Rural homeowner's association not playing by rules. How do I get help?

Question

Okay, I live in the sticks where it's kind of a Barney Fife kind of mentality. The association is comprised of 2.5 and 5 acre properties, and it's pretty much a farming community more than a neighborhood.

Our homeowner's president has taken a control freak position and she is really abusing her powers. The board only has three members since everyone else quit.I'm not sure this is even a legal association and they will not give me a copy of the bylaws. They intentionally mailed our dues and notice of annual meeting to a friend of theirs in another town for two years in a row. The current president knew I wanted her removed from the association so she didn't want me to attend the meeting and she succeeded by not notifying me.

There's a LOT more to this story. I am in FL and need to know where to find out more about homeowner assoc. laws.

Help me take the *** out of the ASSocation.

Thank you!!!!

Answer 1

First of all, send her a demand letter to produce a copy of the bylaws to you. Send it certified with a return receipt and provide her with your mail address. You can do a second one with your complaints as well and send it the same way. This would be the first step.

In the bylaws, there must be some way of removing a president if that person fails to diligently perform their duties. Read it and follow it.

If, after the letters, she still refuses to produce a copy of the bylaws for you, seek an attorney and force her to do so. You are a member of the association and she cannot refuse to show you the bylaws.

Answer 2

You do not have an HOA without it legally being declared which properties are included, signatures of all who are participating, bylaws drawn up by a licensed attorney and filed publically.

So, if you haven't SIGNED anything along those lines, then you do not have a legal HOA.

That will probably answer alot of your questions right there.

Board members should be elected for set terms, not appointed...and since the election process is a democracy, you have to follow the policy in your bylaws to get someone removed from office.

That is how it works.

If you don't have a legal association, then I fail to see what the problem is.  All you have to do is not send in money or attend your meetings and there isn't a thing they can do to your property.

Answer 3

After toilet papering her house and letting the dog have at it on her lawn, I'd call the attorney general and find out what your options are, I know I'm no help but people that get big heads over such small matters, annoy me.  What a beeactch she is, I hope she gets what she deserves.

Answer 4

Everyone I know that lives in a homeowner's association say this same thing i'd say the best thing to do is move out of it, after all why do you want to pay someone to tell you how to live anyway, Some homeowner's associations can be as strict as to the point of telling you what color your house has to be to the type of flowers you have to have in your yard (a family friend was once told she needed to remove her hanging baskets from the front of her house)

Answer 5

Homeowners' associations are private contractual arrangements, so you won't find many "laws" to help you.  Read your HOA bylaws carefully - you had to have received them when you bought the property.