HOA meetings - does it get noisy or is it dull ? (Miami: foreclosure, mortgage)

[bentlebee]

At our HOA meetings it got civilly heated and the Board listened and fired the management company month later after coming up with a plan to involve home owners more who spoke up at many meetings.

For years the previous management company had hired and we as home owners had to pay for a cop to be present at the meeting while nothing happened other then the manager putting images in home owners head.

Once she and her company were out the peace came back and month's later we saw results.

No longer any cop at meetings and a better run HOA. It is like a bad company that needs to be over turned.

[beer belly]

I went to one HOA Meeting to point out a need for signage concerning a crossing area, and it was a friendly atmosphere. I have been a Union Officer for many years in our Union, and have been involved in every Contract negotiation since my first day on the job, and thought maybe I'd try and get a seat on the HOA Board. My FIL has been on the HOA Board for many years, and told me that they have enough proxies to fill any seat they want, and I'll never get in.....I believe in investing in our surroundings for the benefit of all....he believes in investing minimal into upkeep, and let the next guy worry about it....like his dented up and bent garage door that he is too cheap to replace....and the driveway that is paved up to the first crack

[Tampaite]

Originally Posted by beer belly

My FIL has been on the HOA Board for many years, and told me that they have enough proxies to fill any seat they want, and I'll never get in....

I second that. That's what happened in our community. HOA president is good buddy of our Treasurer - so when that position opened up - there was no vote - i guess if there is a vacant position then it can be filled without requiring residents to vote.

[Sunnydee]

The HOA meetings where I live have been pretty dull. Most people seem fairly content here because the HOA is mellow and not very intrusive. The rules are reasonable and most people follow them. I recently ran for and got on the board and I'm learning a lot. Most of the problems we've had is with the renters, but that's another story.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by Tampaite

Visited our HOA meeting tonight and witnessed heated arguments between the board and residents. I thought it was going to get out of control and someone was getting hurt.

Is this the norm in your HOA meetings ? I would like to know if issues were escalated, how was it handled and if the situation was brought under control?

I serve on an HOA board and we are only required to have one open meeting a year to elect new board members.

We used to have regular meetings but it would turn into an insane mess like you describe above. Usually it was the same residents who had massive complaints, which were usually not justified.

The atmosphere became so toxic that others residents stopped coming. Eventually the only ones who came were the board and the malcontents who created the poisoned atmosphere in the first place. Finally the solution was to stop the regular open meetings and correspond with residents through news letters.

[EngGirl]

Originally Posted by kyb01

We used to have regular meetings but it would turn into an insane mess like you describe above. Usually it was the same residents who had massive complaints, which were usually not justified.

this is our case too! We also had the same person yelling and screaming every single meeting. It never got bad to the point we had to call cops, but pretty annoying.

HOA has more power. They go by their rules. Don't like it - either join the board (not a single person who were complaining actually wanted to join the board) or move out.

[spbbound]

HOA meetings for a prior house in Tampa Palms were mostly calm, but that was because it was rare to have more than 20% show up. So for the most party, 80% of the community would complain about how bad the HOA was but never show up to the meetings to change anything or learn anything, so it was just a waste of time.

At the home I just moved from, those meetings got much more charged. Community was only 45 homes and we generally had about 60% attendance. Inevitably it would be 25% of the community who borders another with a decaying fence (on the others' property) bitching about the fence and wanting the entire community to pay for them to get their own fence on our side. Another 25% bitching about the budget line by line, and I'm talking about actual grown adults yelling at the tops of their lungs over the budget item for office supplies and the like. Then the rest either keep quiet to watch the fireworks or have individual complaints that would mostly never get resolved because we could never get a quorum and for major changes, it required 75% in attendance, not proxy votes. For the most part, things were going okay until about a year ago a new president took over (because no one ran since everyone hated the job), she had only been in the community three months, and proceeded to send about 110 violation letters over the next two months. Basically it made the entire community hate one another and the meetings turned toxic, people getting in each others' faces, no pushing but pretty close, neighbors all started building their little factions against one another. We used to be friendly with a lot of the neighbors, but after the HOA started enforcing obscure rules for the first time in seven years, it made everyone hate each other and we were happy as hell to get out of there.

Ive got no plans to ever live in an HOA community again. I'll take my risks of someone disassembling their car in their front yard and the city/county not doing anything about it rather than live in a place where the managing entity will make neighbors who would otherwise like each other hate each other.

[PhotoProIP]

Very well said.

People are already really busy to be bothered with this kind of dumb stuff. Those who can afford to live in nice communities will continue to mow their lawn and have their cars fixed in shops regardless of being policed by HOAs or not.

The FACT is that ALL of EAST TAMPA Should be occupied by these HOAs, and not communities made up from decent people busy working and taking care of their kids.


The other thing, probably the one that pisses me off the most, is that they are not there to HELP, and maintain a sense of community, and helping each other when in some kind of need. No, they spend their time sending NASTY LETTERS, wasting paper instead of offering to help. That is so ANTISOCIAL it is mind blowing. Then again, the entire country is a giant death star when it comes to how "social" people are! It's a lot easier to maintain disdain than happiness!

What I found out recently is that no government body has any kind of say over them! So, NONE of them can straighten them out. Not the county, not the city, not the state. NONE. Which is why I keep calling them NAZI'S! They are literally like their own country. They live to INTERPRET the by-laws as they see fit, and common sense and logic are completely killed off.

Originally Posted by spbbound

HOA meetings for a prior house in Tampa Palms were mostly calm, but that was because it was rare to have more than 20% show up. So for the most party, 80% of the community would complain about how bad the HOA was but never show up to the meetings to change anything or learn anything, so it was just a waste of time.

At the home I just moved from, those meetings got much more charged. Community was only 45 homes and we generally had about 60% attendance. Inevitably it would be 25% of the community who borders another with a decaying fence (on the others' property) bitching about the fence and wanting the entire community to pay for them to get their own fence on our side. Another 25% bitching about the budget line by line, and I'm talking about actual grown adults yelling at the tops of their lungs over the budget item for office supplies and the like. Then the rest either keep quiet to watch the fireworks or have individual complaints that would mostly never get resolved because we could never get a quorum and for major changes, it required 75% in attendance, not proxy votes. For the most part, things were going okay until about a year ago a new president took over (because no one ran since everyone hated the job), she had only been in the community three months, and proceeded to send about 110 violation letters over the next two months. Basically it made the entire community hate one another and the meetings turned toxic, people getting in each others' faces, no pushing but pretty close, neighbors all started building their little factions against one another. We used to be friendly with a lot of the neighbors, but after the HOA started enforcing obscure rules for the first time in seven years, it made everyone hate each other and we were happy as hell to get out of there.

Ive got no plans to ever live in an HOA community again. I'll take my risks of someone disassembling their car in their front yard and the city/county not doing anything about it rather than live in a place where the managing entity will make neighbors who would otherwise like each other hate each other.

[MortonR]

Originally Posted by Sunnydee

The HOA meetings where I live have been pretty dull. Most people seem fairly content here because the HOA is mellow and not very intrusive. The rules are reasonable and most people follow them. I recently ran for and got on the board and I'm learning a lot. Most of the problems we've had is with the renters, but that's another story.

This describes the HOA that I preside over.

We recently attempted to amend the covenants to require new owners to reside in their house for a year before renting. We had a big turnout at that meeting - the first time in years since there have been ANY, and I mean ANY, residents show up for a meeting.

Everybody was worked up (why else would they show up) and took the Board to task for not including them, doing our own thing, etc.

It got rather quiet when we asked how many of them had shown up for previous meetings where all of this was discussed in advance. Suddenly everyone was nice. Everyone left in a good mood and some even suggested that they might show up for future meetings.

This is what really frosts me - no one shows up for meetings, no one wants to participate in the running of the HOA, which in our case takes about 15 minutes a month, if that, not including meetings. When they're confronted with a situation that they're invested in for some reason, suddenly they're all "advocating".

Hmm.

I rest my case.

RM

[spbbound]

Originally Posted by PhotoProIP

They live to INTERPRET the by-laws as they see fit, and common sense and logic are completely killed off.

My past community actually has a ban on the parking of pickup trucks in the driveway or on the street. It was put in there by the original developer and in nine years there's never been enough people at a meeting to have it removed. About four years after I moved in, the then-president of the HOA decided she didn't like pickup trucks so I started getting violation letters. There was absolutely nothing I could do. No one supported the move but her, but the bylaws were bylaws and there were only three pickup owners in the development at the time, and the other two could park theirs in the garages if absolutely necessary. I had a Chevy 2500 (not commercial, no signage, no equipment rack, just plain pickup) so it wouldn't fit in my garage. I had to keep it at my office for a few months until fortunately she lost her position. Since that time, no future president has enforced the no-pickups rule, probably because there's at least ten or twelve in the neighborhood now, but they will just find something else to go after.