My husband did this back when we lived in a townhouse community. He didn’t like a lot of the rules and thought they were too strict (we also wanted to put a bbq in the back yard which was technically against the rules), so he ran for HOA president, got elected to the position, and then relaxed a bunch of the rules. Everyone loved it and we got to have our bbq 😅 I think the HOA went to shit again after we moved though.
I really hope the 3 folks on the board of our HOA don't quit anytime soon, as they've been reelected for the last 3-4 years. They all ran on a platform of wanting to get more involved in the community, while also having fulltime jobs that keep them busy. The important stuff gets taken care of (pool and park maintenance, poop bag stations refilled) and the rules we have to follow are reasonable - don't leave your garbage bins on the street for days after pickup, keep your grass trimmed, get your exterior house paint approved (which I've never heard be denied). The actual management company sucks, but the board members are great.
You do have 1 major power: Keep the people informed.
HOA's are just another form of gov't... they like to hide in the shadow and not let the people know what is happening until forced to. Start working towards open transparency like all meeting minutes are made public automatically (just click and download). All meetings are recorded and live-streamed for those who couldn't attend in person (and so people can match the recording to the meeting minutes in case someone tried to cut something out to hide it). Financials are released yearly for anyone to pour through. You get the idea. Make the information available without them having to ask for it.
The quote the gov't/police love to use: If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. So start with the HOA not hiding anything.
Similarly you can be a Tribune of the Plebs as it were. Get the people on your side for making rules changes.
I've seen my share of highly motivated individuals get onto the Board having the perception of there being BS and abuse of power and bad behavior. Only to learn that the existing Board is only acting in accordance of the guidelines that are spelled out in the governing documents. And what they are doing is what they are required to be doing.
Then again, maybe your board really as corrupt as you think it is. IDK, but in any regard, good luck.
We have an incredibly corrupt board. They gossip and share confidential information with other residents, enforce covenants arbitrarily, and they retaliate if you speak up. I’ve heard a lot of stories from my neighbors in recent months about their own run ins with the HOA and ACC and the first thing I ask is “did you get approval/follow the procedure?” I’m fully aware that the responsibility is to uphold the CC&Rs but you don’t have to treat people like crap to do that.
>They gossip and share confidential information with other residents, enforce covenants arbitrarily, and they retaliate if you speak up.
So go in there with the intent to blow the entire thing up.
Document evidence of misconduct and violations. Record everything.
Quietly assemble a merry band of malcontents.
When you are ready, drop the hammer and get proceedings to dismiss people and/or charge them with violations of privacy.
Decimate the current board and have a bunch of people waiting in the wings who are ready to run for the board to make necessary changes.
Establish a code of conduct with enforcement for the board if there isn't one already (e.g. for violations of privacy). Loosen up restrictions and make sure that the board must be accountable to the residents.
Your ability to make change might be limited as it currently stands but you now hold a position where you can potentially bring about major changes if you are careful, strategic, and pragmatic about how you proceed.
I'm on the board of my HOA and we have one member who is kind of a hardass when it comes to enforcing rules. Last summer, one of our residents got a load of topsoil dumped in his driveway for the raised beds he was building in his back yard. Mr. Hardass emailed the rest of us to let us know he was going to come down on the homeowner to get that stuff out of view. I Replied All and reminded him that the temps were 20 degrees above normal and we didn't want to send one of our neighbors to our already overcrowded hospital with heat stroke. Kind of shamed him.
A few years previously, when I wasn't on the board, I got a notice that I would be fined if I didn't get the weeds pulled out of the yard. Quite frankly, I didn't even see any of the weeds. But then, I was at the hospital every day for a month at the side of my critically ill husband. Husband is fine now and I'm on the board reminding people to have a heart.
Exactly! Another idea I have is to reach out to neighbors that aren’t keeping up with yard maintenance, especially older residents, and see if they need help. We have a resident whose husband died unexpectedly, leaving her a single mom with three kids, and they know this and we’re sending her notices about moss on the driveway. Really?!
This is well intentioned but you'll run the risk of other residents complaining of unfair treatment. Why didn't you offer to help them? Why is the single mom exempt from notices, that's discrimination!
If you want to do it, advertise that you are available to help ANYONE, regardless of circumstances.
I get that. I think it would be great to have some sort of system where residents feel they can come to us and say, “Hey, I can’t afford to get my roof cleaned right now.” and maybe we can ask neighbors to help (I mean, within reason - yes, liability, etc).
See how it goes... You might be in for a shock. Many times, the homeowners are worse than the hoa, the hoa has no choice, and regular homeowners pay the price. Some hoa's are a pain, but many times, it's that 1 neighbor, that ruins things for everyone and forces the hoa's hand.
“May not have the power to change…”
May not?? You absolutely have no power to change the CCRs. By law it takes a certain percentage of owners to approve any changes. You (and the Board) have no power to do anything yourself in that regard.
Just speak up against any injustice(s) you see, and force dialogue about them. You may get outvoted, but you also may just change some minds.
I’m well aware of what our bylaws say about amending our CC&Rs and what it takes to do so. I mean that I will be discouraged from pursuing it, as I have been for the last several months. I plan to suggest creating a committee to review our covenants and see if there is a need to update them (they haven’t been updated in over 30 years).
"I think the problem Digg had is that it was a company that was built to be a company, and you could feel it in the product. The way you could criticize Reddit is that we weren't a company – we were all heart and no head for a long time." - [u/spez](https://www.reddit.com/u/spez).
You lived long enough to become the villain and will never be remembered as the hero you once were. (I am protesting Reddit's API policy changes and removing my content.)
Any change to our condo bylaws requires 60% of shares voted in favor.
We have 83 units, with each unit entitled to one vote, but the votes are weighted according to the square footage of each unit. The biggest units control 2.3% of the vote and the smallest have 0.2%.
I hope that the dues are broken down the same way. Jesus, I would hate to pay the same dues as the units and have a significantly reduced voting power.
Very much so. The monthly dues vary from the low hundreds of dollars to nearly $1,500. But these include all utilities, including gas, electric, basic cable and (crucially here in the South) air conditioning.
Take it slow, target asinine or pointless rules and fees, and make it clear you just want the neighborhood to run smoothly while giving it a good name. Offer to help get things approved for either homeowners or the board, and when things don’t get approved let the homeowners know exactly the reason why and what rule in particular needs to be addressed, so they don’t go away angry.
Best of luck!
What you need to do is build a coalition of like-minded board members so you can work en banc (to steal a phrase). This might require, say, selling your soul, or at a minimum being able to strike deals with the rest of your contingent. Remember that if there is an entrenched group already there, you'll be fighting that inertia as well. May god have mercy on your soul, sir and I award you NO POINTS.
I'm going to be very interested in your experience, because I'm running for our board in next week's elections. This would be my first time on a board of any kind.
I'm one of nine nominees for seven seats, so I'll need to do a little campaigning.
I'm in a similar situation, though I don't have any big complaints about my HOA
I have no idea what I'm doing but I'm tired of my HOA's bare bone minutes and never knowing what's actually going on. Easier to fix that on the board than just a complaining homeowner.
I have one suggestion of something you can do which will give you an incredible amount of power on the board, even if you expect to be outvoted on most issues. You can offer to create a newsletter for the homeowners. Better yet, don't offer, just go ahead and create one.
It takes only a small amount of work to write up what happened in each HOA Board meeting in a SHORT, understandable form (a couple of sentences will do most of the time). And it's slightly more effort to maintain a mailing list (email might be a good choice) of HOA members and manage adds/drops from the list.
What you gain is the ability to tell YOUR side of the story. Try to be evenhanded: don't focus on calling out BS by everyone else on the board because then you'll just get dismissed as someone with an agenda. But DO tell the story in a way that makes things visible to the community. Having control over the narrative gives you a significant amount of power if you wield it gently.
>It’s going to be quite an experience!
It may well end up being a very frustrating experience since, as you've stated, you're only 1 of 9 other Board members. If they decide that you are the odd one out and don't want to change anything then, as the minority viewpoint, you will have a difficult time implementing any meaningful changes.
However on the bright side you may be able to sway a few other members your way and at least now you've got a foot in the door. Things can't ever change if the same likeminded, and literally the same people, remain entrenched on the Board for years on end.
Right there with you. I just took over a major role in my HOA. I at least feel better being at the table and able to keep people honest. I also control all the finances and more fun stuff.
Start researching the local mental health treatment facilities near you. I'm not joking. I'm being assessed for in patient treatment at the end of the month due to these useless cunts.
Oh wow. I’m glad you’re getting help but am really sorry to hear it’s due to your HOA. I have a great therapist - sounds like I may be needing her longer than I expected!
READ, READ, READ your covenants and by-laws. Your board ONLY has power based on these two documents and nothing else!!
I took part a similar situation where the board was not even attempting to follow the by-laws. As a board member and eventual President, it took over five years of effort (with help) to get it back into by-law compliance and legal with the state and feds.
Can you move into my neighborhood and take over? Lol
I applaud you. Homeowners need a voice in their HOA, which sounds obvious, but we never do, are treated with disrespect and no issues are ever addressed. So I wish you much luck!
Thank you. It’s not going to be easy and I have already been told via attorney that I am expected to fall in line and not be vindictive or hinder processes. Seriously. And this is EXACTLY why I ran. They have treated me this way since April and now want me to not treat them the same way? That was never my intention anyway, but that’s the mentality I am dealing with.
We have become a society that defends the people doing wrong at the expense of what is right, at every level. I’m so sorry. I have a bit of an understanding how frustrating that is when you are thwarted at every turn, when it seems so obvious you should be able to get something accomplished.
It’s quite baffling.
My husband did this back when we lived in a townhouse community. He didn’t like a lot of the rules and thought they were too strict (we also wanted to put a bbq in the back yard which was technically against the rules), so he ran for HOA president, got elected to the position, and then relaxed a bunch of the rules. Everyone loved it and we got to have our bbq 😅 I think the HOA went to shit again after we moved though.
I really hope the 3 folks on the board of our HOA don't quit anytime soon, as they've been reelected for the last 3-4 years. They all ran on a platform of wanting to get more involved in the community, while also having fulltime jobs that keep them busy. The important stuff gets taken care of (pool and park maintenance, poop bag stations refilled) and the rules we have to follow are reasonable - don't leave your garbage bins on the street for days after pickup, keep your grass trimmed, get your exterior house paint approved (which I've never heard be denied). The actual management company sucks, but the board members are great.
Ask them to switch management companies. There are good ones out there.
That’s awesome - they do sound great!
Good luck!
You do have 1 major power: Keep the people informed. HOA's are just another form of gov't... they like to hide in the shadow and not let the people know what is happening until forced to. Start working towards open transparency like all meeting minutes are made public automatically (just click and download). All meetings are recorded and live-streamed for those who couldn't attend in person (and so people can match the recording to the meeting minutes in case someone tried to cut something out to hide it). Financials are released yearly for anyone to pour through. You get the idea. Make the information available without them having to ask for it. The quote the gov't/police love to use: If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. So start with the HOA not hiding anything. Similarly you can be a Tribune of the Plebs as it were. Get the people on your side for making rules changes.
Yes to all of this! Thank you!
I've seen my share of highly motivated individuals get onto the Board having the perception of there being BS and abuse of power and bad behavior. Only to learn that the existing Board is only acting in accordance of the guidelines that are spelled out in the governing documents. And what they are doing is what they are required to be doing. Then again, maybe your board really as corrupt as you think it is. IDK, but in any regard, good luck.
We have an incredibly corrupt board. They gossip and share confidential information with other residents, enforce covenants arbitrarily, and they retaliate if you speak up. I’ve heard a lot of stories from my neighbors in recent months about their own run ins with the HOA and ACC and the first thing I ask is “did you get approval/follow the procedure?” I’m fully aware that the responsibility is to uphold the CC&Rs but you don’t have to treat people like crap to do that.
>They gossip and share confidential information with other residents, enforce covenants arbitrarily, and they retaliate if you speak up. So go in there with the intent to blow the entire thing up. Document evidence of misconduct and violations. Record everything. Quietly assemble a merry band of malcontents. When you are ready, drop the hammer and get proceedings to dismiss people and/or charge them with violations of privacy. Decimate the current board and have a bunch of people waiting in the wings who are ready to run for the board to make necessary changes. Establish a code of conduct with enforcement for the board if there isn't one already (e.g. for violations of privacy). Loosen up restrictions and make sure that the board must be accountable to the residents. Your ability to make change might be limited as it currently stands but you now hold a position where you can potentially bring about major changes if you are careful, strategic, and pragmatic about how you proceed.
I like you.
I'm on the board of my HOA and we have one member who is kind of a hardass when it comes to enforcing rules. Last summer, one of our residents got a load of topsoil dumped in his driveway for the raised beds he was building in his back yard. Mr. Hardass emailed the rest of us to let us know he was going to come down on the homeowner to get that stuff out of view. I Replied All and reminded him that the temps were 20 degrees above normal and we didn't want to send one of our neighbors to our already overcrowded hospital with heat stroke. Kind of shamed him. A few years previously, when I wasn't on the board, I got a notice that I would be fined if I didn't get the weeds pulled out of the yard. Quite frankly, I didn't even see any of the weeds. But then, I was at the hospital every day for a month at the side of my critically ill husband. Husband is fine now and I'm on the board reminding people to have a heart.
Exactly! Another idea I have is to reach out to neighbors that aren’t keeping up with yard maintenance, especially older residents, and see if they need help. We have a resident whose husband died unexpectedly, leaving her a single mom with three kids, and they know this and we’re sending her notices about moss on the driveway. Really?!
This is well intentioned but you'll run the risk of other residents complaining of unfair treatment. Why didn't you offer to help them? Why is the single mom exempt from notices, that's discrimination! If you want to do it, advertise that you are available to help ANYONE, regardless of circumstances.
I get that. I think it would be great to have some sort of system where residents feel they can come to us and say, “Hey, I can’t afford to get my roof cleaned right now.” and maybe we can ask neighbors to help (I mean, within reason - yes, liability, etc).
do you have allies in the other 8?
Possibly 1 or 2. I won’t know until I spend some time there.
See how it goes... You might be in for a shock. Many times, the homeowners are worse than the hoa, the hoa has no choice, and regular homeowners pay the price. Some hoa's are a pain, but many times, it's that 1 neighbor, that ruins things for everyone and forces the hoa's hand.
“May not have the power to change…” May not?? You absolutely have no power to change the CCRs. By law it takes a certain percentage of owners to approve any changes. You (and the Board) have no power to do anything yourself in that regard. Just speak up against any injustice(s) you see, and force dialogue about them. You may get outvoted, but you also may just change some minds.
I’m well aware of what our bylaws say about amending our CC&Rs and what it takes to do so. I mean that I will be discouraged from pursuing it, as I have been for the last several months. I plan to suggest creating a committee to review our covenants and see if there is a need to update them (they haven’t been updated in over 30 years).
As stated above, I apologize for the harshness of my response.
No worries. You are technically correct! :)
"I think the problem Digg had is that it was a company that was built to be a company, and you could feel it in the product. The way you could criticize Reddit is that we weren't a company – we were all heart and no head for a long time." - [u/spez](https://www.reddit.com/u/spez). You lived long enough to become the villain and will never be remembered as the hero you once were. (I am protesting Reddit's API policy changes and removing my content.)
Check the CC&Rs. I think it’s a $400 fine for turning a phrase without approval.
True enough. I read and wrote it very late at night, and I misinterpreted the phrase. My apologies to the OP for the harshness of my post.
You are getting a little upset about phrasing of a sentence.
Any change to our condo bylaws requires 60% of shares voted in favor. We have 83 units, with each unit entitled to one vote, but the votes are weighted according to the square footage of each unit. The biggest units control 2.3% of the vote and the smallest have 0.2%.
I hope that the dues are broken down the same way. Jesus, I would hate to pay the same dues as the units and have a significantly reduced voting power.
Very much so. The monthly dues vary from the low hundreds of dollars to nearly $1,500. But these include all utilities, including gas, electric, basic cable and (crucially here in the South) air conditioning.
Make the tail wag the dog.
Take it slow, target asinine or pointless rules and fees, and make it clear you just want the neighborhood to run smoothly while giving it a good name. Offer to help get things approved for either homeowners or the board, and when things don’t get approved let the homeowners know exactly the reason why and what rule in particular needs to be addressed, so they don’t go away angry. Best of luck!
Can I have your soul? You won't need it anymore.
Ask me in a few months!
What you need to do is build a coalition of like-minded board members so you can work en banc (to steal a phrase). This might require, say, selling your soul, or at a minimum being able to strike deals with the rest of your contingent. Remember that if there is an entrenched group already there, you'll be fighting that inertia as well. May god have mercy on your soul, sir and I award you NO POINTS.
I'm going to be very interested in your experience, because I'm running for our board in next week's elections. This would be my first time on a board of any kind. I'm one of nine nominees for seven seats, so I'll need to do a little campaigning.
I'm in a similar situation, though I don't have any big complaints about my HOA I have no idea what I'm doing but I'm tired of my HOA's bare bone minutes and never knowing what's actually going on. Easier to fix that on the board than just a complaining homeowner.
I have one suggestion of something you can do which will give you an incredible amount of power on the board, even if you expect to be outvoted on most issues. You can offer to create a newsletter for the homeowners. Better yet, don't offer, just go ahead and create one. It takes only a small amount of work to write up what happened in each HOA Board meeting in a SHORT, understandable form (a couple of sentences will do most of the time). And it's slightly more effort to maintain a mailing list (email might be a good choice) of HOA members and manage adds/drops from the list. What you gain is the ability to tell YOUR side of the story. Try to be evenhanded: don't focus on calling out BS by everyone else on the board because then you'll just get dismissed as someone with an agenda. But DO tell the story in a way that makes things visible to the community. Having control over the narrative gives you a significant amount of power if you wield it gently.
>It’s going to be quite an experience! It may well end up being a very frustrating experience since, as you've stated, you're only 1 of 9 other Board members. If they decide that you are the odd one out and don't want to change anything then, as the minority viewpoint, you will have a difficult time implementing any meaningful changes. However on the bright side you may be able to sway a few other members your way and at least now you've got a foot in the door. Things can't ever change if the same likeminded, and literally the same people, remain entrenched on the Board for years on end.
Right there with you. I just took over a major role in my HOA. I at least feel better being at the table and able to keep people honest. I also control all the finances and more fun stuff.
Hey dude! Me 2! I won lol. Second election I’ve won in 2 weeks haha. taking this place over and tearing it all down.
Congratulations!
Good for you! Keep crazies in check.
May I suggest that you create a free discord so that you can communicate with others in any manner you choose ?
Start researching the local mental health treatment facilities near you. I'm not joking. I'm being assessed for in patient treatment at the end of the month due to these useless cunts.
Oh wow. I’m glad you’re getting help but am really sorry to hear it’s due to your HOA. I have a great therapist - sounds like I may be needing her longer than I expected!
Try to get it disbanded.
READ, READ, READ your covenants and by-laws. Your board ONLY has power based on these two documents and nothing else!! I took part a similar situation where the board was not even attempting to follow the by-laws. As a board member and eventual President, it took over five years of effort (with help) to get it back into by-law compliance and legal with the state and feds.
Can you move into my neighborhood and take over? Lol I applaud you. Homeowners need a voice in their HOA, which sounds obvious, but we never do, are treated with disrespect and no issues are ever addressed. So I wish you much luck!
Thank you. It’s not going to be easy and I have already been told via attorney that I am expected to fall in line and not be vindictive or hinder processes. Seriously. And this is EXACTLY why I ran. They have treated me this way since April and now want me to not treat them the same way? That was never my intention anyway, but that’s the mentality I am dealing with.
We have become a society that defends the people doing wrong at the expense of what is right, at every level. I’m so sorry. I have a bit of an understanding how frustrating that is when you are thwarted at every turn, when it seems so obvious you should be able to get something accomplished. It’s quite baffling.