Posted on 02/29/2008 9:01:49 AM PST by AuntB
No, this isn’t about the subprime housing finance fiasco. It only relates in that some people are happy to let someone else pay for their responsibilities. This is about the dastardly institution known as the homeowners association. Mutual benefit corporations are formed and owners within a subdivision pay a membership fee for their equally shared benefits.
I bought a home in such an association five years ago. Okay, these arrangements are socialistic at best, but I wanted to be a good immigrant and go with the flow, as long as the association was meeting it’s obligations. We have 2 benefits in our association. 1. Use of the common owned recreation areas and 2. road maintenance. The Association claims 42% of our dues go to road maintenance.
So what is the problem, you ask? At our last yearly meeting, many of us were surprised to find out that only some of us actually get road maintenance. We purchased our land with the promise of ‘road maintenance’, often from a realtor who is a board member of the HOA. Half the roads in our rural community are paved and maintained by the county, not the HOA. The HOA only maintains gravel roads. This is a farce that has been perpetrated and kept quiet for decades. The original developer simply set up an HOA in order to force homeowners on county roads to pay for repairs on those on gravel roads, relieving the developer of his obligation. The board members, many with conflicts and on gravel roads have no intention of being fair about this situation.
At our yearly meeting, a motion was made to dissolve the corporation. The board, who by majority vote has the ability to dissolve the HOA, refuses. They also insist it takes 100% of the membership to dissolve the HOA. Not true, and the majority by survey has expressed the desire to dissolve.
NOTE: The law # 1900. (a) Any corporation may elect voluntarily to wind up and dissolve by the vote of shareholders holding shares representing 50 percent or more of the voting power.
(2) If the election [to dissolve] was made by the vote of shareholders, the number of shares voting for the election and that the election was made by shareholders representing at least 50 percent of the voting power. See Calif. Code: http://law.justia.com/california/codes/corp.htm
HOAs are governed by the Attorney General’s office, who refuses to look at this, and by the Davis Sterling act. According to that law,
California code states 7132. (a) The articles of incorporation may set forth any or all of the following provisions, which shall not be effective unless expressly provided in the articles. (3) The classes of members, if any, and if there are two or more classes, the rights, privileges, preferences, restrictions and conditions attaching to each class.
CORPORATIONS CODE SECTION 9330-9332 9330. A corporation may issue memberships having different rights, privileges, preferences, restrictions, or conditions, as authorized by its articles or bylaws.
9331. Except as provided in or authorized by the articles or bylaws, all memberships shall have the same rights, privileges, preferences, restrictions, and conditions.
Clearly, when there is only one class of membership, all members are afforded the same benefits for the same membership dues. This HOA is operating illegally. Our HOA bylaws:
The OA handbook states:
Ar. IV Section 2 Members pg. 18 The Association shall have but ONE class of membership. Members shall be entitled ot one vote for each lot owned in the subdivision as hereinabove stated.
ART III Pg. 18 - The primary purpose of the Association is to own, promote, improve, and maintain the property of the Assoc. for the USE, pleasure, recreation, enjoyment of ALL of the members....In carrying out such purpose, the Assoc. shall be empowered to construct, repair, improve and maintain streets, roadways, and easements......
The mention of road maintenance: Articles of Incorporation 2. (c) To maintain the roadways in said real estate development, including the access road to the main highway. (Note: all access roads are paved & maintained by county)
This ongoing deception is clear. Most of us get no benefit, but are forced to pay for those that do. The board considered dissolving if the owners on paved roads gave up their interest in the common areas in favor of gravel road owners getting the proceeds for future road maintenance, again outside boundaries of law.
As stated in the By Laws on page 31 Dissolution
"In the event of the dissolution of the Association, each member shall receive his pro rata portion of the Association's property and assets after all of its debts and liabilities have been paid or provided for."
THE LAW- 1362.
Unless the declaration otherwise provides, in a condominium project, or in a planned development in which the common areas are owned by the owners of the separate interests, the common areas are owned as tenants in common, in equal shares, one for each unit or lot.
-CORPORATIONS CODE SECTION 9680 (1) Except as provided in Section 6715, all of a corporation's assets shall be disposed of on dissolution in conformity with its articles or bylaws subject to complying with the provisions of any trust under which such assets are held.
If you have never had to deal with one of these associations, count your blessings. Those who have been using the rest of us to pay for maintenance of their property have no intention of letting go of this gravy train peacefully. I am reminded of the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1838, who was dealing with a much more serious subject, but the sentiments are the same. Some property owners need to read Emerson on 'Self Reliance' as well.
" Then is this disaster of Cherokees brought to me by a sad friend to blacken my days & nights.
I can do nothing. Why shriek? Why strike ineffectual blows? .........
It is like dead cats around one's neck.......
It is like School Committees & Sunday School classes and
Teachers' meetings & the Warren Street Chapel & all the other holy hurrahs........
I stir in it for the sad reason that no other mortal will move
& If I do not, why it is left undone.”
PS!! If any of you have any ideas, other than spending a fortune on a private attorney, let us know!
People are solving the problems with their HOA all the time - they move.
Be a dark day in .... before I'd move where ANYbody gets to watch and control what I do on my property - and make me pay through the nose for the privilege.
I'd rather have half the house (I do) and many times the land (I do) and not one neighbor who can even see my yard - a 40' buffer of forest between me and the road.
In the summertime I sunbathe in my hammock and get a tan with no tan lines...
I mow my lawn when I want to, not when someone measures the grass and says it 1/4" to high.
I would not, NOT, make a good neighbor in a Socialist gulag.
This neighborhood has none of the problems you speak of. It’s great free living except for a couple of tyrants we can’t rid ourselves of who want just a few of us to pay for everything.
Florida Gators babeeee!
We took the best advice offered on this thread, and several of us decided to run for board position. This is the response by the board:
NOTE: The board has voted to NOT allow candidates to state their positions on any business related to KRCE. They will only publish a biography of the candidate. This is outside the perimeters of California law.
This is the wording of the board in the April, 2008 Klamagram:
“Biographical statements may not advocate any particular position on any issue, nor can they contain campaign statements. The Association shall not edit or redact any Biographical statement content but will REJECT those statements that contain prohibited items”
The ONLY way to interpret this is that the Board does not want you to know what you’re voting for. Ask them their positions on issues important to all of us. One man stated that he didn’t need to know about issues, he just wants to know the candidates education, business background.....YES, well that is why we have terrible politicians in our government! If you don’t care about issues, what do you care about?
1363.03. ELECTIONS; RULES AND PROCEDURES. (Operative July 1, 2006)
(a) An association shall adopt rules, in accordance with the procedures prescribed by Article 4 (commencing with Section 1357.100) of Chapter 2, that do all of the following:
(1) Ensure that any candidate or member advocating a point of view is provided access to association media, newsletters, or Internet Web sites during a campaign, for purposes that are reasonably related to that election. Equal access shall be provided to all candidates and members advocating a point of view, including those not endorsed by the board, for purposes that are reasonably related to the election. The association shall not edit or redact any content from these communications, but may include a statement specifying that the candidate or member, and not the association, is responsible for that content.
http://krcehoamembers.blogspot.com/2008/05/california-election-law-hoas-by-condo.html
Can you put up a short little fence to block the view of the trashcans where you had them originally? That would hide them from view.
BUMP!
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