Homeowners Associations

Question: The president of our homeowner association sits next to the property manager at board meetings, and the manager runs the meeting. She answers questions that owners ask the board and interprets the CC&Rs and bylaws. The property manager is the only one sitting at the board meeting that is aware of incidents occurring at our development. There are many incidents that happen in our complex that the board never hears about because most owners have a dialogue with the manager instead of the board directors.

Question: Is there anything in the Davis-Stirling statute that requires minimum reserve funding and a professional reserve study? Answer: There is no requirement in the Davis-Stirling Act (DSA) (Civil Code sections 1350 to 1378) that associations create or maintain reserve accounts in any amount. The DSA does require that associations with existing reserve accounts, regardless of the amount, provide titleholders with all of the information detailed in Civil Code section 1365.

Question: I've been living in my desert area unit only five months and problems never cease. People keep climbing over the 6-foot fences outside my window, the drive-in security gates are left open for hours at a time with no one watching the entries and locks on gates don't work. When I brought these issues to the board president he refused to listen. Since then, notes have been left on my car saying: "We don't like your dirty car — wash it!" About 70% of the units are rented out, and the majority of owner-occupied units belong to elderly individuals who do not participate in association affairs.

Question: My small homeowner association is self-managed, and all board directors are homeowners and volunteers. There is no property management company. The board treasurer does all the association's bookkeeping and is audited by the other directors and a licensed certified public accountant yearly. As payment for the bookkeeping, the treasurer has been exempt from paying monthly association dues. These bookkeeping duties are not offered to any other homeowners. Is this legal and in compliance with the law?

Question: Our board keeps imposing assessment increases and owners can't afford it. Regular monthly assessments are raised indiscriminately. Owners have no say in these increases. When board members are questioned they say the association attorney told them they could raise the assessments whenever they want. Can they do this and what are owners' rights? Answer: Boards can increase assessments without a titleholder vote as long as they follow the law. Civil Code section 1366 provides for such increases.

Question: Five times this year I requested that the homeowners association board conduct a meeting, and each time I've been completely ignored. There has not been one association meeting this year even though the covenants, conditions and restrictions state that a meeting must be conducted at least once every three months. I sent a written request to the management company complaining that no meeting was held before a CC&R amendment vote was conducted. No response. I asked for the board's meeting minutes and was told no minutes exist.

Question: We live in an 18-unit condominium complex. Nobody wants to serve on the board nowadays because it is so much work. Can our homeowner association choose to compensate board of directors members for performing their duties? Answer: Common interest developments are predicated on the concept of self-management. Civil Code section 1351 says that the association is formed to manage the common interest development. Owners are to become the elected directors of the entity known as a homeowner association.

Adrine Andreasian was thrilled last August when a man identifying himself as a "location scout" for the NBC television series "Law & Order: Los Angeles" knocked on the door of her newly remodeled Mediterranean-style home in Los Feliz Estates and asked about using the house in an episode. The shoot would last three days, and the production company would pay the homeowner about $30,000. "We could have paid our mortgage down or used it toward our property taxes," said Andreasian, 46, who owns a manufacturing business in Glendale with her husband.

Thousands of homeowner associations and condominiums around the country just sidestepped a potentially costly problem: A federal agency this month backed off its controversial plan that would have made obtaining mortgages in their communities much more difficult, and would have dried up a key source of revenue that associations use to pay for improvements and property maintenance. A proposal in August by the Federal Housing Finance Agency would have in effect banned the covenanted transfer fees that many homeowner associations collect when houses or condos are resold.

Question: My homeowners association's letterhead states we are "a non-common interest 55-plus senior community. " I obtained all the documents pertinent to our development from the Department of Real Estate as well as the county planning department's zoning descriptions and requirements. These documents make it clear that maintenance of common areas and facilities are incumbent on the association, which has a right to lien lot owners in default on assessment payments. Documents state that each lot "shall have a common area consisting of a 20-foot minimum setback along all adjoining boundary streets and a 15-foot side and rear setback along all non-street boundaries of the development.