Now that I'm an HOA board member...
Question:
Ok so I put my money where my mouth is and became an HOA board member. I’m working on educating myself by reading up on things. At our annual meeting, the 74 year old president and this other guy who has done 0% to address any issues here both announced that they were resigning effective immediately.
So myself and two women in their late 60’s took over. I’m in my early 40’s. And work full time. The women are both retired.
We decided to reconvene in 30 days from that first meeting to address the things not covered enough in the first meeting.
I need to tell the readers that the recent resigning president and the other guy both ignored most of the HOA issues for 2 years that I’ve lived here. The former president is a master at lying to people and he will agree to anything and then forget or just blatantly not follow up, at all.
He was supposed to write many letters over 2 years, warning HOA members of violations. He ignored a water leak and cost the HOA to use up $10k for a repair that should have been fixed long before I even moved in this place 2 years ago. Everyone is upset because our HOA has almost no money saved now. There also was an expensive hand railing replacement where elderly ex president hired a guy who dropped off metal Hand railing material. He screwed around for 2 days then disappeared. The Hand rail ended up not getting worked on for an entire year. And that metal sat around and rusted. The HOA now ex president gave away the metal to someone and I helped facilitate a proper hand rail installation through a contractor. Both the neglected leak water damage that existed for over 2 years and the hand rail project cost over $15k and it tapped our reserves.
One of the letters elderly ex promised me for 2 years that he’d write and never did was that my neighbors were in violation of an annual fire alarm/ fire sensor check. Our HOA got fined and the cost was split up amongst the other units and we all paid for 1 condo owners fire martial fine. AND he STILL remained in violation for an entire year. Ex president coward wouldn’t confront bully neighbor.
The neighbor I’m talking about is the same one I’ve written a rant about last time I posted.
We have a shared common area hallway and he stores a bunch of his belongings in that hallway that we both use to get to our garage. His boxes, Christmas tree, women’s high heel shoes, plastic bags, water bottle skid, plastic cooler blocks his door to his garage and he steps over his junk when he comes and goes. It’s an eye sore and very irritating to see this sloppy mess.
Well, this year we had our annual fire alarm sensor check, etc and once again, hallway mess boy has ignored our notices about the check. This time, I intervened and got our management company to write them a letter stating the violation, giving them notice on the fine from the fire martial being passed along to them and telling them to remove the junk in the common area. The second fire alarm check to make up for the first check is coming up this 4/13.
The other HOA board member who I said quit, decided to come to our 30 day follow up meeting and suddenly starts trying to manipulate the 3 of us on my “battle over the hallway”. He said that it is “your problem you need to work out with your neighbor.” I told him, “No, it’s a violation of the HOA bylaws. And not a personal vendetta that I have. I’ve looked at that mess for over 2 years and it’s also a fire martial violation.” Then I brought up the fact to everyone’s attention that our elderly and incompetent supposed president who just resigned ignored both the hallway mess, lied to me about enforcing the rules and he passed along $300 fine from the fire martial and intended for my violation neighbor to all of the HOA and it came from our HOA savings.
I ignored the quitter and I drew up a letter that directly quotes the legal definition of “shared common area” the quitter had tried to soft bully/ manipulate us into thinking that the hallway I shared with my neighbor does not involve the HOA and it’s a neighbor dispute. I maintained that when I was moving in and my realestate agent and I saw the mess with elderly president he said immediately that he would 1) draft and send a letter and 2) if the neighbor did not move their things, he’d remove them and send them a bill for the removal. TWO YEARS went by and I reminded him many times. I have an email paper trail and photos that I emailed my HOA board and no one took any action.
Well, now I am taking action. We have the fire alarm company to return specifically for that unit. We have indicated that they will have all fines passed along to them. I quoted the bylaws in a second letter and put them on notice (via our management company) that they will be getting a $15 fine for the hallway mess followed by a $50 fine plus $10.00 per week that they do not remove their stuff. Also warning them that we will take action after 30 days and remove and dispose of the stuff, then send them the bill.
I ignored the quitter who tried to tell me I can’t do that. The HOA bylaws clearly state the HOA board has the right to do those things. And our elderly president did not follow through on anything he said he would do in order to pass along the presidency to the 3 of us who actually give a darn about where we live.
That shared common area is accessible only through my or my neighbors unit and we expect them to act out and try to retaliate against me. It feels good to form a paper trail. Our HOA management company president/ CEO is an attorney and he agreed with my statements and letters I’ve written. He said if my neighbor harasses me or tries to “get in my face” then we will also document that and take action for creating a noxious and unhealthy living environment for his neighbors (me).
There is a lot more going on here but I will try to keep this posting on the main topic of 1) how incompetent HOA leaders can cost the entire HOA thousands of dollars. 2) that you can enforce rules that are posted in your bylaws. 3) documentation is good for covering your backside.
I can follow up later on this month and let you all know how the actions I’ve taken with my HOA have worked.
By the way, the three of us did not establish who is the president, Vice President etc. we all just seem to want to accomplish things getting done around here and we are fairly good at communicating via email with each other.
There is a fear coming from my board members of this trouble maker neighbor who notoriously are bullies. I have 2 police visits documented from me calling the police and this last visit, the police pounded on my neighbors door. He ignored the police and then he HID in his condo and did not come out or leave at all for 5 days. I have security cameras so I know when anyone comes or goes here.
Answers (16)
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