No homeowners will volunteer for the board.

I live in a neighborhood with 24 homes in the association. A few years ago I was voted President, but after about a year resigned due to difficulty with other board members. Last year my husband went to our annual meeting (I couldn't make it due to my work) and he was one of only 2 homes who showed up. The previous board had all resigned AGAIN so he was roped into becoming the treasurer and the one other attendee became the president. There currently is no VP because no one else will volunteer. We have 4 homes that are seriously in arrears on their dues. We've tried to get them to make payments, and they say ok, but never send any money. Now the assn is bankrupt and we have past due bills to the mgmt co, the city for lights, and the ins co. We've asked other homeowners to get on the board and help out and all of them want to disband the assn. But the mgmt co says we can't because there is a neighborhood park. My husband is tired of being the only person who will do anything and doesn't want to be legally liable as the treasurer so he is resigning. I think the president will likely resign too. He won't even return our calls and emails. He asked the mgmt co to just raise dues and not even have an annual meeting. What happens if no one will volunteer for the board? Is there a way to disband it? Would some public agency take it over?

Thank you Kelly. We've been told by the mgmt. co that our neighborhood is not allowed to disband the HOA because we have a park that requires liability insurance. We asked about selling that land, but they say we can't because it is not buildable due to an underground creek and underground utilities. That is our only common area and no one cares or uses it anyway, so we wish we could let it go and disband. Still trying to figure out our options. I'll check the CCR's again. My husband and I would continue on the board if we weren't the only ones, but you're right, the apathy is debilitating to any progress at all.

Monica, in addition to a creditor seeking to have a receiver appointed, any member of the HOA can also petition the court to appoint a receiver.

I agree. Why is the MC needed? Of course they don't want you to dis-band. They would be out of a job.

Hire a good landscape company to maintain the "park" and pare down your expenses.

BTW - what is your annual budget?

HB,
Reasonable approach, and in line with what the others are suggesting bottom line.
You don't need all the owners to do something, probably not a good idea, you need a couple and as noted, get rid of the M/c, for now anyway. But the few that are going to have to druve the train must know what they are doing, not an impossible task, just be responsible. In the end few will thank you, but that's not the point anyway.

We never really wanted a MC, but there are here are the reasons we ended up with one. 1st, the previous board had so much in-fighting due to 2 board members ganging up on the pres to enforce silly parking rules and other unreasonable petty things. When the pres said, "let's be reasonable and not LOOK for problems" they started having secret meetings and sending out notices without the approval of the pres. They even sent a violation to the pres for a houseguest that parked on the street in front of her house for 3 days. The pres got a petition to call a special meeting to resign and suggest the rest of the board resign. While 8 homes signed the petition, not one of them showed up to the meeting. The pres and 4 other homes who had banded together against her were the only in attendance. Those 4 people voted to have a MC so that they could have someone else be the bad guy with their petty rules and do the work that they didn't want to do. The pres voted against it. But a pres with no back up is pointless. Since then 2 of those HO have sold their homes and moved, thus it is much quieter and there has been no violation enforcements. (it hasn't been needed as any rule breaking has been very minor) But now NO ONE will volunteer to do the work, and every time my husband talks to them they say they don't want a MC due to the cost. Neither do we, but if NO ONE will do the work, we have no choice. My suggestion is to bring this up at the annual meeting which will be next week. And IF we can get 2 people to volunteer for the board (we will help too if others will) and we can get rid of the MC. Our dues are only $375 per year and 4 homes won't even pay that. We have liens on them but no action and the MC keeps saying it's "cost prohibitive" to do anything else to collect. It's so frustrating to try to take care of a bunch of people who just complain but will not do anything. And refuse to pay bills so that the HOA can't pay bills. We recently had to get rid of the landscaper due to lack of funds. Now we're going to have to raise the dues again to cover the deadbeats and get back on track. We don't want to take all of the responsibility by ourselves, so they can pay a MC to do it. Too bad it hurts everyone.

Well, it appears you have resolved your problems. Just everyone, including you and husband throw in the towel and say to hell with it. But please, don't even hint that you got that advice here. You are all adults, I would assume, it's your problem, you signed up for it and no matter what happens you all are likely to share blame equally, if you don't help yourselves, in whole or in part. Hire another M/C and maybe you will get lucky and they can straighten you all out, I don't know but you can run all you want but you are likely going to have to face the music some day. You said you and your husband will help, well, you can help yourself by helping and that is what I suggest you do.
Sad sentence and I suspect you will find supporters as you go along. You will not get thanks, you may very well keep you and hubby out of hot water if you try. You say you are going to have annual meeting. You get as many folks as you can at that meeting, you and hubby tell them what you write here, offer your help, ask for anyone else to help so they also can stay out of court, because that is where you all are headed, good with the bad.

Don't take my remarks as anything other than opinion, that is all it is. Hopefully, others will post also and maybe paint a rosier picture.

One other question: Is it legal for us to send a notice to all HO with the names of the deadbeat HO who are not paying their dues and the amounts they owe? Maybe peer pressure and embarrassment will be an effective tool?

This has been a quite informative thread and something popped into my head when reading the various comments.

Why can't Monica's HOA (as the organization and not as two private individuals) and its management company hire a legal team to force the issue of collecting dues?

If I was a dues paying member in good standing, you'd NEVER convince me of paying higher HOA fees on the basis that 4 properties refuse to pay and thus dare the HOA to do anything about it. Not forcing collections punishes the 75% of excellent dues payers because they pay up and their common areas "go down." Also, getting lawyers to chase deadbeats isn't being a "bad neighbor." It's fair and every property owner understands the rules (or should) when they sign their closing documents. Our HOA is reimbursed for legal fees associated with collecting on delinquent dues by the delinquent property owner. It's financially painful and should be.

Now, once the four properties pay up or get foreclosed on - at which point they'll pay the dues - it does sound like there is a cash flow problem that should be addressed but only after all properties up to date on dues payments to maintain common property that will affect everyone's property values and where its negligence, at stated above, could draw out companies seeking to protect their mortgages, collateral, etc.

Monica - your board should start taking action to collect on the four delinquent dues payers. Use your management company since you're paying for them. If the majority of your neighbors simply want to pay their dues have someone else handle the HOA affairs, then try to keep professional representation. Also, make sure your covenants allow the HOA to operate without a property manager. My HOA is required to maintain professional property management.

I do admit this line of thinking requires a little thicker skin than customary but if we're talking about my home value.........

HB,
The proliferation of HOA's and condos. simple from the law of averages, would seem to indicate that there are HOA's that should not be Hoa's.

Got any idea how you determine who should and who should not be HOA's. It could be and I am pretty sure is to the developers advantage if he can establish an Hoa. But once done, I imagine he has no vested interest if the association fails or prospers, other than good press. In general, I am sure there are exceptions.

Robert in a lot of cases except for condos which by their very nature would require some form of an HOA; the city / county forces the developers to form HOA's as a condition to allowing them to develop the land. They do this because the local tax base can't / won't support the development.

HB,

Way to go. I've always believed if a homeowner comes to the board with a problem they should also come with a solution.

We have always had better luck with Lawyers for collection accounts, however, there are some collection agencies that will take these types of accounts on contingency -- but you have to babysit the agency to make sure they are doing their work.

What's the requirement for issuing a special assessment in your community? You might want to consider sending out some kind of notice to the community that if delinquencies exceed such-and-such a percentage by such-and-such a date, a special assessment may be voted on by the board and charged to all homeowners to acquire the legal funds necessary to pursue these delinquent accounts.

Typically, the legal fees are re-imbursed by the delinquent home when they come current. Maybe, once reimbursed, this money could be used to offset future dues or held in a special account for the next year if collections are necessary ... that way homeowners know they need to pay or the HOA will act. In a community as small as yours, it's really not fair to have that many homeowners "opt out" of their responsibility.

Welcome aboard DavidS,
Good advice and well thought out post.