Spouses

Does anyone else have a problem with spouses of Board members talking about Board discussions and decisions, even those unannounced, to neighbors or at social gatherings. Board decisions have even been overturned by spouses at social events.

I'm a board member. How do I combat it without alienating fellow board members. It isn't a problem for me ... I'm widowed.

Ellen, I know that and you know that but how do I convince the rest of the board that this is not proper?

I feel your pain. we have a BOD that appointed her husband as a consultant so he goes about making all sorts of decisions and claims to have an independent vote.
but that will be dealt with later.

Disclaimer alert. I'm just learning too so this is only my opinion, So first lets get down to the basics.

No decision can be made at a social gathering. to make decisions you need to hold an open meeting and the meeting should be conducted according to your by-laws and state law.

you mentioned unannounced decisions. I don't know such a thing exists.

whenever the BOD meets to discuss HOA business it's considered an open meeting, so how do you go about making unannounced decisions?

The BOD has the right to make decisions without the consent of the homeowners but should the majority of the Homeowners disagree they would have to remove the BOD and take over the BOD to revert the decision.

No spouse of a BOD can act as a BOD because he/she is not elected to the BOD
The BOD is listed in the articles of incorporation.

It would be like Michell Obama declaring war on Poland.

Tell them they are acting illegally and that every decision they ever made can be questioned by any unit owners layer.
if the BOD is acting illegally it will have no leg to stand on in a court of law.
we live in litigious times

Boards change and somewhere along the way all of this will come back to bite you in the rump.
I learned the hard way that having social meetings to discuss HOA business is inviting trouble.

Right now we have a president who has a chip on his shoulder and if he played his cards just right he could have all of us remove our hurricane shutters because way back when, we all had a meeting over Coffey and "discussed" hurricane shutters, but nobody took minutes and nobody got written permission to install shutters.
Yes we all have the same shutters but nobody got approval from the board in writing because hey we are all friends here right?

our by-laws state very clearly that we need written approval before we install anything... Our DTV dishes are even in danger.

Oops!

Steve,

What's this world coming to now that layers can go to court...kidding. I don't know how to post a smiley face.

SMILEY FACE---: and ) right under it. FROWN : (

I use a colon : and a capital D next to it to make my smiley face!

Michele,

I'll try it. . It didn't work.

Since we have never had any unannounced decisions, I wish that our spouses would talk about the decisions more. But for the most part, all of our BOD member's spouses leave all "the hoa stuff" to the BOD and show little interest in involvement.

I had to try it. Wow, you learn something new everyday!

I have also learned that meetings have to be open unless they are Executive Sessions and depending on your By-Laws and State Statutes, everything requiring a vote must be brought to and voted on in an open meeting that is advertised.

D;

Thanks for all wise words of advice.

Donna, I'll try the 'evil eye.' I had it down pat when my children were small but may have to practice to perfect it again. I hope it isn't viewed by my neighbors as just a nervous tic brought on by advanced age and infirm.

Actually, the FCC has been very clear that obtaining prior approval on the small dishes is an unreasonable burden and you simply can't enforce it. Further, while you can place reasonable restrictions, the burden of proving that they are reasonable falls on the HOA.

As for dealing with the shutters, I would suggest that at your next meeting you make a motion to approve them after the fact. Aside from that in many states there is a statute of limitations after which you can no longer try to enforce against a particular CC&R transgression. For instance in Texas (others will not be the same) one could only file a legal claim of violation for three years from when the shutters were placed on the house. After that, and the court will rule against whoever tries to enforce against them.