Annual Meeting

The homeowners in my development just received notice of our Annual Meeting. Included in the notice was a Note: that stated:

Builder issues are between homeowner and builder and is not to be discussed at the annual meeting. The notice was sentfrom our Management Company who was selected by our builder and our builder is in control of the development

Shouldn't the owners have a right to speak and ask questions regarding the development at this meeting, since we never meet
at any time during the year? or should a meeting between the owners and the Builder be requested.

Your input would be appreciated.

I agree, perhaps saying that "individual concerns between homeowner and builder" will not be covered at the annual meeting.

Still, the board should be sure to let homeowners know the contact name, hours and phone numbers for all conerns to the builder.

IF the board received numerous complaints about the builder, it ought to request a one on one with the builder to see what the deal is.

Our builder is the President of our Association. He is in control of the Association and the development. He has 3 votes to the 2 (which are owner Board Members)

Yes, they are his relatives.

For the sake of clarity, it sounds like:

1). The developer, declarant, and builder are all the same entity
2). The declarant still has control of the HOA

Assuming this is true, the builder/declarant/developer assumes more than one role in this situation - and as a result there are more than one relationship to contend with.

The builder sold real estate to individual homeowners - this is independent of any HOA involvement
The declarant controls the HOA, which is comprised of individual members (e.g. owners).

As such, the builder/declarant appropriately has chosen to have the annual meeting address HOA issues and separate any concerns between him/herself and individual homeowners from the business of the HOA entity.

Makes perfect sense to me - unfortunately not all owners readily grasp this distinction and want to intermingle issues from different business relationships.

Frankly, how can you have a Homeowers meeting (if you include a owners comment section, and you should) and not allow an owner to elect what he wants to say. Now, the Board may elect not to entertain any subject they desire. However, they do this at the risk of driving the subject to another forum that is out of Board control.
In this case the owners having questions are likely going to band together and take the builder/developer/board, whatever, to task outside the confines of the owners meetings.

All this a process we have seen many times on this site, and more frequently lately because of economic pressures. I still believe developers/builders and homes owners and associations will benefit if mutual respect and parity is considered.

Should the annual meeting turn into a slugfest between some disgruntled homeowers and the builder/developer/board..............no. But they all better recognize there is a problem and work toward resolution, such as an outside committee to fact find and report to board.

In this case I suspect the process has already reached a level that some homeowners are going to have to go outside the board, and united, confront the builder/developer. Then when push comes to shove, the record is established that the unhappy homeowners tried to resolve their differences with the management in place, intent is part of how a court or judge evaluates cases.

Susan,
Is the self appointed President in this case the presiding officer? I am not unaware of the HOA's responsibilities. Right now the HOA has no responsibility other than to do what the developer (presiding officer?) decrees.
That's the breaks, but that don't mean you can't object and if you do, you should act in a manner to bolster your own views. All you want to establish is you tried to discuss this situation with the responsible party (the developer?, the presiding officer?), by raising the issue at a Homeowners Meeting. I would suggest this request be recorded or taped, along with the reply. Also, make sure you keep a copy of the M/C directive about annual meetings of the Homeowners.
I do not believe this should be a responsibility of the M/C to order this kind of directive, if my memory of the OP serves.

Mary,

That is correct and what I posted up early on the thread. Building or construction problems with a unit are not member problems unless it is happening on many units. These are individual homes I believe.

We had a mass problem in S. Florida with all of the white cabinets in 90 homes where the edging was chipping away from the doors. What we did at the annual meeting was to inform the members of which department and the phone number to call for repair and replacement and not dragging the builder into this at a meeting. It is not annual meeting stuff and I agree with the developer/builder not wanting this at the annual meeting. This is not what the purpose of that meeting is.