Homeowners can challenge assessments
Question: Our homeowner association’s board president is a real estate agent whose priority is resales. Repair and maintenance are not on this president’s agenda; only special reconstruction projects get any attention.
Although our stucco walls could have been repaired, the president intends to tear them down and replace them with vinyl. If owners do not vote to approve the multimillion-dollar special assessment, we have been told, the board will enforce a “health safety emergency assessment.” To push the project, several board members have taken these problems to the local media.
Was it right for board members to go to the media? What constitutes a “health safety emergency”? Is there a way to stop our board from taking on frivolous projects? Can owners stop this special assessment?
Answer: The board president’s only priority should be his or her fiduciary duty to all the titleholders. Part of that duty consists of managing the association’s operations.
Although nothing prevents homeowners from also going to the media, efforts are better directed at getting the board to act or voting it out.
Merely terming an assessment a “health safety emergency” does not make it so.
California Civil Code Section 1366(b) defines an “emergency situation” for assessment purposes as an extraordinary expense that is required by a court order; that is necessary to address a threat to personal safety; or that could not have been reasonably foreseen by the board in preparing the pro forma operating budget.
When boards fully disclose their deliberations, that helps owners determine whether a major project is necessary.
Read your association’s declaration of covenants, conditions and restrictions to see whether a membership vote is required for this particular assessment.
Organizing owners to challenge the assessment and vote it down is likely to be one of the surest methods of stopping an assessment.
The Davis-Stirling Act states that an assessment of more than 5% of the association’s operating budget must be voted on by the owners. If it is voted down, the board would be violating the law by trying to declare it an emergency.
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Send questions to Box 11843, Marina del Rey, CA 90295 or e-mail noexit@mindspring.com.
