amethyst_babes said:
Another question, then. Since our developer has not been collecting dues, how would the newly formed HOA (turnover meeting next month with elections for the board) retain a lawyer prior to turnover?
I know there are people already up in arms at having to pay anything (insert eyeroll) but I don't think people realize how much common area there is to mow, and the county is not responsbile for our roads, so we'll have to worry about snow removal too.
I really hope to get elected.
The only way you will be able to hire an attorney in your case is to 1. get everyone to agree and pitch in. or 2. Hope to hell someone in the neighborhood is one. I wouldn't hold my breath on number 1. If the developer hasn't collected any dues, then in all likelihood, yours is set up like ours and designed to fail. If you are lucky enough to be able to consult with a lawyer, you may want to investigate the probablility that the developer should've been collecting the dues all along and what you can do about it.
People won't care that there is grass to mow, if they have to pay to have it done. As far as the roads go, don't hold your breath on that either. In ours, the county is responsible for the main road and two small courts. The other roads are "private" and the responsibility of the people who live on them. In some cases here, the people have gotten together to pave them and everyone there split the cost. In some cases one person refused to pay up. In one case, that was the first house on the road. The others paid to have it paved from the edge of that person's property line, back to the end. But it still really sucks for the ones who paid because they still have to travel the unpaved part to get to the paved part. But that just goes to show how difficult it is to get 3 people to agree on what needs to be done, forget getting 30 or 50 people to agree.
Do yourself a favor, don't get into the HOA. If people are griping about paying already, they won't get involved, they won't pay and you will just be providing CPR on someone the doctors have already declared dead. And then you're the one likely to get in trouble when things turn disasterous.
