Your Experience on a HOA Board

[Luvtoride]

I was recently asked to join our HOA board of my beach home Condo community to fill the unexpired term of a board member who resigned (apparently he was a "no-show" who wasn't pulling his weight). Our board of 5 is a very professional group working with a very good management company that we've had for years. There are some critical issues we are dealing with and the discussions and decisions regarding these have been well researched and appropriate actions taken. Will ALL owners ever be happy with the board's decisions? NEVER. But I do have to say that the majority of our owners are very supportive and do realize that we are all looking out for the best interests of our community and maintaining the great property we have and the value of our homes.
We have been told by several outside parties (real estate, insurance, etc.) that our HOA is one of the most fiscally well managed of any along the Jersey shore. We take that responsibility very seriously, even when tough decisions need to be made. So far, the experience has been good in the short time I've been involved and I will most likely run for the board seat when it comes up in July at our annual meeting.

 

[pb4uski]

^^^ Be thankful. It sounds like what serving on a condo or HOA board should be. Adults in the room.

 

[Badger]

I have only owned 2 houses. They were/are 50's fix-r-upper houses and not part of a HOA community. I live in a small beach town that has been rebuilding with large homes and McMansions that will insure my street will never go downhill in my lifetime. Over the years I have read and heard so many nightmares about HOA that I would never move into one. Condos are no more than living in an apartment or college dorm so I would pass on those too. Life is too short to waste time dealing with controlling people and having to deal with an HOA.

 

[pb4uski]

... Condos are no more than living in an apartment ...

And so many condo owners don't understand that. Rather than pay for property maintenance in your apartment rent you pay of it in your condo maintenance fees... but the landlord/condo association are responsible for anything outside your apartment/unit.

The big difference is that condo owners can do pretty much what they want inside their unit and benefit from appreciation of the property.

 

[athena53]

Life is too short to waste time dealing with controlling people and having to deal with an HOA.

I love this house and have felt more like I was part of a neighborhood here than I ever have in my adult life. I also like the fact that our Restrictions are reasonable. I don't want the neighborhood to be taken over by renters, I'm happy that you can't keep broken-down cars parked in your front yard and have to mow the lawn and keep it to less than 10% weeds, etc. You'd think reasonable people would get this, but....

If I ever have to make this decision again, I'm going to look at the reserves (and consider what they may have to cover), ask to see HOA Board minutes and look at the conditions and restrictions. I wont' dismiss any property with an HOA right off the bat.

 

[Souschef]

I was on the board of my condo for 25 years. I have seen it all. One year there was a movement to replace all the board members. The new board lasted 3 months.
I was the Treasurer, and I once heard the old Treasurer badmouth me, even though he was useless.
At board meetings, there were a small group of drama queens that complained about everything.
The year before I retired, I quit the board and enjoyed a peaceful existence.

 

[Lewis Clark]

I've served a combined 11 years of two different boards, and currently serve as Treasurer on one of them.

Boards are only as good as the people serving on them. Unfortunately, many boards are comprosed of the only people in the community willing to serve at that time. These may not be the best board members but they are all you have. If some board members are just filling seats then the others have more work to do. I'd try to recruit new blood for the board though it can be difficult.

It's good that your reserve study says you are in good shape. How old is that reserve study? If more than two years I'd start thinking about updating it now, because the inflation over the past couple of years is probably higher that the reserve study assumed.

The board needs to make the management company and property manager do what they are being paid to do. Or find a new one.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Part of the problem is that we haven’t had a maintenance guy for the past 16 months because we aren’t paying enough to start. The pay goes up 6/hour after 90 days but it needs to start higher. Our reserve study is only 6 months old.

Our old management company was not doing anything so we changed in September and the property manager assured us she would work hard. 3 months later she took another job and now we have a new manager and she’s only been working with us for a month.

We interviewed a number of companies but they all said that they are having trouble retaining good property managers and some companies couldn’t take on new clients because of it. What I have learned through the years of owning in various hoa’s is that the board may be good when you buy in but things change.

I don’t feel safe in a house alone and renting would cost me 3xs what owning does. Also I like to own so I can fix my place the way I want to and never have to move. We have a decent reserve and raise our fees to keep up with inflation. I’m really happy here except for being on the board. My term is up 3/28 and I’m very happy about that.

 

[pb4uski]

While I suspect you want to serve out the remainder of your term, you can always resign earlier.

 

[Teacher Terry]

While I suspect you want to serve out the remainder of your term, you can always resign earlier.

I know that I can but I always honor my commitments and it’s only 2 more months.

 

[Midpack]

I know that I can but I always honor my commitments and it’s only 2 more months.

That’s admirable. While I don’t advocate giving more than two weeks notice of retirement, I’d recommend 2 months notice of your resignation…

 

[Teacher Terry]

That’s admirable. While I don’t advocate giving more than two weeks notice of retirement, I’d recommend 2 months notice of your resignation…

I officially gave notice yesterday that I wasn’t running again. Actually because my term is over soon I would have to reapply by February 22nd. Not happening!

 

[ncbill]

what Sunset said.

after decades on the board I'm still amazed how many owners wait until the frickin' annual meeting to bring up what turn out to be maintenance issues

which could have been taken care of months earlier had the owner bothered to submit a ticket to the management company.

 

[Teacher Terry]

what Sunset said.

after decades on the board I'm still amazed how many owners wait until the frickin' annual meeting to bring up what turn out to be maintenance issues

which could have been taken care of months earlier had the owner bothered to submit a ticket to the management company.

For some reason people like to call to complain but don’t want to put it in writing. I don’t understand this.

 

[athena53]

after decades on the board I'm still amazed how many owners wait until the frickin' annual meeting to bring up what turn out to be maintenance issues

We have one guy (a party to the boundary dispute) who always shows up and has to complain about something- nothing he's ever told us about before that or tried to resolve with us, of course. He just wants his soap box. In one meeting he claimed that he hadn't gotten our e-mails. I asked him to check with me after the meeting to make sure we had the correct information. Instead, when we were about to take a vote on a 6% dues increase, he got up and dramatically stalked out. In another, he offered publicly to help pay to stock the lake with a variety of fish that would eat the algae that was making the lake unsightly. When I called to follow up, he backed down on his promise.

And we DID have his correct e-mail address. I was sure of it when he e-mailed us later about the boundary dispute

 

[CardsFan]

You guys are all making me feel very happy with the HOA board that we have. Yes, there is the constant complainer at every meeting, but it is usually minor stuff that could have been handled with a quick call or note on the website.

The board reasonably enforces the rules. It helps that the current president is the former County assessor. He knows the rules, and wants to keep the community desirable (we are about 280 units inside the city limits of St. Charles MO).

What also helps is being active, and knowing (and being friends) with the board members. I am not talking about special treatment, just knowing what is going on, and why. And supporting them when they need to enforce the rules.

I have told them several times, that I support things that I don't particularly like, because they are being consistent (and following the by-laws). That is all you can ask for.

 

[PokeNTexas]

We have one guy (a party to the boundary dispute) who always shows up and has to complain about something- nothing he's ever told us about before that or tried to resolve with us, of course. He just wants his soap box. In one meeting he claimed that he hadn't gotten our e-mails. I asked him to check with me after the meeting to make sure we had the correct information. Instead, when we were about to take a vote on a 6% dues increase, he got up and dramatically stalked out. In another, he offered publicly to help pay to stock the lake with a variety of fish that would eat the algae that was making the lake unsightly. When I called to follow up, he backed down on his promise.

And we DID have his correct e-mail address. I was sure of it when he e-mailed us later about the boundary dispute

There's a lot of personality disorders out there. If you are a leader for any group, they will take up most of your time and energy.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I intend to just go online in the future and read the minutes instead of going to the meeting so I can skip listening to people complain. Although they haven’t yet posted the minutes for the meeting held in October.

 

[Scrapr]

2 experiences w/Boards of HOAs, 1st house there was about 25 homes in our HOA. No common property & no shared expenses. No dues. The neighbors would socialize a bit with the kids & each other. It was a fun group. I declined to attend one of these partys/HOA meetings. My wife went. She comes home & says I got elected HOA President! I immediately cancelled all dues & distributed all excess funds. There were no dues or funds to distribute. I should have all the neighbor address me as Mr President

The other HOA was about 30 homes. Again no shared spaces & dues of about 75/yr. For about 10 years it was pretty informal. One of the neighbors would walk the neighborhood every night and chit chat with neighbors. any "violations" he would talk w/them & resolve whatever the issue was. We were assesed for a few years even though there were very low expenses. During the Great Recession a few (3-4) couldn't/didn't pay. The "President" let it slide. After a couple years there became some grumbling and we needed a more formal Board. The grumblers had enough support to control the Board. So they hired a management company and spent about $7-8k in about a year. accomplishing nothing. Then quit the Board. That was about the time i moved out.

I am currently in another HOA that is much bigger 4-500 homes. I'm keeping my head down

 

[LateToFIRE]

There's a lot of personality disorders out there. If you are a leader for any group, they will take up most of your time and energy.

+1

Could not have stated this better. All it takes is one bad apple to ruin the whole lot.

 

[Scuba]

I’ve been on 3 different HOA Boards. The first was so dysfunctional with warring factions that it quickly became obvious we would not accomplish much. I resigned before the end of my term. The second time, I served two consecutive terms and it was a reasonably professional board. We did a good job managing immediate issues, but IMO failed to set a strategic agenda with agreed priorities. I found that rather frustrating but there just never seemed to be enough will to work on that vs putting out fires. The third time, I found the Board pretty frustrating to work with - no sense of urgency - but I stayed on to serve out my commitment. We recently moved to another HOA community and I asked my husband to strongly remind me how much I hated serving on HOA Boards in the unlikely event I’m ever tempted to run again.

Reflecting back, I’ve been happiest in HOA’s where I never attended Board meetings or read minutes, and only volunteered in a social capacity.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Scuba, I like your ostrich method and may copy it. Because I will remain friends with 2 people on the board I will probably be told what’s happening so not knowing maybe wishful thinking.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

No HOA experience but something very similar. My previous home was served by a private road with 12 other owners. 9 of them were great, two were whiners and one was certifiable crazy.

We had a formal road association and I was the treasurer. 9 paid on time, two paid when they felt like it and the crazy one never paid at all. He even threatened our lives when we sent him a bill. Law enforcement ignored his threats and said "oh he doesn't really mean any harm".

I enjoyed the privacy and most of the joint effort with most of the neighbors on the road, but I would be very hesitant to be part of a road association again.

 

[Chuckanut]

Having owned single family homes and condos, I can pretty much assure people that being on an HOA board is far less work than mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges, raking the leaves, and fixing the occasional outdoor items that breaks when a tree limb falls on it.

I have been on my HOA board several times. They were all good experiences other than one time when we had a board President who catastrophized every thing that went wrong or could possibly go wrong. Listening to her near hysterical warnings got old. But, she was a good President overall and had a good feel for things like contracts and dodgy service people. So, I supported her as president and just let the “if it goes wrong” outbursts slide off me.

When you won a Condo, the reality is that it’s your property and people need to take time to help with managing it. Or else who will?

 

[Teacher Terry]

Having owned single family homes and condos, I can pretty much assure people that being on an HOA board is far less work than mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges, raking the leaves, and fixing the occasional outdoor items that breaks when a tree limb falls on it.

I have been on my HOA board several times. They were all good experiences other than one time when we had a board President who catastrophized every thing that went wrong or could possibly go wrong. Listening to her near hysterical warnings got old. But, she was a good President overall and had a good feel for things like contracts and dodgy service people. So, I supported her as president and just let the “if it goes wrong” outbursts slide off me.

When you won a Condo, the reality is that it’s your property and people need to take time to help with managing it. Or else who will?

Actually my last house we put in Astro turf and made it incredibly low maintenance because we have been in a drought for years. We did that thinking we would stay there forever so other than raking leaves there was really no yard work. We also painted the outside and replaced all the major items so if I had stayed there it would have been easy.

Since we have had no maintenance person for 16 months the 3 of us have rotated having to meet vendors, responding to emergencies, etc. A few times I have had to cancel plans because of an emergency and someone had to be on site with the master key to grant access to secure rooms and coordinate things. I would have spent less time at my own home.

I do think it would be great if everyone took a 2 year term but that’s not how things work unfortunately. 3 years on the board was starting to feel like a prison sentence. I have started to avoid people because I am sick of listening to people complain about stuff. Everyone’s priorities are different.