Lora,
I cannot tell you how many times I hear similar stories from homeowners from across this state. Existing law that for any contract that clearly represents a conflict of interest of any board member they must declare that conflict prior to the discussion and vote by the board. If they fail to declare the conflict of interest it nullifies any contract put in place without that declaration. Current law already requires the association to provide access to any association record within 10 days of that request. All invoices from contractors are association records. Get the minutes of the meeting where the board awarded the contract for landscaping to a company owned by board members. If no record of a declared conflict of interest by the affected board members exist in that official record of the meeting , you have a legitimate cause for action. I would definitely petition the ADRE in the dispute resolution process on the two separate and specific violation of law. ($1,000).

If you want to go in that direction, contact me separately at azhoatruth@gmail.com and I’ll help you frame the petition, the choice of which avenue you take is yours alone. You can pay $500 per issue with ADRE or $350 to $400 per hour for an attorney to file a claim in Justice or Superior Court.

I’ve introduced legislation this session SB-1387 to strengthen the conflict-of-interest laws and provide for the duties of the boards to their communities.
Dennis

Thank you!!

Rhonda,

Any petition no matter what for is not secret and can and must be viewed by the board to confirm the eligibility of the signatures. Nothing stops the board from contacting any signee but if they try and intimidate that individual, they violate their duty to the association. To treat all homeowners fairly.
Dennis

Todd,

As a member of the Board io hope you understand that the Management company works for you and not the other way around. The management company has no right to defy any direct action by the board and by doing what they did would raise some significant concern over what they are trying to hide by their actions. Obviously, you had some reason for concern that is simply reinforced by the action of the management company. Audits are expensive but not mandatory and totally at the discretion of the board alone. The management company can either do what the board requested or be fired. Nothing else matters. Your contract with them can be terminated with or without cause but , insubordination is surely cause for termination. They can either arrange for the forensic audit immediately or be fired.
Dennis

Do I have to give all board members the user name a password to all accounts, like electric, water, corporation commission, etc.?

Lisam,
What you did was a very smart move on your part, to separate your personal email account, from your association account. It protects your personal account from being subpoenaed in any litigation against the association. You have absolutely no obligation to provide the rest of the board with the username and password to that account. If they want to see anything in that account, you can send it to them if appropriate. I would advise any board member to only communicate via e-mail on an association only account.
There are systems with shared e-mail accounts where everyone can see all the correspondence on that account. Each has a separate log in , but all share the same account.

Dennis

Thank you, Dennis. I probably did not make my question clear. Our CC&Rs currently do allow for a sub-association to be formed. I am wondering if we, the newly formed sub-association, would have the option to choose our Property Management Company, or could the master association force us to use the Management Company used by the master association?

Priscilla,

To accomplish what you are considering, if I understand you correctly, you will need to amend your CC&R’s to allow this separation. This will require the general approval of the specified number of owners in the master community (typically 2/3of all owners) and 100% of the owners in the new community under current Arizona law. This clearly is not an easy task. If you are able to achieve this, then you will be free to choose any community manager that you want.
While I’m not sure what and why you are trying to do this, I sure hope that you have hired an attorney to help guide you thru this process. I’m not aware of any community that has ever succeeded with such an effort. Maybe you should first look to understand why you are even considering such a move, and if that move will be any better than what you currently have. While the grass may look greener on the other side it seldom actually is. You will still be an HOA with a board and CC&R’s and will still be subject to the master association in some way.
If your issue is that you do not like the community manager, the right way to fix this is to address it with the board and if they do not fix it then recall and remove the board members and replace them with board members that will properly manage the community managers or replace them.
Dennis

I know of no pro-bono attorneys willing to represent homeowners. The ADRE process is still cheaper than any other type of legal challenge. Unfortunately the courts are the only option for homeowners to enforce the law, and there is no state agency that oversees thes communities.
Dennis

Ann,
Your association’s rule is invalid because it clearly violate state law. Any homeowner can campaign door to door on any political activity including association specific political activity. This would also apply to any common property of the association. Limitations may be OK for non-residents campaigning for general political activity but not for residents, for any reason.
Dennis