HOA President gone overboard

I need help, I own a condo in Palm Springs CA, and our Hoa President has gone off the deep end, he has fired the management company, his bestfriend is treasurer, this man has taken complete control over everything. He continually follows me around the property looking for anything to fine me for, like using the wrong trash bags in dumpster, using the gate code rather then the gate clicker, which he himself sells for 50 bucks each. He knocks on all doors asking tenants and owner for a list of all occupants, and gives rules as to whom they may have as visitors and how many visitors. If you speak up at a meeting it's a fine, if your cell phone rings during a meeting it's a fine, if you leave your garage door open for more then 5 minutes it's a fine. He has put up infrared cameras, very small ones so no one will notice, and only he views them, and places cameras wherever he feels like watching, let me add he does not live on the property, his cameras are placed at one of his rental units. He rents out units while they are in foreclosure and collects rent until bank takes over. He recectly hired two rough looking guys to play security guard for 5 days just to intimidate people and guard the front gate and watch for those using gate code and not clicker and issue fines, and also he ran everyones license plate and then their names to see if they had a valid drivers license, if they did not these guys he hired were told to stop these people before they entered the gate and call the local police and advise then that they are currently detaining someone that is driving without a license. I have seen his car driving around and around at all hours of the night, I have seen him creeping along the first floor windows at 3:30 am, He is continually calling the police on someone for anything, he discusses everyones business with everyone else. After a meeting my mother and him had a little arguement and he spat in her face, in front of many other people. He issues parking fines continually but he himself parks in fire lanes, guest parking, in front of his garage, wherever he wants. He threatens renters with the towing of their cars if their HOA fees are not paid, this is the owners problem not the tenants. He issued a new rule about guest, all guests must be approved through him, so if we bring a guest back to our place at 1 am we must first call him and approve it. He files restraing orders on anyone who goes against him. At this point I don't feel comfortable leaving my own home for fear of what he will do next. When and if an auto is broken into he calls police and informs them just who he thinks it is, and points the finger at whoever he is mad at at that time. There is no talking to this man, no reasoning with him, and just about everyone is afraid of what he is capable of doing, he cuts off our gate access, pool privileges, laudry room use, and issues countless and I mean coutless amounts of fines if your on his bad side. It's truly scary, at times I feel like if I walk out my front door I may be arrested for something he claims I did just out of spite, so I have lately taken to staying home and not leaving my house. What a shame, to live like this all due to one over zealous person. This is his life, he loives control, he loves power, he loves authority, and this is his domain, and what the hell can we do about it? Any advice would be appreciated, but I seriously cannot afford what it would cost to hire private counsel. So I am really left with no choice am I? I have to just deal with it. I am a single female and it's scary to think there are people out there like this, but there are. And somehow they have been given all this power and it's sad cause there is not a thing we can do about it, without reprocutions. And of course fines, let's not forget fines, oh yea and if we take him to court we have to pay him a 200 dollar fine cause he has to attend court, it takes him away from his domain so we must pay him, Imagine that!

Julie, first off please break your posts into paragraphs, a lot of people won't read them in one big block. That out of the way, if the president is the Declarant and the HOA is still under his control there is little you can do until the HOA is turned over to the homeowners.

If transition has occurred the the simplest way to get rid of him is to recall him and vote someone else in. In addition to your CC&R's you need to become familiar with the Davis-Stirling Act which regulates HOA's in California. davis-stirling.com is a website run by attorneys who specialize in DS Act. It takes the law and explains it in layman's term by categories like fines. It explains the hoops the HOA has to jump through to fine and how to protest the fine.

Bottom line you will have this "tyrant" as long as you and your neighbors are willing to put up with him. Get together and use the law to boot him out.

Julie:

Just how did this man get into theis position? Was he voted in?

By whom? And what was your role in his getting to be President?? Anything?

If he makes up rules and you abide by them shame on you and the other residents of the property.

If you filed a claim against him seeking to be repaid for the towing of your car he is not now entitled to $200 from you because HE says so. If you pay that fee you are a fool.

Yes he might make you uncomfortable but you have two options you either allow this to continue and live in fear or do something about it.

So he runs around as President or YOUR property and that of your neighbors and everyone hides and shakes.

IF what you say is true he needs to go, he needs to be gone.

And I'm sorry there is no magical answer here for you other than YOU have to take some action to change things or accept things as they are.

My concern if I were you would be what is he doing that you are NOT aware of?

With your property's finances? In light of his public behavior what is he capable of in private when no one else bothers to find out or is to scared to find out.

Good luck.

What about voting him out? DO your cc&rs allow for this? Ready up on them... and see. If majority of homeonwer's feel as you do, it's not difficult to do and can be done withing a month's time. ( not much time for fine happy Sam to hit the ticketing meter... some peeps are so freaky weird )

Julie, my heart goes out to you. BUT! Your President only has as much power as you allow him..... How many units are in your hoa? 8 would hardly constitute a majority in most unless they were small..

Also, some of this guys approaches are completely against DSA. I'd suggest if possible, getting an attorney if need be for some of these fraudulent fines.. It's amazing how the 6 letter LAWYER gets people to stay on the straight and narrow. GO and have people over without his permission, wait for the fine letter, then take it up to your or threaten too. It might just curb your hungery little presssie.

I'd also suggest you get in touch with the others in your HOA.... there are powers in numbers........ and beleive me, if you are not the only squeaky wheel then it can be fixed.

But other than that I am not sure what HOA TALK can offer you if you are not willing to ante' up and get involved and get others in place. Removal can be done... and if you are accruate, your president has broken a few laws, but nothing can be done if YOU dont' do anything.

Well I am back for more advice. I read all your replies and believe me I tried it all. So many owners that live here are scared of this man. I have received emails from owners that live on the property telling me they feel for me they know what I am going through, they themselves have been through it, but they can't get involved for fear of what he will do to make their lives difficult.

Since my last post, I have been served papers for to more meetings with the board ( myself and 4 other members got similiar letters to appear before the board) The first meeting we were given a fine of $400, $200 for refusing a registered letter, apparently a registered letter went to my dads house, when it came he was not home so my brother refused it, we were given a fine of $200 for that refusal. Another fine I was seen with my dog returning home (I had just picked her up from the vet from being fixed) and walking through the complex with her to my unit, she was on a leash. According to the president he issued a new rule for me , that my dog was not allowed out of the unit before midnight, if she was seen out of the unit before midnight we would be fined. This was news to me.

The second meeting was last night, this meeting was for an email to other owners my father had sent out, apparently it is not allowed and another fine was issued. Also apparently the president got a few complaints saying that some of my guests were seen hanging out in the parking lot and tires were slashed. Although this was supposably witnessed, in his letter informing us of this meeting he stated that these witnesses do not need to come forward, or names be known, that he has gathered enough information and facts himself to find these accusation true.How this is possible I don't know since on the date he claims I had guests seen in the parking lot then entering my unit I was out of town in San Francisco. We did not get more then 10 minutes into the meeting and it was out of hand, he would not let any of us speak, everytime we tried to he yelled that it was a fine, he finally got up and walked out, and on his way out the door he stopped and got right in my face and told me " I will get your a** if it's the last f****** thing I do".

This man just bought another unit last week, and while doing the repairs on (repairs being done by nonlicensed contractors and himself) the unit, he was adding a shed to the outside sundeck (against CC&R'S) that would house a washer and dryer (also against the CC&R's) and while installing the outlets for the washer and dryer he hit some kind of pipe and flooded out the entire unit below him. We had a contract with a Laundry Co. they gave the association $10,000.00 for signing a new contract with them and because the president installed washers and dryers in units for other owners in violation of our contract with the Laundry Co. while he was the President of the Association, we as owners through our association, are now required to repay around $7,000.00 dollars to them for violating our contract with them. Meanwhile, he pockets all the money for the installations. We have renters that he rents washers and dryers to and charges them $50 a month for the use of them in their unit, he gets that money also.

I aslo learned that he makes money another way. Let's says the comples need a new lock on one of the storage sheds, he will go to Home Depot and buy 10 locks,use the associations money to buy them, use the one lock that we needed and then turns around and returns the remaining 9 locks and asks that the refund be returned in the form of a gift card, and he keeps that for hmself.

What can we possibly do, there is only himself and his bestfriend on the board, there is never more then the two of them. I filed a small claim for the towing of my car, and he informed me last night that I will be billed for all his attorney fees, because he is going to the attorney for advice on the claim and he will bill it to me.

Can someone please give me the exact steps it takes to remove this man from the board. There is 106 units, he owns 9 now. Most owners live off the property, but right this minute without having to go outside the porperty I have 10 owners wanting him off the board. There are police reports on file of this man attacking residents, one of them he had a shovel in his hand. The property management company that he fired, there is a police report from an incident at their office where he chased an employee through the parking lot into her supervisors office and was verbally abusive and threatening.

I don't have the money to pay for the legal cost to take it all to court. Today I am going to the police department to ask for a temporary restraining order until something is done about this man. But I need advice on the exact steps I would need to do to remove this man from the board, of course without the help of any of the other board members.

Thanks

Look at your docs, bring them to a lawyer if you have to. Set up a meeting with the other homeowners and get them to vote him out. Maybe elect a new board if you have to. WORK TOGETHER to get him out. Once you get control, use a violation to see he never gets elected again due to breach of fiduciary duty.

Easy to overlook.

Julie please read your documents. I live in a condominium. Our Master Deed states that if owners who own 25% of the property petition for a special meeting to remove a Board member, a meeting needs to be called. But only one issue can be addressed at the meeting. In your case it would be to vote this man out with a replacement ready. And I thought we had problems with one person being in complete control. Ours was a Sunday School picnic compared to yours.

Hi Julie,

The information you need is here.

I'll try to summarize the steps, having just gone through this process in my HOA here in California.

First, gather information. What follows is some important facts about California HOAs. This information comes from the California civil code, specifically the Davis-Stirling Act, which is the section of code that deals specifically with HOAs. And unlike states like Florida, there are not separate sets of laws for condominiums and HOAs - all California CIDs (common interest developments) are HOAs (home owner associations), and they may consist of single family dwellings, town houses or condos.

The Davis-Stirling act trumps any more restrictive rules your governing documents may have concerning recall procedures. For example, your bylaws may say that a recall petition must be signed by 20% of the total voting power of the association, while Davis-Stirling requires only 5%. Davis-Stirling prevails, so it's 5%.

1) Total voting power means the total number of votes as specified in your bylaws and CC&Rs. This is typically one vote per unit, regardless of the total number of people with financial interests in any part of the property. In other words, 5 people may buy a condo together, but collectively they have only a single vote.

2) HOA's are representative democracies, managed by elected directors. Directors serve on the board at the pleasure of the homeowners, and a director may be removed from the board by a vote of the membership, with or without cause, at any time.

3) Officers (typically president, vice president, secretary and treasurer) are not elected by the membership, but are appointed by the directors. Typically, the board meets after the annual election to decide which director will serve in what office, usually by verbal vote, and officers serve typically for one year.

4) Since the officers serve at the pleasure of the directors, the directors may remove any director from office, with or without cause, at any time.

5) The membership cannot petition the board of directors to remove a director from office.

6) The membership can, however, petition the board of directors to set a date for a special meeting for any purpose. A recall petition is a petition of the board of directors to schedule a special meeting for the purpose of voting one or more directors off the board.

7) In order for the recall petition to be valid, it must specify the purpose of the special meeting. If the petition only specifies that the purpose of the meeting is to recall a director (or directors), then a ballot must be prepared that has a yes/no vote to recall the director or directors. If the recall is successful, then another special meeting must be scheduled, and another vote held to elect replacement(s). If there is to be an election of replacement director(s) at the recall meeting, then the petition must specify this, in which the ballot will have a ballot item or items for recalling the director(s), and another ballot item or items for electing replacement directors.

8) The signatures on the petition must be those of actual homeowners whose names are on the deed, and only one vote per unit is valid. A husband and wife whose names are both on the deed only get to have one signature on the petition. Even though California is a community property state, if only one spouse's name is on the deed, only the spouse on the deed may sign the petition.

9) Once the recall petition has enough signatures on it, it must be delivered to the board of directors and/or manager. The board then has 20 days to notify the membership of the date of the special recall meeting, which must be scheduled no sooner than 30 days from the receipt of the valid petition, and no later than 90 days from receipt.

10) Once the membership is notified of the date of the recall meeting, both sides may campaign. The director(s) being recalled can attempt to get signers of the petition to withdraw their support, and if the number of signatures drops below 5% of the total voting power of the membership, the petition dies, and the recall meeting is canceled. The people behind the petition would need to start all over again with a new petition in that case, so it would be in your best interests to get many more signatures than you need.

The campaigning can get quite nasty, and emotions can run high, so stay cool and calm. You can, during the campaign, state your evidence (not opinion, rumor or hearsay) for why you want to recall the director(s), and the director(s) can mount a defense.

11) At the meeting, the votes must be verified and counted by an independent "Inspector of Elections." If the recall vote is successful, the recalled director(s) remains in office until replacements are elected. If the petition called for a recall and an election, then the recalled directors step down at the meeting.

That's all there is to it!

Rob

One other thing: I would get together with 8 or 9 homeowners you can trust, hire an attorney, and have a meeting somewhere where you can get some strategy going. I would advise everyone to stop writing letters like the one you shared. That does nothing but tip the guy off to what your criticisms are. Don't vent - attack in force when you have a good chance of winning the fight, with legal guns blazing.

Rob

There's also something called the Community Association Institue - even if you aren't a member sometimes you can get information from them just look up the chapter for your area

Re your 2011 update -
You've been given great suggestions. It has been suggested at least twice that you seek an attorney who offers free consult. Focus on the solutions, many were given by others. As a word of caution, keep the specifics of your situation off the web and especially names, addresses or personally identifying info. Knowledge IS power. Also suggested previously - become familiar with Davis-Stirling Act, California civil and corporation codes, et al. Lots of reading but eventually you will make progress in understanding the remedies and the law limitations.

Re your towed vehicle & fine
If I were in your situation, I'd take photos of any/all areas in front of the garage and especially if 'no parking' signs or red curbs exist near the garage. Do this BEFORE any changes are made by the BOD. Put the photos on a cd and keep them; print the pictures for assistance in your small claims affair. If there are new signs or new paint applied, take photos. This will provide the before & after documentation. Know your governing documents before you set foot in court. In your docs, look for and find the notification requirements when a violation occurs. The board must follow them. If there aren't any, I believe the law (Davis-Stirling) would then be observed which pertains to due process - you must be given the opportunity to correct the violation before fines are demanded. According to your posts, there was no due process. The courts dislike the lack of due process. Judges make this issue clear when deciding cases. Also in California, Alternative Dispute Resolution is required but I am confused as to what may pertain to your situation.

http://www.davis-stirling.com/DisputeResolution/ADRMenu/tabid/572/Default.aspx

http://www.davis-stirling.com/MainIndex/WhenADRIsRequired/tabid/1243/Default.aspx

Obtain the counseling & guidance you & your neighbors so desperately need from a competent attorney whose area of practice is in California Condo/COA/HOA law. He will also tell you when/if you should be dealing with the police dept.

To Rob and Everyone Else,

Everyone that was kind enough to respond and give me advice as to how to handle my situation here with my HOA board, I am truly appreciative. I have read everyones comments very carefully. As of today we are starting a petition to recall the president, so far we have 11 signatures. We have a meeting this Saturday night with all the homeowners that are local and able to attend to discuss what we can do, and how we are going to go about this.

So for right now I am going to stay and fight, I am not going to allow one person to run me out of my home. I refuse to give him that much power.

Thank You all very very much for everything. I will keep you posted as things progress. Hopefully with some luck and the law on out side things will work out and life can get back to normal around here. I can't wait to take my dog for a long walk at a normal hour and feel safe doing it.

Thank Again.

Tim is right: The petition is to call a special meeting for the purpose of removing a particular director, or directors. It sounded to me as though you need to remove more than one, but that's just my opinion.

Here's sample wording for calling a special meeting to recall the entire board in California:

NOTE: The purpose of the petition must be contained on each petition circulated and positioned above the signature lines so that people signing the petition know what they are signing. If the purpose is on a separate page, it will invalidate the petition.

The undersigned members representing 5% or more of the Association hereby petition that the Board of Directors set the earliest reasonable date for a special membership meeting for removing the entire board and electing a new board in the event the recall is successful.

REASON for recalling board: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

Signature Print Name & Address

_____________________________ __________________________________

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here's a sample petition for removing a single director in California:

NOTE: The purpose of the petition must be contained on each petition circulated and positioned above the signature lines so that people signing the petition know what they are signing. If the purpose is on a separate page, it will invalidate the petition.

The undersigned members representing 5% or more of the Association hereby petition that the Board of Directors set the earliest reasonable date for a special membership meeting to removing one or more directors as described below and to elect replacement directors in the event the recall is successful.

DIRECTORS subject to removal: _______________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________

REASONS for removal: _________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________

Signature Print Name & Address

__________________________________ __________________________________

Read more: Petition to Recall the Entire Board
from Davis-Stirling.com by Adams Kessler PLC

Read more: Petition to Recall a Director
from Davis-Stirling.com by Adams Kessler PLC

Rob

Any updates on this case?

NEVER involve the press in your HOA business. It just brings unwanted attention and paints your HOA in a bad picture. You want to sell your home one day don't ya? Plus the HOA is supposed to keep home values up. Spouting out your dirty laundry to the press no matter what the intentions doesn't read well to others... How many times do you hear about OTHER HOA's in the media and think "Glad I don't live there or in a HOA?"... SAME thing when you do it in the press...

If this was me dealing with the unreasonable, I get reasonable to their unreasonable...You want to know who's coming in and out? Guess what? Your going to know every time...It's a funny thing giving someone what they want...they tend to NOT want it. You want towing? Get tow trucks... You want garbage out on the side of the road at the appropriate time? Didn't say it had to outside MY home. The President has a home there too...

Okay, this is really bad advice. However, it is also a way to have a little bit of fun with crazy...Plus a little humor in the life of mundane helps...LOL. Good luck. You may remove them from office but this person is going to have other ways to be involved. The rest of you may want to find a place for this to happen like Neighborhood watch or some kind of committee. Keep him busy and involved in a place that won't involve the rest of you...

To all those that gave me great advice. Here is the update to my current situation with a President Gone Overboard.

We (several homeowners) just finished and served our board with a petition for the boards removal. This did not go so well, he ignored the petition and only gave a response to say that several of the signatures on the petition were those of homeowners whose voting proviledges he had taken away due to some violation. Therefore he finds the petition to be invalid. The petition itself was thrown in the trash in front of several of us.

I wss served (along with my parents since the condo is in their name) another violation and oredered to appear at another hearing. When we arrived a lady was there that he had hired on the board that was not a homeowner nor did she even live on the premises. Long story short, we were not given a second to talk, the violation was for apparently I was seen loitering in the parking lot by three witnessess, of course the witnesses were not present. The meeting got out of hand when he refused to let us speak our side and he began video taping us, the meeting was called to an end when the president got up and opened the door and saud "All Trash Can Leave Now: my mother and him got into a verbal argument at which point he hit my mother. The police were called out and because this lady that was at the meeting told the police that she did not see him hit her, they did not arrest him.

In the meantime my parents took him to small claims court for all the past fines we paid, WE WON! Judge ordered him to pay them all back. The iggest issue the judge had when he asked the president if quorum was met at these violation hearings, the president said he did not have to meet quorum at a violation hearing. WRONG! We had to wait 30 days for the money, and when we finally did get a check in the mail, he sent two checks one in the name of my ex who use to live with me, and one in my dads name. He aid since my ex is the one that handed him the money he was legally bound to issue the money to him, even thou the judge told him to pay in full to my dad, my dad had told the judge that he lent the money to us to pay the first fine. Along with the checks came a note, the note stated that if we were to even think about cashing these checks he would be pulling us back into another violation hearing to fine us all over again. So that was received yesterday.

Also he filed a restraining order on my mother, we went to court and he showed the video to the judge and the judge told him to get the heck out of his court and dismissed the case.

Any advise on what action I can now take with this letter he sent us regarding cashing the checks that was court ordered. The small claims jusge looked to be very sick of this man, apparently he is there often?

Are you able to just walk in and get contact with the judges secretary? I was under the impression that once you won the case, it was up to you to collect the money the court is out of it.

Would this be considered a form of extortion?

Another thought is you might take the judges order, the checks, and note to the District Attorney office and see also what they say with regards to the situation.