Can we refuse to accept the HOA?

[Sandy Wilborne]

What is the name of your state? North Carolina.

Our Homewners Association is presently under the control of the builder/developer. He has said that he wants to turn control over to the homeowners but there are several issues we would like resolved before we accept control. Can we refuse to accept control of the association? If so, at what point is this done? We have not even elected officers or a new board yet; must we elect officers and a new board and have them REFUSE to accept control - or how does this process work?

 

[pojo2]

but there are several issues we would like resolved before we accept control.

Like what?

And what is wrong with taking it over and electing officers etc? This is the normal procedure when a development is a certain percentage finished.

 

[shell007]

but there are several issues we would like resolved before we accept control.

Like what?

And what is wrong with taking it over and electing officers etc? This is the normal procedure when a development is a certain percentage finished.

I agree!!

Take control and then try and revise the current rules with new ones.

Things are always better when they are within your control than in someone else's.

 

[asylum23]

I don't know if you can refuse to accept control, but I mean they can just leave the property when they're done, like when it's 75% sold or whatever your rules state.
But at our property they turned it over to owners at that point and nothing they were responsible for fixing was fixed. Such as leaky roofs, broken sidewalks and curbs, pool equipment broken, they even stole almost all the property supplies such as computers, a golf cart, power washer, etc. Well now we are in a year's long legal battle w/ them for hundreds of thousands of dollars. So my advice is if there's anything like these type of items that need to be fixed, try to get them fixed, or else the homeowner's assoc. will end up footing the bill.

 

[pojo2]

Good points, I guess, for the type of property you have but individual homes in a subdivision are soemtimes built exclusively by the developer and sometimes by other builders as well. So a leaky roof is between you and your builder and has nothing to do with an HOA.

At some point the battle is yours collectively or one at a time.

So again what kinds of problems and what kind of property, condos, townhouses, individual houses?

 

[Sandy Wilborne]

This is a neighborhood of single family homes - all built by the same developer/builder. The problem is mainly the common areas - there is a lake and a dam. The state required some work to be done on the dam because this is considered a high hazard dam. The developer did all the work but now there is a problem with the riser on the dam leaking. We have contacted the engineer who oversaw the job and he that the homeowners association should NOT take control of the association until these problems were resolved. Also, the roads have not yet been turned over to the state and we want the builder to handle that - since in NC whoever makes application to the state for these roads to be turned over, must pay for any repairs that must be done to them. Also, we were told that all contractors who performed work on the dam had been paid and now we are finding out that the builder hasn't paid everyone. While we DO want control and we want the developer out of the picture, we also do not want to set the association up to be liable for expenses that the builder should take care of.

We have decided to hire a lawyer who specializes in homeowners associations to oversee the transition from developer control to residential control. We feel that we've got too many issues to just "wing it".