Whenever I go to a client HOA annual meeting, the identity of the HOA is lost in the crowd. "When is the HOA going to fix..."; "The HOA keeps sending me violation letters.... "; "What does the HOA do for me, anyway?"
These sound like cries from 1764 and the Intolerable Acts Great Britain placed on the American colonies. Yet they come from modern day citizens discussing their Homeowners Association and what it does for them. The one message out of this is that they don't know who the HOA is.
So who is the HOA? Is it the developer that started the sub-division from dirt and decided to develop a residential area of single family homes? The city ordinances require that new developments must be organized as Property Owner Associations (POA's). If the land developer wants to put in new homes, it will have to do under the deed restrictions of an owners' association. The developer is not the HOA if the developer is creating it. An entity cannot create itself.
Is it the builder? The builder buys lots from the developer. Sometimes the developer and builder are under the same name. There is nothing inherently wrong with this - as the builder is in the business of building and selling homes. To buy the dirt and develop it into a community is a natural path for a developer/builder. But again, the builder is in existence before the HOA, so the builder is not the HOA.
Is it the management company? HOA law, no matter what state your HOA resides, is getting to be very complicated. This blog deals with Texas law, Chapter 209 in Title 11 of the Texas Statutes:TEXAS RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY OWNERS PROTECTION ACT. A prudent developer will hire an experienced management company with credentials from the Community Association Institute. The company will help manage the affairs of the HOA. The management company is not the HOA.
So when owners stand up in a meeting to complain about the HOA doing something horrible to the community like asking people not to park on the street (as stated in the deed restrictions available to all homeowners) who are they complaining to?
I am sure you have already deduced who the HOA is: It is the owners. It is the owners that decided to move into an HOA and even pay the first year's dues at the closing of the house. When it comes to the annual meeting, they typical owner will not even attend. They might give a friend or board member their proxy vote for the annual election of officers.
The squeakiest of the wheels are the ones that are behind on their dues - trying to lay a guilt trip on those that have volunteered to be on the HOA board. Whether or not the HOA board is pro-active in your community is not relative to the owners' obligation to pay assessments. We are not going to go into the volatile discussion of HOA dues and how they help the board fund projects, maintain amenities, keep abreast of state and federal statutes, or cut the common area grass... that is a whole other topic.
We do need to establish that the owners are the HOA and that they elect board members to run the HOA affairs. The developer is not a permanent part of the HOA and the management company can make no decision or take any action without the express direction from the elected board. Every owner is a potential board member.
