How do you deal with a power-hungry HOA bully? (San Antonio: attorney, homes)

[nr1015]

I live in a San Antonio subdivision run by a powerful HOA bully. This person targets homeowners who question her actions and some have actually moved out just to escape this board member's wrath. This bully handpicks nominees for the board and uses 30+ proxies to elect her "puppet" members while keeping others who are not her nominees off the board. She pushes her agendas, does not listen to the community input, and therefore does not represent us, but "rules" us homeowners. There's no state agency in TX to control her behavior, and her abusive use of proxies keeps her in power. A few people other than her own weak and easily intimidated nominees will run for the board, but her multiple proxies are used to prevent anyone but her own "handpicked" nominees from winning. She's a career board member who micro-manages and dominates our community. The majority of our homeowners are becoming very apathetic and don't even turn in a ballot for the board election because it's a no-win situation. Some feel there's no point in even having the expense of a mailed-out board election ballot since we all know she's in control of the outcome. Her multiple proxies come from the Mexican National homeowners who do not use their home here as their primary residence but only for a few stays per year. What can be done about this problem? Any suggestions on how to handle this proxy-abusing, power-hungry HOA bully?

[TrapperL]

I can recite one situation that you might look at. I know of a subdivision that was supposed to chartered by the residents. This charter MUST be renewed every 10 years as all HOAs are required to do. You can get the residents of the subdivision together to either null and void the HOA or elect a new HOA from members that live in the subdivision. It's a tricky thing to do and it takes time but the key here is the money. The money can be paid to an escrow account and not the current HOA and there's not a lot she can do about it. Once all of the $$$$ is gone, so is her power. These folks opened their own HOA and it's home owners only, not land owners. But someone is going to have to organize the current home owners or the situation will just continue.

You might also make sure the HOA has reregistered or it's illegal if it's over 10 years old.

[Bo]

You say the bully has 30+ proxies. How many homes are in the subdivision? That's important information you've left out because it makes it clearer whether it's possible to round up some proxies of your own. If there are only 50 homes, there's not much you can do about it. If there are 200 homes, you should be able to round up 40 proxies of your own and put together your own slate of candidates.

The HOA's power is in the DCCR. If it's worth a few hundred bucks for you to rattle this bully, hire an attorney to go over the neighborhood's DCCR and put together a strategy. You should have a copy in your home purchase documents.

[gregm]

^^^^^^^ What Bo said!

[iliveinsa]

You could also try contacting some of those out-of-town owners. If they aren't in town that much, she probably doesn't have that much pull over them - it's more likely to be inertia and they just don't know anyone else.

Find an ally (possibly a Mexican National that lives here full time?) that you think might be able to persuade some of those people and let them know what's going on and to get their buy-in for a new slate of candidates. Keep in mind that they probably don't care about the micro-management issues since their not around, but they probably do care about property values, crime, HOA dues, etc.

[nr1015]

Thank you to all who've given me advice so far. The most unfortunate aspect of this situation is that this proxy soliciting HOA bully recruits brand new residents to run for the board, and then she controls them and they feel obligated to support her and her agendas. Once these newbies eventually wise up to her ways over a long period of time, they will try to run for the board again but aren't her proxy picks, so they'll rarely get elected.

Voter apathy is high, and this year many homeowners who've regularly voted in the HOA board elections previously just simply are not even turning in a ballot because every single board nominee is one of this controller's "disciples." As one neighbor aptly put it, "Why bother to vote when we have a dictator in power?"

Some homeowners have even suggested presenting this problem to a TV news troubleshooter or a newspaper investigative reporter because this proxy abuse to stack the votes does not preserve the integrity of the vote. In other words, there is no democracy here. The board members are not "our" elected officials; they are "her" elected board of directors.

Her control and power have ultimately grown to be a vexing dilemma. Only a small minority will stand up to her, and most neighbors just turn a blind eye to the situation. Sadly, the non-resident Mexican Nationals from whom she solicits proxies are very unaware of the "politics" in our HOA.

[cully]

Can you start a newsletter emailed to all homeowners? Or a monthly comment on what went on at monthly meetings?

[TexHwyMan]

Quite a few folks have taken their HOA issues to local news stations with varying degrees of success.

[cully]

It has happened that even those news media that don't print a story about hoa injustice will print a story with the facts of a lawsuit with one.

[SanAntonianByChoice]

I don't have any information to contribute but I do wish you luck, and 3 quotes from my favorite read. It may not apply entirely to your post but still wanted to share. Stay Strong nr1015!!

1.) "And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed."


2.) "and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

3.) "Sure, cried the tenant men,but it’s our land…We were born on it, and we got killed on it, died on it. Even if it’s no good, it’s still ours….That’s what makes ownership, not a paper with numbers on it."

"We’re sorry. It’s not us. It’s the monster. The bank isn’t like a man."

"Yes, but the bank is only made of men."

"No, you’re wrong there—quite wrong there. The bank is something else than men. It happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it. The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It’s the monster. Men made it, but they can’t control it.”

― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath