Blindsided by our HOA Board of Directors Election - Warning for others! (Phoenix: appointed, 2013)

[AZgarden]

Does not HOA mean HOME OWNERS association? Should not the association limit the board member eligibility to people who actually OWN HOMES (not land, not undeveloped anything but actual houses that people live in) in the confined area? JMHO

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by PhxBarb

Does not HOA mean HOME OWNERS association? Should not the association limit the board member eligibility to people who actually OWN HOMES (not land, not undeveloped anything but actual houses that people live in) in the confined area? JMHO

I guess the rest of the "homeowners" in my subdivision are guilty of the same train of thought. We only had homeowners running for the board and we had no idea there would be write-in candidates from outside the community.

Maybe had we been given some information by our management company (that conducted the election) that this was a possibility we could have informed the homeowners that we needed to concentrate our votes on the five candidates (homeowners) that we wanted instead of spreading votes across all the candidates that ran. The six hundred actual homeowners could have defeated the 300 investment company votes had we all voted and voted for the five candidates we wanted and didn't spread the votes around and allow their 300 votes to win. We simply were not aware that one group held the power to potentially decide the election and could/would vote in non community members (homeowners).

[Zippyman]

Originally Posted by LBTRS

Agreed, they were building like gangbusters when we purchased here...they suddenly stopped around 2008. Live and learn.

I wouldn't expect a full vote if I was only paying 25% of the assessment the other vote holders are.

This kind of thing is specifically allowed in most hoa docs that ive seen.. the docs for my (now defunct) hoa allow the builder 100% architectural and landscape authority for the entire neighborhood until the last house was sold. If the builder owned even 1 lot, they still controlled everything. Is it unfair? Heck yeah.. but you give up whatever rights you would normally have in an hoa neighborhood..

There have been a lot of games like this played over the years in Az, and your only recourse is a lawsuit.. does this issue make you $10k angry? $20k angry? $100k angry?

You need to read those docs before purchasing in a "what could happen" light, and not in a "im sure they'll be fair with us" light. This kind of thing will continue to create a backlash against hoas in the future.. you only have to get burned one time to permanently exclude hoa neighborhoods from future consideration, no matter how "fair" a current boards is, that can change quickly.

[Zippyman]

Heres a link you might enjoy..

My HOA Nightmare, $600k Assessment Liens, etc.

[PNWGuy]

how the hell does one lot get 300 votes?

[kayanne]

Wow, I've never heard of anything like that. It would never in a million years occur to me that someone running for the HOMEOWNER's board of directors does not have to be a HOME OWNER. Sure, it may be written somewhere in the dozens of pages of your neighborhood covenants, but it's not something I would have thought could conceivably be possible.

Did this investment group get 300 votes because the chunk of undeveloped land is equivalent to 300 future lots?

In addition to the other avenues other have mentioned, I would add that you set up a meeting with your neighborhood developer, and also contact the media. Sounds like a story that your town's residents would be interested to hear, since so many people do live in HOA neighborhoods.

[steeltreehat]

Originally Posted by LBTRS

Since there are so many HOA's in the Phoenix area I wanted to share this so others may not get blindsided if they face a similar situation.

Our subdivision had our first election Thursday night to elect our board of directors for our HOA. Up until this point the board was controlled by the builder and it was time it was turned over to the "homeowners".

We showed up for the meeting and the homeowners that were running for the board of directors got up and introduced themselves. We had a previous mailing that listed all the candidates and their bio's. After they introduced themselves they passed out ballots with the homeowners that just introduced themselves and we voted.

After they tallied the votes, and much to every homeowners surprise, we found out that three board members were elected to our five member board that ARE NOT EVEN RESIDENTS OF OUR COMMUNITY. Apparently there is a large chunk of undeveloped land owned by an investment company in our subdivision and that chuck of land counts for over 300 votes. The investment company "wrote in" three candidates that don't live in the community to represent their interests and their three "write-in" candidates each received 300 votes which is hundreds more than the next closest person got. So we have an HOA ran by a five member board and only two of the members are homeowners. We elected boards members that didn't even show up to the HOA meeting.

How the hell does that happen? We were all shocked and I'm now wondering if there is anything we can do about it.

You need to gather your friends together and overthrow the board!

[LBTRS]

Originally Posted by PNWGuy

how the hell does one lot get 300 votes?

It's not one lot, I guess somewhere it says these are 300 future lots. It was told to us when we purchased that it was the site of a future elementary school and park. Of course there is a section of the land that looks like it was going to be future home sites but currently it is just undeveloped land (no roads through it or anything).

[caryberry]

OP - good luck. HOA's are the spawn of Satan.

[AZJoeD]

The first place I would look is at the Public Report that the builder filed and gave a copy to everyone that bought a home there (or should have). Was this documented in the public report? The second item as mentioned would be the CC&Rs to see if was appropriately documented there. If it was not documented properly, you may have a legal argument.

If it was documented properly, you may be stuck until such time as you can sway the board to your side. Perhaps one of the 3 non-resident members will have a falling out with the others changing the dynamics.