I am new to the world of HOAs.

I have had my condo for 14 months. In that time, the HOA board has not issued notice of a meeting, and as far as I can tell from other owners, the last HOA meeting was in April 2024. The HOA president is married to the vice president, and neither of them actually live in the units they own (even though the president claims a residential homestead there). The HOA president is barely responsive to owners, and we're starting to have issues with the new property management company.

Anyone ever deal with this sort of thing? How do owners compel the HOA board to have a meeting or address problems?

Condo HOAs and home HOAs have different rules, but there are multiple likely issues just based on what you've said.

For neighborhood HOAs I don't believe you can have multiple board members from the same family as of a 2021 change. They also cant serve on the Board and ACC.

Meetings have to be help per the by laws and announced 6 days in advance per Texas law.

What do the by laws say about meetings?

Aggie71013 said:

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Condo HOAs and home HOAs have different rules, but there are multiple likely issues just based on what you've said.

For neighborhood HOAs I don't believe you can have multiple board members from the same family as of a 2021 change. They also cant serve on the Board and ACC.

Meetings have to be help per the by laws and announced 6 days in advance per Texas law.

What do the by laws say about meetings?

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Bylaws say meetings are quarterly with 30 days' written notice.

Bylaws are where to start. If the condos are mostly owner occupied it becomes easier and faster to get enough people to band together locally and buck the formal condo HOA power structure. If mostly investor owned rental units it is somewhat harder to get in touch with all the owners and get them all on board because they aren't on site and may not know what it going on but it can be done with time.

We owned some in BCS for awhile that were primarily investor owned and a local attorney owned enough units he pretty well controlled things with his % ownership unless the bulk of the other owners got together and agreed to push back. The attorney was also buddies with the mgmt company so you get the idea of how a few people can control it unless enough people get together to push back.

Is there any other kind?

idAg09 has the shortcut but

• if going in person, even if having to buy lunch fails then
• you may need an architect and if their specialty is the "infraction" that is the hurtle, the better the intimidation and reason why it's best for HOA power-jockeys

The only impass we've had was Bryan Historic concerns and from the City youngsters in power on a Four Square already style-*******ized! A historic-specialist architect prof with recent book published on the subject (again) gave them a class in what's what. The End. Smiles all around.

Update - memory served up a bit of history to help:
Builder/fisher/beer/computers buddy once worked for H. Ross Perot in Dallas who was wrestling with either an ACC or HOA in his property improvements (Commercial? Residential?). Buddy & team canvassed the area to find & photo transgressions, seek out laws that would trump and other fodder with which to present the ACC/HOA with exceptions, oversights, etc that would serve as precedents and higher authority positions in favor of Perot goals. (Perot team won)

Yes, I have dealt with an unreasonable HOA in the past. Your best bet is to understand your HOA's bylaws - there are a lot of "rules" that they profess to enforce, but cannot. Get a couple of neighbors as allies, get to meetings, and ask cordial but assertive questions. Once it became clear that homeowners were paying attention, it was quite remarkable how fast things changed.

If things get substantive, see if your state has a homeowners' rights or HOA oversight office - they have the ability to intervene.

Keep your cool, collect evidence, know your rules, and don't go it alone. A few educated homeowners working together will go a long way.