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i agree after ten options have been exsausted theres not much they can do as well as i understand about paying the fee and what ever other fees they have for like a new roof. but the ones that get to me is the ones that tell you what color curtains you can hang inside your place i lived in one it was a nightmare and they told me if i remodeled i would have to keep it the same as the other units. so i was thinking why i bought the place i wound up moving 6 months later. and most won't send the by laws once you mention laywer there supossed to under fedral law. though i did find a decent one if i decide to move back east that id'e prob go into they were very nice and coroperative and the only rules they had was to keep your area clean not all these hidden ones. and yes i'll agree that condos and HOA'S are becomming more popular i was looking where i want to move seems like there going up all over the place.
After reading this Im struck by the extra level of BS that HOA's add to people's lives.
Our house is on a County street...only County rules apply.
I dont have to think about HOA chaos when I fall asleep at night.
Life is soo nice without them...
Some can be a pain, others just try to do their best with what they have. Volunteer boards are often thankless positions to hold.
Sometimes unstable homeowners can make the lives of HOA boards a nightmare too. I know one, who is a retired attorney, who drops personal lawsuits against board members for fun. He tried to sue my 80 year old mom when she typed up and sent out updated bylaws (no changes, he just didn't like the font or something). He's known by everyone in the city as a nuisance. City councils and school board members also attract their share of this nut jobs.
We used to live in an HOA (never again!) and I believe you can over throw the board by a majority, using the illegal election as a reason. Check your POS. You might find some helpful information here:
LOVES2READ: I need a clarification. You mentioned the ARC in your first post (Architectural Review Committee?) Are you saying member of the ARC were elected or the actual Board of Director members were elected? B/c, depending on bylaws, the ARC members may be appointed by some Boards. So I was a little confused about who was actually getting elected to what position.
I know what hell an ARC can be - especially if it is more or less an arm of the Board itself and not truly representative of the members of the HOA/POA.
I hope you will come back and let us know what you found out and how this is being handled.
The board is elected by the HOA membership--or as many as choose to vote--
the ARC members come from our HOA board--never voted as general HOA member for the ARC people
just like I never voted for the Treasurer of the HOA--he was elected to the Board and the Board decides on its officers
don't really have problem with the Board electing officers
and the problems with the ARC situation is because of the people on the ARC--not that we have one necessarily
our ARC is not messing with people about door colors or anything
they just approved a house to be built in the neighborhood that everyone pretty much agree is flawed design--
and I know some people might not think that but they don't live in my subdivision--
any person on my street where it is being built
a friend of ours who is builder and lives in neighboring town saw it and said it never should have been approved
I have heard that the developer of our subdivision who still owns lots supposedly said he never would have approved the plan if it had come to him when he was making those decisions
HOAs are only as good or bad as the people who run them
the state required that our HOA be a mandatory HOA--not voluntary--when it was created--
we are just trying to get a fair representation and a board that will be open about what is going on--
some people know--some people don't--all the past month or more of conflict--
I just think since the Board is elected by the HOA it should represent ALL the HOA--and make info about decisions that effect all of us available to all of us
I live in a subdivision of less than 100 homes. I have lived here since the beginning when the developer turned things over to a HOA Board and for the most of the time it has been peaceful. I was on the first board and more recently a second term of two years. Two times now we have gotten a resident who tries to test the system. Most recently a resident tried to put through or convince us that we need "new covenants". When that was turned down we have had the "wrath" of this god for three years now. The only thing he has accomplished is to get about 11 homeowners to refuse to pay their annual $50 dues. It will be interesting to see how everything works out. I know we won't have "new covenants" because we have to "dissolve" and that probably won't happen. If people want to sue, I guess they have that right. If LOVES2READ can get enough people together they can get a new board or push for a recall, or wait for the term to end and put more reasonable people on the board. Being on the board is a thankless job and I felt I did a good job.
they are claiming that they did follow their NEW bylaws--supposedly they went to an attorney before they did it and he said that would be "legal"
of course I don't see how it could be "legal" to take away MY right to vote in my HOA board election...
so yes
they are going to attorney
and TexDav I did not think you would see my side of the question--thanks
This comes under cotnract laws and they have to go by the contract to change them. Of course I always support cotract law where the contract is followed. A contract is a contract both ways.
The urgency to challenge this HOA board has dropped to about nil since there was a new election and the former president did not win reelection--
but there are two people who did (maybe 3) who likely will pass along info to him and act on his point of view--what used to be viewed as "the power behind the throne" senario
I don't know if the people who have won are really concerned about what to me and my husband seems a significant legal problem--
since I don't know if they really understand that legally our neighborhood could be dividing itself into two separate entities--
one original group of mandatory home owners and one group of homeowners not affiliated with the HOA and not legally bound to it--because of the way the transition from the original developer to the HOA owners happened...
the bylaws those 7 people wrote were not filed of record with the county clerk--Heck, I have not even seen a signed copy of the "new" bylaws with the original 7 directors signatures--the only copies we have seen have blanks but not even printed names of the directors that created the bylaws...
there are probably 10 homeowners who bought homes/lots in this neighborhood after the transition who failed to receive the new bylaws at closing because of that mistake--depending on the actual date they were adopted, my husband and I could be in that group...
legally (at least according to the attorney we spoke to) those owners now are NOT mandatory members of the neighborhood's HOA--they are under no covenant to pay dues or abide by any HOA restrictions--
they only have to abide by city code for building restrictions and rules like how long your trash can can sit out after the trash has been picked up...
and any time property changes hands with no bylaws filed with the county clerk--a new owner passes into that group of non-mandatory HOA members--and according to state statute when a corporation creates new bylaws they have to be filed with the state within 30 days to be legal and binding--the ones done in 2008 were not filed with the county clerk or with the attorney general's office--our attorney checked (and so did my husband who knows how to search for info like that in his job as a landman doing oil/gas title/record work)--
so I don't know that there even IS a legal HOA at this point--you have to have and operate within bylawsthat were adopted legally to be a legal HOA organization
I don't think the current board members have a clue that this is a legal entanglement that can pose a real problem...
right now the people who are building a house on my court would fall into that "non" mandatory member of the HOA because they received the original bylaws when they closed--those bylaws are not valid--those owners are extant of the HOA if what my attorney said is valid...
My neighbor across the court wants to build a fence so she can have a security gate across her driveway--
that fence will block the front half of the new house that is next to hers and is still under construction--
her fence would block the front half because the ARC committee allowed the new house to be build when the front door does not face the street--the house meets the setbacks but it is definitely slanted on the lot in order to comply with the setback rules...it is just sitting crooked on the lot--
the other houses in the neighborhood ALL have front doors that face the street--no matter where they appear on the exterior--at one side or the other or in the center--the front doors square up to the street--
no one who has a security gate across their driveways blocks the front of any neighboring home--because they all are square to the street--like they should be--
now that the woman wants to build a fence along the shared property line--the new owner is all against it--says it would block his house's view--which it would because he chose to build his house off-balance...
His builder tried for a month to talk them out of doing what they did anyway--building a slanted house--but they care more about how the back of the house sets up than the front--
so they chose this orientation--deliberately--over knowledgeable input
there have been several heated discussions with this new owner and the neighbor about her putting up a fence-
he fails to understand that she has a legal right to do that
I bet the new owner is going to go to the Board and try to make the Board prevent her from building the fence which she is legally entitled to have (and which many homes already have, including ours)...when he technically has no legal standing to be heard by the HOA board anyway--
that is what I mean by a real can of worms...
the people who were on the original HOA board (7 of them) were not very smart--yet they throught they knew how to pull the wool over the other homeowners and rig the system to benefit themselves as perpetually in power to run this neighborhood they want they thought was best
in doing so they just created a big mess that will be expensive and contentious to solve--and because of the bylaws (old and new) unless we can prove they did this with malicious intent, they can't be held responsible...
Was researching on an old article I read about HOA will only elect members associated with them and to their own advantage when I came across this one:
HOME (http://www.nohoa.com.futuresite.register.com/ - broken link)
Interesting read.
P.S. I have also read somewhere that the HOA is set up to profit the builders and their stock holders as kinda second tax (1st tax being the government one) that is a win-win all situation for the HOA and never the homeowners. Always, always learn to read the fine print especially when buying a home with HOA. When buying their homes, they the HOA gave themselves the power to foreclose on your home or draw equity from it to satisfy it's due with every right... so in realty, when buying a home with HOA, you are technically only renting and at HOA's mercy.
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