Seems Like I Am About To Have A Big Legal Problem Here

[ziny]

Condo boards, HOA's etc are often the source of owner frustration. The priorities of some owners may not be in-sync with other owners or the board is off in it's own la-la land doing what it feels is necessary.

Any solution to your problem should be spelled out in the rules governing how your board conducts it's business. How often fees may be raised, by how much, is a general meeting/vote required etc should all be contained therein. If there is a mechanism to veto a proposed fee increase or a board decision in general, then that is the mechanism you'll need to follow to do so. If your board has a history of frequent fee increases, maybe consider doing what is necessary to get out now before the problem gets worse if you cannot garner enough support to put a stop to the increases.

Good luck.

I have heard so many horror stories w/hoa be careful....

 

[Fabio J. Guzman]

Seems like a very low bar for being able to increase the maintenance fees, in the sense that a quorum only requires 51% of the building's units be represented. In addition, it states in our regulations that one individual can represent up to 3 owners at these meetings. Then, the majority vote is only 50%+1 of those present to make up the quorum. So in total, you could have a situation where not even a real majority of 51% of all of the units in the building complex approve the increase through the resolution at an Assembly meeting.

Moreover, our regulations state that they must demonstrate the numbers in the meetings that voted for and those that voted against any one resolution. Under the resolution to increase the budget and monthly association fee, it merely states that there was a majority in approval, but no details of the numbers that voted in affirmation and those that voted against the resolution. To me, that seems grounds to challenge whether the resolution was actually passed at the meeting and/or they need to do it all over again at another meeting.

Finally, I get the impression that they went searching for signatures after the meeting to make the 'asistencia de nomina' look like it had a quorum and that is obviously not permitted in the condo laws of 1958 and our own regulations.

I repeat: An absolute majority of votes is required: 50% +1 of all possible votes (not 51% nor 50% +1 of votes present at the meeting). Assuming you have ten units in the condo, each with one vote, a majority of six votes is required to raise the maintenance fee.