be?!

Being on one of them will be headache enough, no doubt!

(spoken with somewhat of a tongue-in-cheek. . .)

DwightT (Idaho)
Posts: 664

Posted:

If you can get the votes from the other homeowners, I don't see why not. If it makes you feel more comfortable, you can mention that you are already a member of one board when you are running for the other, and if the homeowners don't raise any objections then you shouldn't have a problem. There really shouldn't be any conflict anyway, of interest or anything else.

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

Gordon,

Absolutely they can be on both boards.!! Being a representative for your townhouse association to the Master association is not a conflict of interest. Actually, it is a benefit to your townhouse association because this person can be hands on and have ears working for the sub association. They can present problems that the Master board needs to be aware of and basically represent the interests of the members in the sub association. My HOA required a board member from each sub association to sit on the Master board.

SusanW1 (Michigan)
Posts: 5,202

Posted:

It would be a problem only if the bylaws prohibited it. Check them out.

RobertR1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 5,164

Posted:

Gordon,
As you described there is no conflict. On top of that, I would assume you may have a Private Public Works Board, maybe a Community Center Board, maybe a Club Board and maybe an Investors Club or a Swim Club. None present a problem.

GlenL (Ohio)
Posts: 5,491

Posted:

Unless as Michele and Susan pointed out, it is prohibited in the governing documents!

Studies show that 5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions

DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671

Posted:

Gordon needs to clarify how the Master Board and his sub Board are set up. Master Boards usually have the governing documents that each sub association must adhere to. Each sub assoc. might have seperate bylaws relevent to that sub but the Master documents rule the entire community. As I said in my earlier post, Board members from each sub association benefit a Master Board by relaying information to the Master regarding what is going on in the sub associations and then the M.B can react to problems that affect the entire association. Some documents require the subs to be represented to the Master.

RobertR1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 5,164

Posted:

Good post Donna,

As usual, I find our situation to be a little different.

Our Master POA is in the process of making some covenant changes because the place is about built out and the developer wants to get rid of the ARB. However, to make these changes in the Master covenants, only those with single family homes get the right to vote, because the multifamily home have different covenants under the Master deed. To add crap in the game they are also under covenants of the Developer (on paper). To top that our condo covenants declare us us an entity of a residential community with our own set of governing documents that we follow. We pay dues to the POA, no costs involved under the Developer covenants, and we pay assessments to our condo.
In reality and as a practice, our POA controls all the common areas, all the roads, some bridges, and lakes and such. We as residents of the island pay equal to all other residents. We pay nothing to developer as we are not attached to them in any way. The Club is the developers and separate from anything else. Our multi family covenants come up for review in a couple of years and I have no idea what this will bring.

Got all that?

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