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DavidA7 (California)
Posts: 179
Posted:
Recently our Board removed money from reserve and placed it into general funds, discussion in previous post, without following legal procedure as outlined by our CC&R's and the Davis Sterling Act. The amount removed was 7K. When I inquired about what it was for, apart from the legal issues of transferring the money, I was told it was for property repairs.

During the past month the HOA resurfaced a deteriorating walk area of the common area. OK great that is capital property repairs but yesterday came home to find all new planters/plants that had to cost some serious money had been placed into the common area. Over the past year I have asked the HOA board to conduct infrastructure repairs as our property is falling apart and I was informed we don't have enough money because of 1 unit in foreclosure that hasn't paid dues in almost 2 years and they don't want to place a special assessment due to tough economic times. Never-the-less the Board went out and spent significant money on planters and plants. We already had some plants and planters prior to the resurfacing but they just removed them and put the new ones in. I don't mind the property improvements but not when there is more serious issues on the property that need to be addressed.

I can only expect that the money for this came from the money that was transferred from reserves to general budget and plants/planters don't qualify for reserve type repairs as they are not listed in our reserve study as capital repairs.

The Board won't respond to any request to deal with this issue of transferring money from reserves to general budget and then the misallocation of these funds. Now with reserve money being spent on non-capital repairs I'm worried about the long-term implications to reserve funding and capital expenditure repairs.

OK, my question is what can I do apart from selling which is not an option? The Board won't hold HOA meetings to discuss, won't follow the laws governing it, and they just spends money however they want, and is leaving the membership at financial risk. The membership won't conduct a recall or vote them out as we only have 8 units and the Board has themselves (3 units) and at least two other units in their backpocket thus preventing a recall.

MaryA1 (Arizona)
Posts: 7,043
Posted:
David,

If you have no state agency to make a claim to then there is probably nothing that can be done since the other members are not concerned. Sorry!!
PatW5 (Washington)
Posts: 5
Posted:
David,

I read your earlier posts as well. Obviously you don't see eye-to-eye with the current board and it's clear your priorities are not the same as current Board of Directors. There’s not always a right way and wrong way to manage an HOA. With homeowners coming from different backgrounds, tastes and interests… different people may view things differently than you. So far you explained a lot about you think the HOA should do for you, but not much about what you are willing to do for Association.

You may not agree with it, but I see nothing wrong with the board spending a little money for planters. That’s part of being on an HOA Board. As a group, you’re responsible for making decisions regarding improvements, maintenance, budgets and more. Even if those decisions don’t make everyone happy.

If you’re truly concerned about the spending habits of the Board, I would recommend going to the Property Management Company and request a copy of the current financials. And if you want to take a step further, go to the annual meeting and volunteer yourself to be on the board. That way you can direct part of the decision making process.

And remember… It’s more important to be effective than it is to be right.
DavidA7 (California)
Posts: 179
Posted:
PATW5 - I thank you for your well thought out reply.

You are correct I do not see eye-to-eye with the current board. You are also correct my priorities are different then the BOD. You are again correct there is a right and wrong way to manage an HOA. As for what I have done for my Association well where do I start:

1) I was on the BOD for the the first 4 years and then took 1 year off and that is when I see most of the problems starting.
2) I took on the developer when we all were just purchasing on the property for property defects
3) I took on a homeowner, when I was on BOD, who lied to the HOA about performing construction inside their unit that ended-up with them drilling two huge holes through their unit down through the HOA concrete support structure into the subterranean garage without authoriziation from the HOA.

I could keep going on.

I completely disagree with the Board spending "A LOT" of money on plants/planters when I had been directly told "WE HAVE NO MONEY FOR FIXING THE PROPERTY" We have huge cracks in almost every exterior wall of our property and we have a walk way on a slanted roof that is almost completely caved-in preventing roof access to A/C units. I don't have problem with plant/planter replacement if I was I wasn't lied too about "We have no money..."

Also it is a matter of priorities, at least how I see it, as we have 1 out of 8 units in pre-foreclosure who hasn't paid HOA dues in almost 2 years. Now should we be buying plants/planters or performing infrastruture repairs? I guess its up for debate.

I request the financials every month and that's when I found out about the potential illegal financial going-on with our BOD which has end-up unfortunately with me having to file a small claims lawsuit against them so that our reserve money can be recovered. (another thread)

Finally, I would love to be on the Board again but 1 person is basically running the show right now. Let me explain. In 2009 I decided to not run for the Board so I could have a rest after having spent 4 years on the Board. The 2009 Board consisted of 3 members who lived on the property.

In 2009 I had a huge run in with the Board about them conducting an illegal closed Board meeting and an issue of them removing the Rental restrictions we had on the property. Fast forward to December 2009 and I have submitted my name for the 2010 Board. At this point the property consisted of 4 rentals, 3 people living on the property, and one unit in pre-foreclosure. All 3 Board members were up for election and myself. I complained that the 3rd Board Member was acting as a shadow person to prevent me from being on the Board and with that person living in Sacramento, we are in LA, they wouldn't show-up at meetings. I was told it was all legal and didn't matter since Board didn't care about the law regarding meetings. Well, it is now June 2010 and I have what I think found 8 instances of the 2009/10 Board breaking the law concerning the Davis-Sterling Act and our own CC&R's and Bylaws.

I won't be able to get back on the Board because these 3 Board members will vote for themselves and 3 other units who are rentals will vote for the current Board member. They will vote for the current Board members because this Board is the Board who conducted the change to our CC&R's to allow for unlimited rentals on our property allowing these 3 units to convert owner occupied to rentals. They know I'm was and am against having 50% rentals on the property due to FHA/Fannie/Freddie requirements. To complete the math is the pre-foreclosure who doesn't vote and myself. Thus, we have 3 homeowners living on the property out of 8 units.

Anyways, I have come to the conclusion I can't do anything about this specific issue but I can about the HOA BOD breaking the laws the govern it.

SteveM9 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 3,699
Posted:
Quote:
They know I'm was and am against having 50% rentals on the property due to FHA/Fannie/Freddie requirements. To complete the math is the pre-foreclosure who doesn't vote and myself. Thus, we have 3 homeowners living on the property out of 8 units


I agree with you on your comments except for the FHA requirements. People move around alot, people get new jobs, etc. I disagree with forcing someone to make house payments on a house they do not live in. While the requirements are tough, I disagree with forcing people to meet them. I think, they paid for the house/condo, they can have anyone over, stay, rent that they choose.

Its kind of like someonone selling you a car, but you can only drive on Main Street and Jones Ave. If you want to drive on other streets, you must sell the car. LOL.
DavidA7 (California)
Posts: 179
Posted:


Steve, I respectfully understand your point of view but have a slight disagreement with it. It is different when you purchase into an HOA environment than if you purchase a single family home. When purchasing into an HOA your actions affect all the HOA membership. Such a action is renting your property. I am all for allowing limited rentals as long as it does not exceed requirements of banks and other lending type institutions. In an environment such as mine where we have 50% rentals, 4 units, 1 foreclosure and only 3 living on property owners Banks and others such as FHA, Fannie, Freddie will turn away from financing and refinancing on our property. Thus, by allowing rentals our HOA has put itself in a no-win situation. Why should I or another homeowner not be able to refinace or sell our property because other homeowners or investors are renting out excessive number of units.

Another issue is that renters don't care for a property the way a homeowner does you at least would hope. In our environment when we had 8 unit owners it was hard to get 3 homeowners to serve on the board, think what it is like now. Even then it was hard to get more than 1-2 homeowners that cared about the property.

SteveM9 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 3,699
Posted:
Quote:
Why should I or another homeowner not be able to refinace or sell our property because other homeowners or investors are renting out excessive number of units.


You dont "have" to use a FHA loan to buy the condo. There are plenty of banks willing to give someone a loan.

On the other hand, if the owner moves, due to a job or other, and his unit is empty, your telling him it needs to stay empty. He cannot rent it. It will probably be foreclosed on if he cannot sell it and still needs to make payments. I disagree with forcing this financial hardship on anyone.

Its like selling someone a car then telling them they can only drive it on 3 roads in town. They cannot leave those 3 roads. Even though other people that own cars can go anywhere they want. LOL
DavidA7 (California)
Posts: 179
Posted:
Yes there are a lot of caveats and that is why I believe in having an emergency rental capability written into HOA rental restrictions. Nothing is perfect in this world but I'm a firm believer that the whole environment has to be taken into account not just an individual homeowners. Yes, it might not be fair but as we all know living in an HOA has its own caveats that having a single family home does not.

In fact, before it changed its CC&R's removing rental restrictions my HOA allowed for a 1 year hardship rental in such a scenario. I voted against removing rental restrictions.

You are right you don't have to use FHA but in my area well over 60%, if not more, of new loans are FHA loans. One of my best friends is a Real Estate agent and she told me her office is writing almost 90% of their loans as FHA loans. Thus, if I could sell my unit I would be denied 60% or more potential buyers for my property because we don't qualify for FHA status. Just my opinion but I shouldn't be put into this position by other members of the Association. If we had fair and reasonable rental restrictions that allowed for VERIFIED emergency rentals then great. By the way I say verifiable because when we had rental restrictions a unit owner lied, I found out only later, that they had an emergency and we allowed them to rent their unit. It still is in rental status 4 years later and they lied because they said they needed to rent because they couldn't afford the payments any longer and they were moving in with their parents. Turns out they had bought a second home only a month earlier, a single family house, that was twice as much as their condo. Now those of us living on property HOA members are stuck with the consequences.

Thanks for allowing me to communicate my point of view.

David

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