Comments for Condo Law Guru

Comment on Does an HOA or Condo Board Have to Inform Owners About Association Meetings? by Beth Grimm

Beth Grimm — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:20:31 +0000

The postmark on an envelope would constitute the date of the notice unless the governing documents specified otherwise. If you are talking about board meetings, there is a 4 days notice requirement for open board meetings so this would qualify. If you are talking about membership meetings the bylaws often require anywhere between 10 and 30 days notice so check the bylaws. Even so, a letter mailed today might not arrive for 3-5 days so that does not leave a lot of time. But it may satisfy the legal requirements.

Comment on Does an HOA or Condo Board Have to Inform Owners About Association Meetings? by marlene

marlene — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:50:31 +0000

What constitutes notice. Thepostmark on an envelope the receipt of the notice.
My board sends the notice of meeting , i receive it the saturaday before the tuesday meeting. but the manger says that post marked the notice in legal time.
Help. I cannot attend because of not enough notice to change plans.

Comment on What is IDR with my HOA and What Does It Mean To Me? by Beth Grimm

Beth Grimm — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 02:54:04 +0000

I of course do not know whether things were done properly, but I can respond that the Corporations Code has statutes that address disciplinary action such as suspending membership rights (Corporations Code Section 7341). You can find the law at http://www.ca.gov – navigating to the 29 California Codes.

As for the right to demand that you pay the association’s fees, the analysis to find out whether they are justified would require attorney review of the situation as there would have to be some authority in the restrictions on the deeds or in the law for your type of development, whatever it is, in order to make a legal demand.

You can pay the fees under protest and challenge the board’s assessment of them against you in small claims – however, there is little point in going there without some reasonable basis for challenging them. And if you file a small claims action without paying anything, it is very possible the hearing officer would dismiss your complaint finding no “damages”.

Comment on What Happens When Too Many Complain and No One Wants to Serve on the Board? by Beth Grimm

Beth Grimm — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 02:45:50 +0000

A “Conflict of Interest” Policy seems like a reasonable idea – as long as approval and enforcement of it is legal and accomplished by proper means. A draft policy should be reviewed by knowlegeable legal counsel and the process for approving it and using it should also be reviewed by legal. I have seen some directors and boards using Codes of Ethics and similar policies more like a sword to attack other directors, rather than a shield encouraging reasonable behavior, thereby wielding it inappropriately.

Comment on What Happens When Too Many Complain and No One Wants to Serve on the Board? by Charly Todd

Charly Todd — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:35:20 +0000

We have the opposite problem. We can’t get on the board. We have plenty of people, but, the normal 30% “Don’t Vote” killed us from keeping control of our board from the builder. And this is a 34 year old development.

The original builder owns 42% or the units and is trying to pack the board with his friends who have no association with the property other than friendship with the original builder. The person voted on the board by the builder went to high school with the builder and has no expertise is building or running condominiums. Right now they constitute only two out of five board members. At the next annual election, with the number of builder votes, the number could go to 4 out of 5 in the builder’s favor. I am recommending that everyone on the board sign a Conflict of Interest Policy, which includes three types of conflict: Pecuniary Interest, Indirect Pecuniary Interest and Non-pecuniary Bias. If the conflict applies, they must recuse themselves from voting on a particular matter.