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One thing they do is to charge a small mgt. fee but then everything else is an add on, such as copy fees or answering questions. Our mgt. company now has a relative running a repair service so there is no need to put jobs out to bid and the money stays in the family. Just like banks get creative with their fees, so do mgt. companies. I recommend getting on the BOD as you will not have access to the complete finances unless you do. Our experience was that the mgt. company would double pay vendors and then get the refund from the vendor but refuse to provide the bank statement that proved the money was returned to our account. Our BOD also bought themselves gifts and obtained free work at homeowner expense. The "gifts" that were supposed to be used for the HOA never showed up on the asset sheets so the homeowners didn't know what was going on.
The vendors who work "exclusively" for HOAs usually charge more than the street rate so BODs and mgt. companies don't want the homeowners to know what they are paying for simple repair, or anything else.
There is no end to the way mgt. companies and lawyers and BODs get in your pocket.
You do realize that most management companies have a set amount that they can spend without approval of the BOD ?? Anything above that limit must be approved by the BOD. I am not saying that the potential for corruption doesn't exist, but your story sounds a little far-fetched.
Some really good points here. I emailed the Registry of Deeds website to the Board/Mgmt and directions on how to use it. Said we should include it in the next newsletter for unit owners.
The deal with the Board is they will always lean on saying we need a quorum -- or 80% unit owners votes -- to do the things they (the Board) doesn't want to do. We have 72 units. We never have a quorum at the annual meetings ...about 20 people show if we're lucky. So maybe that means that most people are happy. Some people tell me that they feel oppressed and have given up and just don't want to deal with the horrible board.
I can understand the point Middle-Aged_mom makes about a forum potentially hurting resales. So I definitely wouldn't want to do something like that.
I will look into that!
Massachusetts
I don't know
They get an annual budget each year. Management charges $ for any other documents.
Management charges for these documents
Owners are not invited - only to the annual meeting. They can come to a Board meeting if they have an issue they want heard by the Board - they make the appt with management, then come to the meeting to make their case, are thanked and asked to leave. Then we vote on whatever their issue is. The Board also decides about who is elected. In the most recent election, one of the three inner circle's term was up. He was running against a new person. Only 35% of unit owners turned in their ballots so votes didn't count. The old guy in the inner circle stays. And the Board gets to decide if they let in a new person (which will be no, they won't). There hasn't been election of officers. Of the three inner circle is the President, and then another person is both treasurer and secretary. And that's it.
Most HOA governing documents, specifically the bylaws, define the quorum necessary to hold an Annual Meeting and how votes are counted. There is often confusion about how many owners are necessary for a quorum for an Annual Meeting and Election versus a quorum to change the governing documents.
Most HOAs in my neck of the woods require only 10% of owners to cast ballots. Failure to achieve 10% means the election must be postponed.
If you have a PDF of your bylaws, feel free to PM me and I'll take a look.
I think you should be looking into open meeting laws first.
The state of Mass. seems to defer to the association's bylaws as it relates to open meetings. The state of Mass. seems to defer to association 's governing docs on most matters.
In my opinion there should be a limit to how many terms in a row a Board officer can serve.
Bylaws usually cover this. Some limit the number of consecutive terms and some do not.
One of the goofiest stories I have come across happened in an Illinois HOA that limited officers to two consecutive terms. At this particular HOA, no one wanted to be President and the association's own bylaws precluded the President from a third term. So.....someone nominated their dog for a board vacancy ( bylaws did not specify it had to be human) and the membership elected the dog. The board subsequently elected the dog, President. Given the dog could not conduct a board meeting, the VP had to do so. The VP was the former President.
You might want to consider starting with a Facebook page instead of a website -- make it private, if need be -- if you just want to exchange information among residents.
We just had an HOA who charged a buyer $150 "ownership transfer fee" PLUS a $200 bill for an HOA letter stating that the account was current. JEEZ!!!!!!
Don't forget that the board hires the management company. IF the board doesn't think management should charge for various documents, they can't.
What I did is start a closed Facebook page, and any owner who asks to join is approved. In this closed group (or page, or whatever it's called these days), the owners can discuss anything they want to. Because it's a closed group, any shared documents are not visible to the general public, which I am guessing is the issue that could expose you to liability. It's OK to have the owners reading all the minutes, seeing the covenants, etc. but you may not want the general public reading these things.
Bylaws usually cover this. Some limit the number of consecutive terms and some do not.
One of the goofiest stories I have come across happened in an Illinois HOA that limited officers to two consecutive terms. At this particular HOA, no one wanted to be President and the association's own bylaws precluded the President from a third term. So.....someone nominated their dog for a board vacancy ( bylaws did not specify it had to be human) and the membership elected the dog. The board subsequently elected the dog, President. Given the dog could not conduct a board meeting, the VP had to do so. The VP was the former President.
The state of Mass. seems to defer to the association's bylaws as it relates to open meetings. The state of Mass. seems to defer to association 's governing docs on most matters.
SC pretty much defers to a Corporations Bylaws. Keep in mind that most associations are a Corporation.
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