Bringing in a Management Company

[scott13]

What is the name of your state? Oregon

My question is hopefully simple. I am the interim president of our 10 unit HOA and so far we have had 4 meetings since I have moved in. The only participation we get from the homeowners is the 3 Board of Directors and 1 additional homeowner. All 3 board members are "rookies" when it comes to an HOA. We have sent out newsletters and a list of future meeting dates in hopes that this will give the homeowners a chance to make arrangements to be there. The lack of participation has made all the decisions to be based on the 4 homeowners that attend to decide and vote on things at the meetings.

I give you that background because it leads into my real question. We have 1 homeowner who has paid 1 lump sum of dues since moving in. We have sent out many past due notices and finally received a lump sum of $600; however, this was not enough to catch him up. We have considered turning him over to collections, and even threw in the idea of placing a lien on his property. The homeowner does not live in the residence. His mother lives there and when our Treasurer tried knocking on the door to discuss options for repayment, she abruptly said that "you need to take that up with my son." and shut the door in his face. Because of this recent action it has become a huge stress and headache on our treasurer and we have talked about hiring an outside management company mainly for the the collection of dues. We have "shopped around" and found that the best company is going to cost around $500 a month raising everyone's HOA dues by $50. Ok, so here's my question: With the lack of participation, if we hold a meeting to vote on this, and the same 4 people show up, and all of us agree on the management company, could we potentially hire the management company based on these 4 votes? OR can the 3 board members just vote and come to an agreement to bring on the management company without putting it to a vote. I have searched all my resources and could find nothing on this subject. Please help. Thanks

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by scott13

What is the name of your state? Oregon

My question is hopefully simple. I am the interim president of our 10 unit HOA and so far we have had 4 meetings since I have moved in. The only participation we get from the homeowners is the 3 Board of Directors and 1 additional homeowner. All 3 board members are "rookies" when it comes to an HOA. We have sent out newsletters and a list of future meeting dates in hopes that this will give the homeowners a chance to make arrangements to be there. The lack of participation has made all the decisions to be based on the 4 homeowners that attend to decide and vote on things at the meetings.

I give you that background because it leads into my real question. We have 1 homeowner who has paid 1 lump sum of dues since moving in. We have sent out many past due notices and finally received a lump sum of $600; however, this was not enough to catch him up. We have considered turning him over to collections, and even threw in the idea of placing a lien on his property. The homeowner does not live in the residence. His mother lives there and when our Treasurer tried knocking on the door to discuss options for repayment, she abruptly said that "you need to take that up with my son." and shut the door in his face. Because of this recent action it has become a huge stress and headache on our treasurer and we have talked about hiring an outside management company mainly for the the collection of dues. We have "shopped around" and found that the best company is going to cost around $500 a month raising everyone's HOA dues by $50. Ok, so here's my question: With the lack of participation, if we hold a meeting to vote on this, and the same 4 people show up, and all of us agree on the management company, could we potentially hire the management company based on these 4 votes? OR can the 3 board members just vote and come to an agreement to bring on the management company without putting it to a vote. I have searched all my resources and could find nothing on this subject. Please help. Thanks

**A: t here is a lot on the subject. Read the CC&R's. THE HOA needs to hire legal counsel.