TN hoa has just told homeowners they cannot attend monthly meetings, can they? (hardwood floors)

[Not4Today]

In the past members have been allowed to attend the monthly meetings of the association board. However, last month when a few of us showed up, we were told the meetings were now 'private' and homeowners are not allowed to attend. The president told us we are only able to attend the annual meeting.

They have started paying the treasurer $500 / month even though bylaws state NO ONE is to be paid ~ volunteer basis only.

How do we get that changed? There are only 112 units and no ammenities so that is a lot of money to be paying out every month. Do we have to get a majority vote from homeowners to make it stop or hire an attorney? No one out here can afford an attorney and they know that. The average cost of our condo's runs $95,000.

I have checked the TN state code, the bylaws, and every publication I can find and none of them directly addresses the monthly meetings. We have a 'horizontal law' regarding condos, but that doesn't address the issue either.

Anyone had experience with that? Or know what direction I should start in? The bylaws states it takes a 90% vote to ammend the bylaws, and no one voted on paying the treasurer.

At the annual meeting in May I brought up the $500 repeatedly and the board would say nothing other than "Would you do it for free?" I don't volunteer for positions that I would want to be paid for if there is not supposed to be pay. The board member who set the $500 is one of the developers who has 5 rental units out here so he has bulldoged the board and they are all scared of him.

After that, I have been receiving letters for ANYTHING I have that 'may' be an infraction. I was threatened with a fine because I 'was taking to long redoing my landscaping'. We have no rules regarding landscaping other than it has to be nice so it doesn't affect anyone's value. I completely changed out the previous bed and added a 2nd flower bed. When I bought the condo a year ago, the TWO dead azaleas were all that was here. Another one was because someone felt I had left my garage door open to long and made to much noise with the saw outside~ we were laying hardwood floors and it was only for ONE day.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance...

[jabogitlu]

Whew... no idea. Good luck, this is why I would never buy in a HOA.

[CountryGirl2b=]

When I was looking up info on my HOA, I found this article helpful, even though the guy is in CA:

Homeowners Associations (HOA) FAQs (continued) -- SirkinLaw

We have a property management company that we pay to do the books, collect the fees, etc. If you DON'T have a property management company handling it, then perhaps the $500 is justified for the treasurer.

Bylaws probably don't address that issue unfortunately. My association is having new fences installed and it's not anything that necessitated voting. I was on the board for a while and no homeowners ever came (or were invited) to our monthly meeting. The votes are to change the bylaws but not about fencing, etc.

I did it for about 18 months. It's not fun . . . .

[donsabi]

Here is a link that sums up today's HOA's.

http://nchoalaws.org/NCHOALaws/NC_Co...Tell%20You.pdf

At one time HOA's helped keep up real estate values. In many cases today HOA's are run by a corporate entity usually as a LLC. These HOA's are staffed by supposed business professionals all taking a salary dependent on HOA dues. (You can see the importance to them to have the HOA dues paid). I live in one of these and in a dispute I had over a tree, the HOA General Manager said to me (referring to HOA's), "we are above the law. We make our own rules and regulations and can enforce them anyway we see fit." This sounded like the ranting of a lunatic. However, upon speaking with an attorney I learned he was right. Somewhere around 2007 our law makers decided to give HOA's super powers such as the super lien and basically the same power as any taxing agency.
If you check out the web you find unlimited cases of HOA's seizing houses for as little as $288 in unpaid fees. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
You may wonder, if HOA's are so bad why do people get sucked into them? Years ago HOA's, (and some today), were a good thing and this is what most people remember. A home buyer is told to trust and after signing so many documents at closing they have hand cramps out come the HOA rules and regulations usually in a large binder and few people want to read. They are told, "it's all standard stuff about HOA's. Trust me, just sign it off and we will be done." If you do, and I did, you have just shaken the hand of the devil.
Now I live in an HOA nicknamed the "Stepford Community" by a local RE agency. Once you are here very few ever escape. The only home buyers are the naive few who come from a distance and don't know the reputation. (That was me).
Houses sit on the market for years with declining values. i.e., a neighbor bought a home 5-6 years ago for $300k and put a good bit of money into it. He and his wife now want to move and put it on the market for $295k. It did not sell. He changed Realtors and reduced the price to $279 and again no sale. His last attempt he dropped the price to $259k and no one even looked. He took it off the market. Like the RE agency said, "the Stepford Community." The main cause is the HOA with overpriced dues and aggressive management.
Check out HOA's on the web yourself. If you do want to buy into an HOA make sure you read and understand the rules and regulations before you go to closing. (I think you will be convinced to look elsewhere).
TN is a "non judicial foreclosure" state and if you buy into an HOA you better learn what that means.
My advice is to stay as far away from HOA's as you can regardless if it is in TN or any other state.

[cully]

Oh man oh man. I can't wait to finish reading this and send it to my friends in that last bad hoa we were in.

[cully]

Sounds like something happened all of a sudden. Someone new on the board? Anway, a few thoughts:

If you haven't found it yet, and you seem to be well along in your research, you might research with the term Common Interest Community which you have in TN.

And in Tn the Secretary of State handles Corporations. Your hoa should be incorporated, likely as a non-stock corporation. See what their ideas are on your problems: http://www.tn.gov/sos/

Tn code re the Tennessee Condominium Act - in my link it's near the bottom.

http://communityassociations.net/tennessee-condominium-act-of-2008/

66-27-417. Association records.
The association shall keep financial records sufficiently detailed to enable the association to comply with §§ 66-27-502 and 66-27-503. All financial and other records shall be made reasonably available for examination by any unit owner, the holder of any mortgage or deed of trust encumbering a unit, and their respective authorized agents.

Then, 66-27-502 goes on to address the responsibility to provide info and 66-27-503 speaks of the info that is to be provided to the homeowner. This includes a copy of the bylaws and all amendments of the bylaws which you don't seem to have.

Also, all minutes. And read the rest...includes a lot of things you should be informed of.

66-27-505 addresses Remedies for Noncompliance with the above.

[DonCorleone]

Originally Posted by CountryGirl2b=

We have a property management company that we pay to do the books, collect the fees, etc. If you DON'T have a property management company handling it, then perhaps the $500 is justified for the treasurer.

Bylaws probably don't address that issue unfortunately. My association is having new fences installed and it's not anything that necessitated voting. I was on the board for a while and no homeowners ever came (or were invited) to our monthly meeting. The votes are to change the bylaws but not about fencing, etc.

I did it for about 18 months. It's not fun . . . .

This is my guess as well. If there's no property management company, the treasurer is probably acting in that capacity. If so, it seems justifiable to have it as a paid position provided it doesn't violate bylaws or amended bylaws.

Our HOA board meets either quarterly or monthly, depending on circumstances. Our bylaws state that there must be an annual meeting to which all property owners are invited, but the monthly/quarterly meetings are not required to be open. That said, we always made our minutes available to anyone in the HOA via our website.

I, too, did the HOA board for about 18 months. Never again.

[An Einnseanair]

A HOA, just like any other form of government, can pretty much do whatever it wants as long as it remains unchallenged. Your choice is to deal with it, move elsewhere, or try to change it.

Also, just like any other form of representative government, it only has as much power as the people it represents allows it to have. If the majority of the people in the Association (in your case, 57+ units) dislike what the HOA board is doing then the board is one election away from being out of power. Unfortunately, if there are lots of rental units in your HOA, then the owners of those units wield more power than you (it's typically 1 vote per unit, not per person).

About the only thing you can do is get your neighbors fired up about the issues. As you personally experienced, just going by yourself (or with a small group) and making lots of noise at a meeting will be seen as whining. Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets greased, sometimes it get removed and tossed in the trash.

[USAGeorge]

One thing about HOAs that people seem to forget....They are pure democracy's. Majority rule is pure and that in the USA we are a republic with democratic principles...The problem with any pure democracy is that when you have 5 wolves and three sheep and a vote comes up for "whats for dinner" the sheep get a tad nervous.
One can say that HOA's are representative but things change,,,and they always do so even if your HOA is a heaven today for you,a perfect fit if you will that will not last. The demographics of the people do change and so will the HOA rules...There are no Utopias.