HOA Delinquencies - An Unpopular Subject

I've been on a HOA board for a number of years. I've spent years observing this particular HOA and earlier boards. It has not all been pleasant. Some subjects remain universally unpopular. As I have stated previously, the facilitator to the success of a condominium association is the owners. Owners are also be the greatest impediment. Board members are owners, too. So the quality of the HOA is determined by the owners. At BLMH it has been a struggle to fulfill the board positions. It's simply too easy for many owners to pretend this is an apartment complex. The vast majority of owner involvement ceases with the paying of fees. Well, the majority of owners do pay their fees. That's one of the sometimes unpopular Rules. It is common knowledge that snow removal takes money. Maintenance takes money. Street lighting takes money. New roofs, water mains, streets, driveways, walks and garage floors do too. So does landscaping, tree removal and new plantings.

Yet, in our HOA a few owners took the position that some of us should not be required to pay our fees, or more recently, that the HOA should take on the burden of replacing owner's fireplaces. I suppose furnaces and hot water heaters will be the next demand.

Each owner is required to pay their fees. Some owners have complained vehemently over the years about "high fees." These complaints have apparently surfaced from time to time for decades. Over the years, I've observed boards go to great lengths to avoid discussing this with owners present. Oh yes, some board members would make general statements such as "owners need to pay their fees." A few owners have grumbled about this. In our "city within a city" we do have a few who think the majority should pay the way of the few. I attribute this to the fact that some owners are misguided or are socialists and that is their perspective. No one ever takes the position that "we should stop maintaining the property" and so we are all to get new roofs, new driveways, new garage floors, new "views" and so on. My opposition to "free rides" earned me the enmity of several owners here at BLMH. There have been threatening remarks or actions. I'm not the only board member to  be so treated.

Proving the Emperor or Empress Has No Clothes
How does one get people angry? It's easy. For example, several years ago, one of the things I instituted as a board member was a monthly open review and charts of delinquencies. I refused to be gagged. (Board Presidents wield great power; they can suppress board discussion and most do determine what is to be discussed during HOA meetings. Board Presidents do have to contend with other board members who are "volunteers." So the other side is also true; if a board member is not going to do something, there is no power on earth to make them do it. So president's powers do have limits. The entire system only operates well if boards operate as fiduciaries and don't shirk their duties.).

This change in delinquency reporting occurred in part because of simple events. An old board had been overthrown and a new one instituted by the owners many of whom did everything possible to keep me off of the board. They failed. Those owners do remain here to this day. Once on the board, I was able to begin a discussion about "fiduciary duties" and I can say that was a very unpopular one. Nevertheless, delinquencies became an open discussion during HOA meetings. No names or unit numbers were or are discussed during the open meetings. Such open discussions were something both old and new boards avoided. The excuse used was that this was "executive privilege" which is false. Statistics are not "executive privilege." Names and unit numbers are.

So why would previous boards avoid giving owners this information? Here are a few possible reasons:

• Board Personal Agenda
• Board Desire to Appear Competent
• Fear of Owner Reprisal should the statistics suddenly appear "How could this happen?"
• Board Unwillingness to "look bad" to owners. 
• Board Fear of being unpopular
• Boards are elected and some are very political
• Some Board Members expect to be re-elected
• Concerns about Unit Sales. 

The return of a former board member provided a window of opportunity. There was mutual enmity between two "factions" on the board, primarily an old timer with perhaps an axe or two to grind. I admit, I used that to get the new statistics up and running. It came to my attention later that one board member had apparently stated that "Norm is dangerous." To whom? I took the position that was unwarranted and hired an attorney to deal with these issues at personal expense. However, each month (+ or -) the entire board is given a supplemental data sheet and any owners who attend HOA meetings are given a graphic verbal description of what is on that sheet. It is a presentation about delinquencies. It includes the quantity of delinquent owners and the dollar amount gleaned from Management's monthly report. What was new is it also includes charts since 2008, a running total including number of delinquents and total dollar amount owed, number of minor delinquents owing less than $100, bad (uncollectable) debt which is money owed by owners but which they have been able to legally avoid, and the impact on other owners. What impact? The information publicly provided to all owners in attendance at each meeting included the "out of pocket" cost to each owner.

To this day, some board members remain hesitant to discuss this with owners present and will avoid it. Old habits?

I can state that doing this and presenting this information has not been popular with all board members since instituted for a variety of reasons. Why? For one thing, boards didn't do this for years. Why not? Well, boards are comprised of elected owners and owners have personal agendas.