Refusal to view association documents

Our association is located in Connecticut. The president of this board has appointed all the members, the members that were voted in by the unit owners have resigned. This president does not get along with the majority of the unit owners of the size of 228 units. We have sent:

1) Certified letters requesting documents that the unit owners are entitled to.
This president has refused to sign for them. As a matter of fact she called
the police on the mailman for questioning her refusal.
2) Restricted certified letters have been sent again she refuses to sign for
them.Four of the unit owners received these restricted letters back.
3) On January 6, 2012, a group of unit owners paid a Connecticut State
Marshall to hand deliver the same documented request. The letter was delivered.
4) On Monday, 1/23/12, I called our associations office, this president answered
the phone and told me to send another letter and then slammed the phone.

According to our Connecticut state statutes regarding condo laws, we as unit owners are entitled to these documents.The procedure is to give a five days notice. This has been attempted and to no avail.

Any suggestions on moving forward with this matter?

Thanks
Gary

Hello Steve:

Can you advise me on how to construct a website?

Thanks
Gary

Gary,

Where is the rest of the Board of Directors?

One way to handle this is to threaten to take the President and all the board members to court and name each of them individually as a defendant. Since your state law requires the association to produce the records and the officers and board members are refusing to do so, they are not immune from liability. Most board members are not going to want to see their names on a lawsuit, so they choose to override the president.

OK, I know someone is going to ask why they would not be immune. Board members are usually immune from damages if they conduct business as a prudent person would. By definition, a prudent person does not violate the law. In this case, the law requires the association to produce documents upon request and the association, with the implied approval of the board members, has violated that law by refusing requests.

Larry

I think only a board with something to hide would refuse to produce documents. Your first course of action should be to tell your all your neighbors about this refusal so that they can pressure the board to release them. Give them the exact text of the law that says they must be released.
Jeanne

Gary:

I would follow Tim's advice, send a registered letter to the registered agent of the association...if nothing happens after 5 days send a follow up to all board members, management company and association attorney requesting information.

If 5 more days pass then you are at a crossroads, the issue will either have to go to court or you will have to figure out what you want to accomplish.

Hello Susan:

The documents that we have been requesting are as follows:

1) Copy of the contract of hiring an additional attorney who has had his law
license revoked and was required to return to law school for additional
training.
2) Copy of the minutes from her present board when the voting took place.

3) Copy of the presnet board members names and position assigned.

4) Copy of the minutes that her present board voted to sell a unit at
a well below market value that had been acquired by this association.

5) Copies of addtional contracts that she has acquired and put in place.

Thanks
Gary

I would not threaten to do it unless you are prepared to do it. If you threaten and they call your bluff and you back down it just empowers them more.

Martin

I agree with the earlier poster. Letters threatening legal action not from an attorney, are not worth the paper they are written on. Never ever threaten to take action unless prepared to do so.

I say fools with no money are harmless. Nice people with money are harmless. Fools with money are dangerous. Consider the source before taking action.

Does your state have a consumer complaint form you can fill out? Contact your Attorney General. People need to start contacting their State's Congress men and women, their state's Representatives and state Senators. We elect these people. All you are going to get on these boards are the people from the CAI (Community Association Institute) that tells you to hire an attorney. You don't need an attorney. Get your elected officials involved and everyone you can rally up and let your state government know you are fed up with associations period. Nobody wants their neighbor running their life. Letters are a lot cheaper than an attorney that will just take your money. Also, find out where your State Representative's office is and meet with him or her and tell them your problem. Make sure you are detailed in your letter and don't talk about your personal issue talk about how the community is being affected. They don't want to hear about your fence problem. Hope this helps.

Brad and John:

You are both correct. One should not threaten to act if he is not prepared to do so.

I have represented myself in courts for over 30 years and forget that others may not be prepared file their own lawsuits.

A letter from an attorney is more persuasive than a letter from a pro per litigant like myself. I find that my letters are taken more seriously if I reference the specific statutes and relevant case law. Usually, my objective is to get the opposing party to go to his attorney for advice. When all else fails, then I file a lawsuit.

I live in Florida, and always thought that our Sunshine Law and FL720 Statute permitted HOA residents from seeing complete list of owners who are in arrears?

Florida's Sunshine laws do not apply to private corporations. Florida HOA statutes do. If you gave proper notice as described in FLSS 720, assuming you are an HOA, they have 10 days to make them available to members [only]. After than you must file a request for mediation to obtain relief under the statutes. This assumes you have informed them of the law and they continue to deny access.

Hi, Gary...

I'm in California. We took our board to court for non-production of documents. This was small claims court. We won and the board was forced to produce the documents.

We were careful to have a written request. We went it via email, but we also made sure to send it to all of the board members. In our case, we only have three.

By this we wanted to make sure that all the directors knew what was happening. Then as required by our CC&R we filed a request for resolution (certified mail). We also sent a copy by email. We then sent a letter to each of the members regarding this to insure that everyone was aware of what we were doing.

This got the board out to swear that we didn't know what they were doing and they had spoken with an attorney. So far, they refuse to name the attorney.

After an particularly rude email, we wrote that we understood that this meant, the board would not meet in mediation (actually the state requires them to do so at the request of a member) and proceeded to small claims court.

In small claims court, expect the board to lie. They will say that they never received your emails, or letters. What was the winning point is that we posted fliers on the message board that were torn down. We also posted the fliers (8.5 x 11) on our windows and exterior doors. We were threatened with fines, but there was no CC&R against such actions. The written threat of fines was proof that they had seen and knew who was responsible. Then they had to answer the judge as to why they didn't just send emails to everyone to tell them when the meetings were or send everyone via email the meeting minutes.

So far the board has been fined $600 for non-production of documents.

The board could be found guilty of willful misconduct or gross negligence and then the shield of the corporation would be lost. However this usually required a judicial decision (judge or retired judge) or a case going on to superior court (limited/unlimited civil). That costs quite a bit more than small claims court.

Was it worth getting the documents? Yes. We found fraud and other irregularities.

For blogs, try wordpress, but I would be extremely careful to avoid accusations of libel. Consider how a newspaper writes to avoid charges of libel. You might need to know what is considered privileged speech.

Hope this helps.