Disinterested neighborhood

I am president of our neighborhood association. We have approximately 180 households. Dues are not mandatory and are only $35 per year. We have about 45% of paying members. Dues are used strictly for common area maintenance,i.e., entrance. I have been trying to resign for a couple of years but no one will step up to replace me. Therefore, I am considering dissolving the association. How can this be done legally.

Jim,

while dissolving an Association can be done legally I would not go there because it may impact your property value as well. You do not want the front entrance to go to weeds, or do you?
Send a letter to all owners asking them to replace you. Come on, I am sure someone will. The dues of $35 are trivial if the front entrance is important to keep the development attractive.
If the dues are not mandatory the membership is not mandatory. So, I infer it is an older association and it is not governed by any statutes. Right? How about the roads and other real property? Do you even have covenants?

When I inherited this responsibility I was told by the outgoing board that dues were for not mandatory. Fifteen years ago (I have lived here 10 years) when the developers turned over the subdivision to the association, restrictions were registered with the county. The association board wrote by-laws but did see fit to enforce the restrictions. The restrictions imply that the board of directors have governing powers, we do not, nor do I want to govern my neighbors. We are simply a maintenance committee. The roads are maintained by the city. I agree with you that property values will go down if the association dissolves, but how does one force involvement and participation? I have served my time (8 years) and want to step down. One other consideration is hiring a property management company, but $35 per year with less than half paying, will not pay for that. Also, we would still need a board of directors with a president.

What would a property manager do? You sound like you have one task and that is the entrance landscaping maintenance, which by the way seems excessive to me. See if you can get that bill reduced or find other bids.

Then RESIGN. It's amazing how things somehow continue without us.

It seems to me the HOA is already dissolved, by default.

There is no attempt to collect dues.

There is no attempt, or even intent to enforce the deed restrictions.

The property values won't be impacted any more than they already have been these last many years that the HOA abandoned its duties.

Simply having a signature entrance and pretty signs aren't what's going to keep your property values intact.

It's that pesky "governing" of your neighbors by enforcing the deed restrictions that will (or that is intended to keep the values intact).

The purpose of the deed restrictions are to "restrict" the residents from doing things to their properties that may impact the value of their neighbors' properties. You know, silly things, like keeping them from parking semi-trucks in their yards (no commercial vehicles).

You already said you have no intention to do that (and haven't been doing that).

Game over.

(For the record, you wouldn't be "governing" your neighbors. You would be enforcing the restrictions and maintaining the integrity of the governing documents. It's the documents that "govern" the neighbors, and they already agreed to that when they purchased their properties. You'd just be executing against the documents they already agreed to. But that's moot since somewhere along the line, at least 8 years ago if not earlier, that decision was already made.)

Eva,
I am sure that dues are not mandatory. The common property belongs to the neighborhood but there is nothing in the covenants/restrictions that says dues are mandatory. Therefore it would not be legal to place a lien against a property for nonpayment.

My original question was "does anyone know how to dissolve a neighborhood association"? Thanks for your input, at this point, it doesn't seem to be the best avenue to take.

MicheleD
No, the association is not dissolved because I am holding a bank acount with association money. I collect dues by a mass mailing annually. Maybe there's a difference in a HOA and a Neighborhood Association, I don't know. Eight years ago when I agreed to serve for one year, I continued as the board presidents before me. I can't believe that any reasonable person would expect a board president to monitor properties and police a membership of 180 residents on a daily basis (especially for a $35 annual maintenance fee) and I didn't sign on for that. Hopefully, somewhere out there is a person who is willing to turn the tide and live up to the expections of what I think I have learned a HOA is. Thanks for your input.

Well, first of all, I was speaking in functional actuality, not in official reality. In other words, by inaction, the HOA is effectively impotent, therefore it's moot, there for it's effectively "dissolved," albeit not officially dissolved.

But to be more on point, I find it very sad that you have been a board president for 8 years and still don't have a functional knowledge of an HOA (or a Neighborhood Association, for that matter).

For one thing, you don't have to police your neighborhood even once, much less daily.

We have over 300+ residents and we don't "police" the neighborhood. We developed procedures for handling Deed Restriction enforcement by enforcing only on verified complaint. So there's no need for the board (or a single board member/president) to "police" the neighborhood on a daily basis. The neighbors report potential violations, the board confirms the violation, then sends the letter to compel compliance.

With over 300 homes in our development, we usually have an average of about, oh, maybe 4 or 5 complaints to verify a month. Of those maybe 1 or 2 end up being an actual violation of a restriction. Some months we don't get any. Not too hard to manage.

We also send the assessment notices by mass mailings annually. Takes about 3 hours to stuff, label, stamp and mail.

But if you don't have mandatory assessments, which I find extremely hard to believe, then there is no way you will ever be able to effectively maintain any common areas over time, anyway.

Your best bet is to take whatever funds you have left in the HOA account, visit a reputable HOA attorney and have him help you euthanize your poor hobbled HOA. It's the humane thing to do.

Jim,

me again. To google your Articles of Incorporation you need to go to Secretaty of State (Dept of State) and see if they have them in the pdf format. Some don't. In that case they will mail you a certified copy. I just thought of that because I have to do the same thing. Ha.

I would say that that even though membership is not mandatory, your corporation would still have to abide by your state statutes (if any)...

I would also say that amending the covenants to make membership mandatory is difficult, and I would definitely not suggest going that route. By my understanding, you would require 100% of the owners to agree in allowing for membership to become mandatory, and considering the disinterest in your neighborhood, achieving such a number would be near impossible.

Considering there is not much to maintain, and nobody is interested, but you have no desire to dissolve the association, would it be a better idea to let the corporation become inactive and just find a way to have the bank accounts managed until some other interested party decides to run for president.