Anyone here familiar with the California laws governing homeowners associations?

[question everything]

Can they hide the names of the board members that, after all, were elected?

Also, if the architectural committee changes some of the by-laws, are they required to distribute such information for homeowners? Or to even ask for an input?

Thanks.

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Check here

http://www.calhomelaw.org/

The only thing that I know about them is to avoid them like a plague.

[question everything]

3. Thanks, will study them

I wanted to avoid them too, but when we moved to South Orange County, the only homes available were HOAs. At least, ours was not part of a major development where people pay several fees for the master association and for the smaller ones.

I have never understood this arrangement. HOAs handle tasks that normally a city would. Except the city would do this with property tax money that can be deducted from an individual income tax return, while association fees are not.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. Ugh. Orange County is loaded with them.

My county (Contra Costa) has them mostly in the eastern, newer developed portion. I don't understand the arrangement either but some people love having HOAs.

[Ecumenist]

2. QuestionEverything, I'm not familiar with the in's and out's of HOA's

but I believe that you are supposed to be notified of changes of the bylaws. I ABSOLUTELY HATE HOA'S Aand went out of my way to avoid buying land that was in a HOA.

[question everything]

4. I know. The boards of these assocations are described as the most powerful

governments with all the power of a government body but without the accountability one.

[CreekDog]

5. you have every right to that information as a member

however, the problem with these rules is that you may have to sue in order to make sure they are followed.

my assemblyman, Gene Mullin tried to set up a state governing board but his legislation was vetoed and Mullin was termed out.

this cries out for greater regulation.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

7. As the President of a Ca. H.O.A.

But not a lawyer, the Board members are publicly elected and their names should be publicly available. Call your management company for this info. Board meeting times and locations must be posted prior to the meetings and the affected public are allowed to attend.

It is also a good idea to attend board meetings yourself. Typically, very few members of the Assoc. bother. Our HOA has about 135 units and most meetings are attended by less than 8 people.

As to rules and CC&R's: We are currently in the process of revising our rules. We are required to submit proposed changes to all members for comment for a 30 day period prior to adopting any changes. That said, I think the board can pretty much ignore the public comments and vote as we see fit once the comment period has ended.

If you are really concerned, and you should be, you should be attending every meeting to see how your assoc. is being run and if you don't like what you see, it's time to start community organizing. A handful of active folks can wield a lot of power when you take into consideration how few people bother to get involved. A handful of about 20 of us threw out an existing board and management company that were running us into the ground and really turned our place around from the brink of disaster.

You can do it but it takes getting off your ass and, just so you know, being a responsible board member is a difficult, thankless, time consuming task. And pro-bono no less.

Good luck

[question everything]

8. Thank you for a detailed response

When I lived there I used to attend board meetings. And you are correct that most homeowners do not bother to attend, or to vote or to run. We had to move because of a job but still own the property there. So they can take advantage of our absence.

One member who was the president for many years, perhaps still is, was also a high school principal and it appeared to me that he had hard time separating his day job from his HOA activities. At one meeting - when he was not a member of the board - he "suggested" that the board take a look at some table at a someone's back yard. And all of us jumped on him that back yard furnitures were not the business of the HOA. Oh, and this is an association where all the houses are surrounded by 6ft fence, so no one should be able to view back yard furnitures, unless someone was snooping from a second story window of an adjacent house..

There have been many articles about how HOA board are a "shadow government" with no accountability and you are correct that in order to change things, one has to be elected.