If a newly elected HOA president has signed the meeting minutes, can he then call a meeting to dismiss the secretary because the secretary has asked him about holding illegal meetings?
We just had a vote on a special assessment in our condo complex. Our vote seemingly was not counted as we had an outstanding fine for a political flag. This was just announced at the... Read More
With recent legislation protecting VRBO/AirBnB reservation in the state of AZ, is it applicable to HOAs? Recently the HOA voted to limit short-term rentals to 30 or more days. Naturally, this would eliminate 99% of... Read More
The management company of our HOA is running our election, and have ignored a request to have a homeowner’s committee run the election… is there any government entity we can go to who will insure... Read More
I am an HOA member in AZ, and I’m interested in putting forth an effort to vote to remove a board member. I’ve read through 33-1813 about the voting requirements, but in practice how is... Read More
Our newly elected HOA Board is trying to determine what matters qualify for an Executive Session. Specifically we have a landscaping company that has breached their contract for months. Some of us are wanting to... Read More
We are interested in changing or annulling CC&Rs that were originally recorded in September 1996 for which an HOA was never established and bylaws never created. They stipulate an original 20-year term that was then... Read More
Dennis, We are having board elections this month for our annual meeting in January. There are 6 running for 3 board positions. 3 of the 6 are have had “run-ins” with the current president and... Read More
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While the Board President can call a meeting of the board at any time for any issue, he or she has absolutely no power to do anything else without the prior authorization of the board. The officers of the board are appointed by the board itself and can be removed from that position by vote of the board. However, the board has absolutely no power to remove a board member without a vote of the members of the community. Duly elected or appointed board members can only be removed by resignation of that board member or a petition to recall that director submitted by 25% of the community members.
It you can provide me more details on why the secretary believes that the association is conducting illegal meetings i can provide you guidance on the legitimacy of that claim. Having said that, it is extremely suspicious when a board president immediately attacks another board member who claims that the association is conducting business inappropriately instead of investigating that claim. The other board members have just as much responsibility to the members that they represent to conduct business according to the law. That is absolutely not the way any association board should act. There is a very important reason for boards to be independent thinkers and not simply puppets that only act at the whim of any one board member. You community surely deserves much more from your board president that what this demonstrates.
Your bylaws allow the association the ability to deny you your fundamental right to vote on any community issue, including amendments or board elections. It is for associations like this that create these type of broad based excuses for denying homeowners the right to vote on issues in their own communities, that i drafted my open meeting and voting bill that would limit an associations ability to deny any homeowners right to vote to only failure to pay assessments when due. An association can fabricate a violation against an individual that opposes their actions to prevent that person from voting and running for office. They can then also disqualify any individual they want who signs a petition to recall the board.
Hi Dennis
This is what our Bylaws say regarding ineligable to vote.
Section 4.3 Good Standing. I f a Member otherwise entitled to vote is delinquent in the payment o f periodic or special Assessments, fmes, penalties, interest, late charges, transfer fees, refinance fees, costs ofcollection, lien fees, attorneys’ fees or other monies owed to the Association or is not in compliance with the tenns of the Association’s Governing Documents, the Bylaws or the Rules and Regulations ofthe Association, the Board ofDirectors may, in its sole discretion, certify that such Member is not in good standing and such Member’s right to vote shall be suspended until the delinquency, breach or violation is paid in full, cured or corrected.
What exactly does certify that such member is not in good standing mean?
Thanks again
Without reading through all the replies. Let me just tell you. We hired City Management Company. Great sales pitch. Worst property management company I have ever worked with as the president.
Bente
Bob,
While i have my opinions of City Property Management and their owner, none of which is good in any way, i believe your question was directed to the individual who posted that comment.
Dennis
Please remember that renters don’t count unless the owner has given the renter permission to act in his stead in writing to the association. Only actual home owners are members of the association. Contact information is generally considered confidential and most associations don’t provide that information unless permission is granted by each homeowner. Unless you have contact information these petitions are seldom successful without door to door leg work. Again why HB-2052 is so important.
Thank you for the quick and thorough reply. The 25% threshold is quite low in my case, given the size of the community, that’s literally just a handful of votes. Some of units are renter occupied. Do you know if AZ requires HOA to provide the name and address of all members upon request? I could just write some letters and organize a vote.
While I’ve answered all question thru the e-mail stream that you sent to me directly, I’ll repeat that answer for the benefit of any member reading this question. Whether or not homeowners know that CC&R’s exist or not is totally irrelevant. If they are recorded they exist and all property in that community is subject to the conditions and restrictions of that recorded document. Renewal of existing CC&R’s is typically automatic and needs no action by the community or the board, but you would want to see the specific language of your particular documents.
Arizona law provides no vehicle for the courts to reduce the approval requirements for changes to the declaration. The approval requirements specified in the declaration is required.
What was not included in this question but relevant to the case is that while the CC&R’s were recorded and required that a non-profit corporation be created to run the community and enforce the CC&R’s, the declarant never created that association and for over 16 year the association never existed. Technically any home in the community could not be bought or sold with recorded deed restrictions that were not implementable. This put the community in grave danger and my advice for this community was to hire an attorney and create an association to comply with the CC&R’s. While this will do nothing to change the CC&R’s it will at least allow the association to function and free the homeowners to sell property legally.
The process starts with a petition signed by 25% of the homeowners in your community. This takes a group effort by like minded individuals and friends. Get your core group organized, and go door to door or call for an informational meeting at any community meeting room. The management company does not work for the community it works for the board and will do absolutely nothing to help in your effort. This is why my bill HB2052 is so vital to this type of effort. It prevents the association from restricting your ability to post signs or to organize meeting or hold those meeting for that type of effort. The association will never provide you the contact information for all the homeowners unless each individual homeowner has given permission to make that information public.
Once you have your signatures (get more than the minimum 25%) present that to the board. The board must then call for a special meeting of the members to be held within 30 days of the receipt of the petition, to vote to remove the individual board member cited in the petition. The board would be required to notify every member of the community of the special meeting and the subject of that meeting. A simple majority of the homeowners voting at that meeting in person and by absentee ballot decides the outcome. An important thing to remember is that if you are removing only one board member the board not members get to decide who will fill that vacancy for the rest of that unexpired term.
Dennis
It the decision to fire the landscaping company is based on performance issues by individuals of the contractor than that can be accomplished in an executive session. Any decision to hire a new landscaper must then be accomplished in open session.
You can have a standalone executive session as long as it is noticed 48 hours prior to the meeting and the reason why this meeting is acceptable to be considered in executive session by simply noting one of the 5 acceptable reasons why the subject matter to be discussed can be made outside of an open meeting in the notice for that meeting. In this case the justification would be section A.4 from ARS 33-1804.
One important point that you made in your question is that you can go into executive session after a properly noticed open meeting but when you do that you must mention and include in the minutes the section of ARS -33-1804 that allows you to discuss issues in executive session.
Dennis
From dennisl on Condo secretary
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From dennisl on Voting ineligibility
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From benteh on Voting ineligibility
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From dennisl on 33-1813 Question
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From lisam on Executive Sessions or meetings of the HOA
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From dennisl on Executive Sessions or meetings of the HOA
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