Legal actions against an HOA/BOD

I'm not a lawyer but ...

I think that you would probably go to civil court, not small claims or criminal court. In California, this is called California Superior Court (I think).

But, before you do that, you should try to elect different people to your Board. First, you will need to get an alternative group of people to run for the Board. If you can't do that, you can't really complain to the court because electing lousy Board Members (even by default) is legal. Second, you should try to get these people elected and collect as much proof as you can to show that the current Board rigged the election. If you get that, you can hire a lawyer and go and get a judge's order to force the banks, collection agencies, management company (if any) and everybody else to remove authority from the existing Board and give it to the new Board. Getting control of the bank accounts is your objective: once your new Board has the money, the old Board will be powerless.

If you don't want to do that, you could hire a lawyer and petition the court to appoint you or somebody else as a receiver for the HOA. In this case, you have to show that the Board's conduct was so horrible and negligent that there is no other choice. But, we're not talking a few rules violations or technicalities here; the current Board has to be truly horrible.

While it's tempting to go to court and just try to stop this or that violation, the Board could easily just ignore the ruling, misbehave in some new way or whatever. You can't really force people to behave; you've got to take power away from them and give it to somebody else.

My general impression is that judges and courts don't really care whether your HOA is well run or not. Lots of companies and organizations have bad management; it isn't illegal to have lousy management. And, from what I've read, judges and courts are pretty lenient on Boards unless they are both OBVIOUS and THROUGHLY CORRUPT. (They can be corrupt, just don't be obvious.) If your HOA is unwilling to elect an alternative Board, I'd think that most judges would figure that you have what you deserve.

But, if I were you, I'd do what I could inside the current Board. You'll have to make a lot of compromises and deal with people whom you'd rather than deal with but maybe you can move the Board a little to address a few of the grievances, even in a small way. I know that others will goad you with all these Law-and-Order dreams about sending the Board to the electric chair and all that. But, again, if I were you, I'd accept a truckload full of lousy compromises before wasting time and money suing an HOA.

Adam - would you be willing to run for the Board at the next election?

Atta Boy Adam,

Rather than a first impulse to "sue" the Board, change comes from within. Lawyers cost lots of cash and usually causes more problems for the membership, especially in this cash strapped economy. Get as many people together who want to have change and get the train back on track. It is up to you and everyone who sees that there is a problem, to gather together and fix the mess. It can be done and the good feeling that you get when you fix something that is broke, is worth all of the effort.