I am so frustrated. This isn't 100% about work. I volunteer on a condo board. I did so to stop one of the trustees who is an idiot. But it isn't going so well.

This trustee is driving me insane. He lies like a nut and changes his mind at the drop of a hat. He is effectively stopping us from moving forward.

A few weeks ago we decided to walk the property and see if there were violations of the rules. There were a lot. We put together a large list and sent it to the property manager. Three of the four trustees wanted warnings (not fines) warnings to go out. But we sent it out in case the fourth member wanted to weigh in. After 48 hours nothing was heard from him so I told the property manager to go forward. It didn't matter anyway, three of four said to do it..

A day later this guy pipes up.

1. First, he wants the letters to wait until he tells his neighbors in person. Err what for? So I wrote back that that ok sure but letters need to out period.. I get a nasty response that he never said letters wouldn't go out.. err than what are you saying?

I know what he is doing. He wants to go tell his neighbors in private conversations that we aren't privy to - that we are idiots and he is fighting for them.

I wasn't thrilled about that either as it is clearly special treatment for certain residents.

2. He says that -- some of the violations are the elderly and thus we should allow a contractor working on the property to do the labor for them if they pay for it. I responded that if we do that it has to be open for everyone and not just the elderly. He nasty responses that he didn't say it was just going to be for the elderly. Errr than why bring that up at all. And good we area all in agreement but I think that was what he was saying...

But I am furious that the warnings were voted on by three of the four trustees and now ONE is holding them up with stupidity.

I am sooo aggravated. We all agreed to move the annual meeting to April and we put that in the news letter... One day in late march he just announces he doesn't want to that because he isn't ready. I was caught off guard and i agreed but now I regret it. We all agreed at a prior meeting that it was going to be in April and he went back on it...

He does that constantly. He says he won't be at the may meeting and then he is... he says he wants to not have meetings and we cancel one.. and he pipes up 4 days after upset that we did so.

We had a meeting where I said that if I don't hear from you I am going to assume your answer is yes. It doesn't take a lot to monitor your e-mail and if you see something you want to weigh in on... you just send an e-mail saying... Hey I want to weigh in on this when I have a chance. But he doesn't.

I am about to blow my stack.

The other two trustees just don't get involved.. one doesn't participate but for meetings and the other is on vacation and won't be able to respond.. she did tell me that.

I am seriously about to sell my home... seriously --I am sick of it.

[SeekerSeeking]

Geez, that sounds infinitely frustrating!
selling your home to avoid him is a huge move....
Are you guys meeting in person? Or in emails? Emails you can quote him back to him--and say that is what everyone decided.
If you meet at meetings--perhaps they should be recorded or videod--say it's a meeting journal. Then again, you have back up and proof of what was said.
Sounds like he like to railroad folks into compliance with his will, and the other trustees have given up. If you want to fight the good fight--make sure you have back up. And try NOT to let him upset you because this type person feeds on that. That is their power. Don't give it to him.
I can understand being sick of it, though. That type person is an energy-sucker... good luck...

Originally Posted by SeekerSeeking

And try NOT to let him upset you because this type person feeds on that. That is their power. Don't give it to him.
I can understand being sick of it, though. That type person is an energy-sucker... good luck...

Thanks. I lost my temper yesterday. His favorite trick is you respond to him with "that isn't what we decided" and then nothing is said for months until one day you are walking into the meeting and you are informed that this isn't happening and everyone seems to agree with him.

I did just go out and talk to a resident and she was as annoyed with him as I am. I explained that I just can't get people to back me and I am tired of fighting with him.

I don't want to move but I have lived here for a few years now and there is always an idiot who gets on the board and ruins it for everyone else.

I am seriously considering proposing a change to the "board" and reducing the number of the "board" to one. We need a chief executive who knows what they are doing not a board full of feckless ignorants who don't want to even respond to work requests.

[SparkySmart]

Hi, Emily. I live in a neighborhood of eight homes with a homeowners' association. Arriving at a consensus for ANYthing takes super-human effort. Most of the time I try to avoid meetings because they're so intense, and everyone (including me) is afraid of confrontation, so even the most blatant of violations continues unchecked. I don't envy you.

[Shazerac]

I lived in a condo once and I’ll never do it again. I also wouldn’t buy a home in an area that has a home owners association. Those meetings made me want to rip my hair out. Never again!

Originally Posted by Shazerac

I lived in a condo once and I’ll never do it again. I also wouldn’t buy a home in an area that has a home owners association. Those meetings made me want to rip my hair out. Never again!

Thanks. I am seriously considering removing him as trustee. I looked up the declaration of trust and a trustee can be removed for any cause with 50% of the vote. I seriously think I could get 50% of the vote.

But I don't know if that is going too far. I don't know if people would have the balls to do it.

I think boards are outdated. All it is -is ignorant people stopping anything from getting done. We need a chief executive with a 1 year term. If the person sucks.. they are voted out.

[hvert]

That sounds too awful to deal with. Do the four of you have to come to a consensus on decisions or can you just outvote him?

Originally Posted by hvert

That sounds too awful to deal with. Do the four of you have to come to a consensus on decisions or can you just outvote him?

Majority rules but the property manager seems to respect him too much and won't go ahead if he is still blithering around. I suppose I don't blame him, he is worried about jumping the gun, but I am getting sick of it.

So the property manager called me yesterday to apologize. He told me that this guy calls him all the time and tells him not to do things. Without telling us. He also informed me that he makes remarks about us like that we are "militant" as to rule enforcement. So I have no doubt he makes remarks to other people. Then he called a meeting for Monday night ... err no notice. I am unsure how to proceed. I am considering putting forth an effort to have him removed. At the moment I am thinking it might be best just to let him do the stupid things he wants to do and get the residents angry at him and then bring it up.

At the moment I am going to see if I can't have a meeting with the other members when they get back from their vacation.

[seesaw]

Surely you have bylaws that state how meetings must be called and noticed to members. Also, there must be a president of your board. A board member simply cannot call up the property manager and give instructions. There are typically contracts or bylaws that state who manages contractors, such as the property manager. If he is in violation of the bylaws, then nothing he does, like pass motions, etc., would even stand because he isn't properly noticing the meetings, and potentially a quorum isn't being reached.

Originally Posted by seesaw

Surely you have bylaws that state how meetings must be called and noticed to members. Also, there must be a president of your board.

He is the president. (but actually the president only has power to call a meeting)

But he got that position too by being a jerk. But you have given me an idea how to solve the situation. We have proceeded informally up until now because I thought were were all big boys and girls. But we have a meeting soon he cannot attend and I will propose that we got back to strict compliance with the rules going forward. That will mean the property manager ONLy does what is in the minutes after it has been adopted by the board.

The truth is the jerk CAN do whatever. If I don't have back up.. he says do x... and the property manager does it. If the other members of the board don't want to fight him.. I have no option.

So and I guess this goes back to the loyalty thread but I asked one of the other members to tell me if she was going to the meeting and she hasn't responded. I know she is home because I was out talking to a neighbor and she drove by. I waved. Still nothing. I cannot believe it. It must mean that she isn't on my side. I find it stunning. She would prefer to back a rude crude idiot who bosses her around and goes behind her back to stop what she wants. What really annoys me is that this flap was all over what SHE told me to do.

i don't know what I should do.. I feel like I should quit the board... but I also know that quitting the board makes it so I can't get my maintenance requests done. Or have any say.

I was talking with the other neighbor and we both agreed it might be time to leave... we don't want to leave.. I know it will cost me money, but there is a certain attitude here that is only growing that is wrong. I don't think it is going to change.

Well, I guess I have to take it back... the member I wanted to come support me dropped over yesterday. I am actually a little irked about that. What is it with the pop in? But she seemed to be on my team. But I still can't trust her totally. Actions speak louder than words and she left here yesterday saying she was going to do x, y and z. And so far not done.

She said she didn't want to go to the meeting so hopefully... she won't go.

In the movies... when there is some big obvious threat.. everyone recognizes it and stands together to defeat it. But in real life it is always like pulling teeth to get everyone to join forces and defeat an obvious threat.

I can't tell if I should be more aggressive or less.