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what about moving ? you say u don't want court but throw out all this legal threats. You got a problem with management and i think its time to move.
The same thing can happen anywhere. In one year or 10, a regime change is all it takes to make a nice place into a horrible one.
I want the regime to change again, and am working towards that end, and along the way trying to do what is within our power to deal effectively with the board we have right now.
First off I would not use words such as extortion in posts like this. We all make mistakes when we think we are hidden on forums like this. But truth be told, people find things.
Strength in numbers. I was part of a group that took on a HOA in NJ. Ask for people who are concerned like you to give you their contact information, email addresses, telephone numbers. Keep a list. Keep records of all conversations with names and attends, I use spiral notebooks. You are going to need to stay in contact when you or others have news. Keep your group updated and informed and you will most likely see others join. And sometimes out of the blue someone joins or maybe has a relative/friend who is a lawyer or other valuable professional that can give some free advice.
Strength in numbers..
I appreciate the warning but I am not concerned over the bolded. I wouldn't care if the entire BOD were reading and knew exactly who is writing it. Extortion might not be exactly the right term, but they did what I am claiming. Truth is a defense to Libel, Slander, etc.
What would you call it when in campaign mode, they made things up about 3 men whom they wanted to sign letters that were lies about the former board, and when they wouldn't, said if they didn't they'd tell their wives about their drug-dealing and butt ____ing on property? That is all now a matter of legal record anyway.
We can't do anything about all that in the past. But we can keep track of our money. At the end of the day, that is the primary concern with them. They don't seem to care how much of ours they spend, and we have to pay for their play. In the form of massive dues increases and special assessments.
There must be other people out there who have dealt with such and can point me to which agencies I could possible complain to, and other actions short of a civil suit. Understand that a civil suit costs us money either way. If we win against our own association, we pay ourselves. (Only the lawyers benefit).
Yup, and having before lived under a very bad one, is why I enjoyed the former boards that we had here. Nothing was ever perfect, but it never can be. It was on the whole fine, and in a sense, everything in an HOA being fine overall is actually an A. the problems we had before were..............these people. Agitating for 12 years. Over time the names changed but it was the same 'Revolution'. And that was more of just an annoyance until the latest batch ratcheted things up to DEFCON 1.
Yeah I don't want to move. The same thing could happen again. I chose carefully here. Asked a lot of people what the board is like before buying. It's been good for 12 years, and then the toons got in. Literally in part due to extortion and more.
Besides moving or suing, 'we' (which is less than half the numbers we need to get a new board) are left with doing what they did, leaving out the bad tactics. We have to convince people they voted for the wrong team and #comeback.
Sadly, in order to do that, we have to let them screw up (not that we could stop them anyway) and then have a lot to show people as to WHY they are a mistake and vote for the sane, competent people.
We lost the battle for the grass. The dead parts are dead. They are going to never stop blaming the prior board, so moving on.
They campaigned on saving us money, but they are doing the opposite. We have a right to itemized expenditures, not just yearly budgets and financials. As stated in the by-laws and in Texas Property code.
It may sound petty, but it all adds up. The prior board sent our head of maintenance to 'pool school' so that he could maintain them properly and cheaply (part of his salary). The new board is spending $50,000/year now on that.
They bought a golf cart, which I do not care about, but I am part of a team, and that is on the list.
They fired the old lawn service and we want to see what the prior contract price was and what the new one is. So on and so forth.
It's important that every expenditure is accounted for, in general, but specifically they are blowing through monies taken in for foundation repair. We had a large special assessment for foundation repair and they are blowing it, when several buildings have not had their repairs yet.
Many people here flat cannot afford the crisis in the making. Ones who can simply do not want to, of course.
There is another thing with the city that is irreversible if they screw it up, but we are starting with money.
Other more active members of the team, including one that was on the prior board and two that were running, ARE already hounding with letters to no avail.
Others are asking what can we do? And the team response is to please inquire after expenditure reports and quote the relevant section of the Texas Property code.
They might think it's cute to deny their 'enemies' but maybe not so much their constituents.
You could hire a lawyer to write a letter and scare the pants off them...but that might not work.
You'll need a lawyer and no, it won't scare anybody. Expect a long drawn out affair over this. But YOU can not fix it. It requires an attorney that has a clue about HOAs in Texas. Not all attorneys are qualified to do this. The Laws in Texas protect the HOAs which are worse than the Nazis.
You could hire a lawyer to write a letter and scare the pants off them...but that might not work.
Yeah my Dad can do one. He's looking at it Monday. This is not his area. At all. But sometimes something from any attorney will help. They don't know what he is and is not an expert in. They know he's free to me, which sometimes has meaning. Having a free attorney is like having very deep pockets to spend frivilously in some cases.
Anyway, today the route I went was our management company. Even though we hire them, they work for the board, they have an interest in following the law. A rep said to tell her what specifics we want and she will get them.
Counting unhatched chickens isn't wise, but I feel a bit like 'ha' because they will probably tell the board 'You can't say no or fail to provide this'.
You'll need a lawyer and no, it won't scare anybody. Expect a long drawn out affair over this. But YOU can not fix it. It requires an attorney that has a clue about HOAs in Texas. Not all attorneys are qualified to do this. The Laws in Texas protect the HOAs which are worse than the Nazis.
Not on this aspect they don't. Though statues cannot be read in a vacuum. Case law is what my Dad wants to look into Monday.
You need to separate the two entities at play here.
The board is elected, and these ‘loony toons’ got in power because enough people voted for them. Now if only 10% of your neighbors bothered to vote, they didn’t need much of a majority. Your bylaws will lay out how you can oust them if they are not acting in the best interest of the HOA. Read them, and then get out there and get your neighbors to actually do something about this.
The management company (who I assume are the ones doing the accounting and refusing to show them) are a separate company who are hired by the HOA to provide that service. They don’t have to conform to any HOA codes, they are only accountants and property managers. But if they aren’t making the accounting available, then they need to be fired and your HOA board needs to do that.
Most people just don’t understand how HOAs work and don’t bother getting involved, and then stuff like this happens and they are shocked. You need to direct your complaints to the right people if you want answers.
You need to separate the two entities at play here.
The management company (who I assume are the ones doing the accounting and refusing to show them) are a separate company who are hired by the HOA to provide that service. They don’t have to conform to any HOA codes, they are only accountants and property managers. But if they aren’t making the accounting available, then they need to be fired and your HOA board needs to do that.
Most people just don’t understand how HOAs work and don’t bother getting involved, and then stuff like this happens and they are shocked. You need to direct your complaints to the right people if you want answers.
I don't think you read all my posts. The community manager here on property works for the management company hired by our BOD. But our new BOD won't let him do anything w/o going through them. They take turns in there micro-managing him. Every email sent is forwarded to our VP, who is the one driving this bus, and he says yay or nay or what to say specifically to people.
Sometimes he emails me back himself, like about the water. I love the diatribes because they are like evidence against him. He is stupid.
Anyway, so it IS the board refusing to show expenditures, but when I contacted the management company the rep there said whatever I want to see she will get and make it available at THEIR office.
Which is not how it's usually done. These people, when they were the agitators, used to ask the BOD here for these things and they were always provided. But, however it gets done is fine. As long as they are made to understand they have to do it.
Quote:
The board is elected, and these ‘loony toons’ got in power because enough people voted for them. Now if only 10% of your neighbors bothered to vote, they didn’t need much of a majority. Your bylaws will lay out how you can oust them if they are not acting in the best interest of the HOA. Read them, and then get out there and get your neighbors to actually do something about this
.
Well aware. These people went door to door for two years. Papered us with 'newsletters' about all the terrible things the former board was doing (lies) and scared people. I will say that the former board was not pro-active enough in dealing with this.
They sent out official newsletters setting the record straight, but they were not so good at 'winning hearts and minds' which includes my friend, which is a delicate subject. The former President, was frankly, an ******* to many people. That was not helpful. The community manager was abrasive.
On that last point my friend just doesn't get it. She says we liked the old one because he coddled us. Well, we should be 'coddled'. We are homeowners, not tenants. She is a wonderful person but really bad at seeing things from the POV of us peons.
The board before that one could not be defeated by the Revolutionaries because they won hearts and minds and kept enough to stay 'in power' until the President had to go out of state, and then the replacements were too arrogant.
I kept voting for them because an abrasive community manager and the Pres. being an a-hole sometimes is inconsequential to me in the big scheme of things, but I am gently getting it across to my friend that most people do not feel that way.
Frankly, I'm not campaigning unless the wanna be replacements are different on that score, because if they aren't, nothing I do will work.
I am merely an assistant to the team/wanna-be BOD. My friend keeps saying we need another community manager like the one she hired, and there is no point in arguing unless we get some momentum and have a shot, and then I will have to explain to her that is the exact wrong thing to do.
She had no cause to listen to me about that when they were in charge and couldn't fathom the loonies taking over. Now, she will likely be more amenable to hearing things from the POV of a peon, and right or wrong we peons are the ones who make the final decision.
The community manager is the glue, at least here. The one we had for most of the time that I've lived here held it altogether. When *I* got mad at the pres., I called HIM because even though he isn't in charge of him, he could be the middle-man. And he was a great one. We need to clone him or find someone like him.
I feel sure that the other two major players WILL be amenable to hearing this, and If we get momentum, I will harp on that.
If the board is violating the by-laws, in this case also Texas Property code, is there a governing agency we can go to, or is the only possible redress in a civil court?
Hey, this is Texas! Main street, six-guns, high noon!
Draw, varmint!
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