Condo Association Management Blog

You need to download and rad your state HOA/Condominium Act.Also read your bylaws to determine their applicability to your problem. Bust best solution is to organioze your fellow unit owners and vote in a new board of directors who well not act like a dictator.x Most state laws specify that is an HOA or Condo fail to adopt a budget then the unit owners will continue to pay the same monthly fee as they have been paying and the Board of Directors will only be permitted to continue funding items in the last adopted budget. Now new prohects can be undertaken until a new budget is adopted.

To answer your direct questions - yes, you have have to continue paying your dues. You might be able to avoid paying any increases as Scott has described above. However, I would strongly recommend paying them. If an HOA decided to record a lien there is nothing you can to stop them and it will cost you a lot more money and aggravation to have it remove trying to prove that it was illegal. 
 
Unfortunately, the budget issue is only a symptom of a problem. The real problem that your board doesn't follow your state condominium act and your bylaws. 
 
Read your governing documents specifically sections about board elections. Keep in mind that board's approval or even cooperation is not is not required to have proper elections

PA law as interpreted by most Condo docs requires continuing to pay the current monthly assessment until a new budget has been approved. That is common sense else you could become insolvent.

How can anyone be arrested for talking? What kind of backward police force would waste time at HOA meetings? Why haven't the property owners done something about this.

Sounds like the entire board needs to be replaced. Are there other concerned homeowners like you that want more visibility from the board? Before the annual elections are held you might want to go door to door to see if anyone agrees with you and will come to the meeting to vote for new board members. This is easier said than done because many complain but none are willing to step up and run for office. You don't say if you have a property management company working with the board. If you do, is the PM a certified property manager or just a real estate agent? Getting a good PM is worth it's weight in gold. As long as your current board is not challenged by new people running for a position, you will probably find that they will run the show exactly as they want to. Good luck.

As the president of our condo board I would never allow this behavior from the our board. All of our monthly board meetings allow members to speak for 5 minutes on matters that concern them. The annual membership meeting is the membership meeting and not the boards. The board recognizes that Roberts Rule allows speaking on agenda items only but we work for the membership and this is their community. You need to recall your board and elect new members but this is easier said than done as very few if any wants to get involved.

We do need censorship from feeds like Mastro's and insulting followup attacks like Larry's. 
 
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Condo laws must follow PA UCA. However, Boards and lawyers know PA does not have an advocacy office found in many states. The only option in PA is to sue the Board; a costly undertaking. Boards/lawyers know it is rare for a violation to rise to the level that homeowners will spend $10,000 or more. 
 
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A most urgent change for PA is for CAI to demand an Advocacy Office be established. An Office whose rulings are respected by Boards, Lawyers and JUDGES.

I have an ample vocabulary, and ample intelligence and a Ph.D. to certify that claim. If there were an edit function I would remove the profanity, but the profanity has a point. Buying a condominium in most states is a very risky proposition because while the Deed and Bylaws may comprise hundreds of impressive looking legalize printed pages, for the most part it is a scam and a farce. There is no effective mechanism for enforcing compliance of a rogue board or management firm. The remedy for the unit owner with a problem is gentle persuasion or suing in court often involving a very long drawn out and fustrating process. It might be possible to get a judgement from a court to comply and maybe recover legal fees but that is about it. There are no penalties for not complying with state laws and enforcement is at the discretion of the unit owner to sue. Then if the loser in court does not comply with the judges order, the plaintiff has to petition the court again to get a contempt of court order. These actions take years to play out and meanwhile the unit owner has to put up with the problems the rogue board or management team are causing.

The is the risky option of withholding dues in the case of dispute, but in many states, the condominium board will simply put a lien on your unit. In some situations the condominium board is forced to take you to small claims or regular court and in some jurisdictions there is an option for mediation. It all depends on the local jurasdiction laws and traditions.

John, while what you are describing is technically correct how does it differ from any enforcement of any contract in any civil case? 
 
Lets say two parties signed a contract one one doesn't comply can you tell me any way other than court to force the other party to comply? 
 
Even many criminal laws cannot be enforced unless witnessed by an officer. A case in point: I have a neighbor living on the street who is a grumpy old man. He has problem with kids, families, dogs, etc. He makes it a point to drive at a high speed within 1-2 feet of people to scare them off. Many have complained to police, people have recorded videos that show this behavior. Yet police says that while they understand the problem, there is nothing they can do until he actually hurts someone or someone willing to make a claim that he was trying to hurt them.  
 
HOA are not much different, but they have one advantage that *can* be used if people are willing to. HOA boards are elected and no matter how bad they are if they don't have enough votes they get off. 
 
The problem is that people are not participating. they are willing to complain and bitch about it, but not do anything about it. 
 
Don't blame HOA, blame people that are not willing to control their own situation. 

Thanks for your sharing, this article is very good, I like it very much, as you learn a lot! 

I live in a Florida HOA community. As of Oct 2011, the Board of Directors have exceeded the annual budget by $30K due to over-spending. Does the Board have the authority to do this? Does the membership have any legal recourse?

We have an unusual situation here. The developer continues to add sections to our development and since the CC&R's give him 250 vots for each lot he owns he has full control of the HOA, there actually is not HOA. He refuses to let anyone look at the books in accordance with state law but the amount he demands for dues is completely arbitrary. Unfortunately, the folks who occupy the 400+ homes here don't understand the situation and really won't band together to get this corrected.  
 
 
 
One final point, with each new addition, there is a provision to allow that addition to be added to our development and new CC&R's are issued each time covering the additional plat.

Sorry about the mis-spellings in my post above. I was just in a hurry to get this off my mind and didn't proof read it well.