Question: Our HOA is half sold and is being managed by the developer who charges us for it. The outside maintenance is terrible. The sprinkler system does nott work and weeds were out of control. Thoughts?

Answer: You need to review your governing documents to see if there is a deadline for the developer to turnover the HOA to a board of owners. There usually is a trigger based on number of units sold or a certain time that has passed, whichever comes first. If there is, you and other owners can demand turnover to the owners. Get an attorney to make the point if necessary. Once an owner board is in place, it can act on behalf of all owners.

If the developer is not yet required to turn over control, you are certainly within your rights to point out the developer's management shortcomings. You are paying for the service and failure to maintain the common area diminishes your property value.

Question: We have an upcoming election for directors and two of the candidates are not full time residents. They are from a troublemaker group and plan to participate in board meetings only by phone. Is there anything that the present board can do to prevent this from happening?

Answer: Candidates for the board are not required to be residents. And if all board meetings are handled by phone, no big deal. But if they are saying they will not attend in-person meetings, this is a big deal and such information needs to be conveyed to the voters. As to what you can do about it?You can encourage and nominate others that are willing to fulfill the board job as intended. If the dissidents do not get voted in to begin with, the rest of the board will not have the challenges of dealing with them.

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