Condo Bylaws Not Followed By the Developer
My question involves a condominium located in the State of: WA
My question is this - is there a body that governs condo management and developer - my management and developer seem to ignore most of the rules they put into place and don't seem interested in what happens here. Some have brought it to their attention but to no avail. The meetings are held just to ratify the budget and not address anything else - don't know what or if anything could help.
Abigail
Re: Condo Bylaws Not Followed By the Developer
Anyone involved in management knows there are complainers who scream wolf all the time. I've had people try to demand "free" services that the association does not really cover or are not budgeted for. Also just because there are rules, don't think that the association has to police for them. They get enforced on a best effort basis. You have not given us anything to indicate whether you are a complainer or not.
Probably the best you can do is get involved without throwing stones at the current management. You can find out when the next board election is and run for the board. If you loose, you can offer to become chairman of some committee which can be formed exclusively in order to give you opportunity to get involved and help the community.
Other than this you can shed big bucks for an attorney and take the association to court. If you loose, your bill and likely that of the association will be on you. Think thousands of dollars easily because their attorney is not going to be cheap.
Or you can resolve to bluff type threats against the association but you poke the ppl who hold the money enough, they will find a way to turn back at you and "bite" you and it will be paid for either by you directly or with the association money.
If you want to share what specifically is not being enforced, we may be able to give you an better answer....
Re: Condo Bylaws Not Followed By the Developer
I don't want to be a complainer - it would be great to be on the board, but they developer and management control it and so never let anyone run - our wonderful little community is being let go because of things like the developer telling management to stop mowing even when it needs it and so on (snow removal, building maintenance, etc) The money is there in the budget - or so it seems - not really sure why these things are happening - also previous management used to send out little news letters that were helpful - this management says this cannot be done - again not really sure why. I just don't understand this - I really don't want to make enemies of management so haven't said a whole lot - but I don't want our community to become a slum.
Re: Condo Bylaws Not Followed By the Developer
I don't think anyone has the power to let or not let others run for the board. How many units does the developer have control of? How many units total are in your community? Unless the developer owns more than 50% of units, you should be able to get on the board.
Stop mowing when it needs to is very, very subjective. Unless you have weeds 5 feet tall growing where it should be mowed, what they do may be acceptable. Snow, same thing. Very subjective. Also it is very difficult for an outsider (defined as someone who does not bid the contracts/pay the bills) to say how much service exactly the money in the budget is sufficient for. We have people that want services that would result in assessment doubling what it is now but we service the majority rather than the minority. Finally keep in mind that investors (your developer being one) and home owners tend to have slightly different objectives. Investors are more money/profit driven and HOs are less money driven. In a community with investors and HO's, one has to balance and hopefully each side gives a little.
What you do with this? If you are up for helping offer to help for free. Offer to bid some contracts. Nothing will give you better understanding on how much things cost than bidding the contracts. Start with landscaping. Ask for copy of current contract and say that your goal is to try to find a better one with more services for the same amount of money. If they are a good management company they should say ok. If they say no then I'm afraid you have to fight. I had to fight for what it's worth because the management company was running the show at the time and the that woman was a bit of a control freak. But ultimately the management company is not the enemy. The management company does what the board says so the board (possibly developer in your case) runs the show. In my case the board never stood against me.
If they don't hold enough meetings and you can't get a hold of the board directly at a meeting, see this:
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=64.34.332
If you do get to bid the contracts, don't ever underbid though. Cuz it will get out that you do this and many vendors will blacklist your community. Not personal experience here but I'm finding out that our new management company may be doing things like this and is in a way blacklisted with one vendor that has told me this so far.
Note that it takes a certain skill set to be able to run a community successfully. It definitely isn't for everyone.
Finally the laws/rules for how the condo associations work are typically written in your condo documents (declaration, bylaws, rules and regulations, etc.). In addition to this most states have a condo law. I gave you a link to your state above.
I hope this helps!
Re: Condo Bylaws Not Followed By the Developer
The developer still owns over 50% - he and one other are the only board members, so it sounds like I'm not going anywhere with this - thank you for your advice - I appreciate it.
Abigail