Neighbors, I wanted to update you on what has been going on over the last couple of months regarding the petition effort to force the HOA to call a special members meeting for the purpose of modifying our Governing documents to ensure that the HOA properly follows the Fla Statutes governing HOA’s.
In March of this year, the residents began the process to generated a petition, demanding a modification to the HOA Governing Document which 1) eliminating any ambiguity that the initiation of any special assessments, modification of any Governing documents, and/ or modification of any Bi-Party Agreements that runs as a covenant with the Associations properties, must be submitted to be approved by a majority of the voting membership present at a special or annual meeting. As you recall, the process the HOA and ECC used to force through a new Bi-Party agreement was non-transparent, provided a 48-hour notice to the residents of the updated agreement, was passed by a Board only vote, and involved significant conflicts of interest. The resultant agreement significantly increased annual dues on Resident Social Members, created additional initiation fees, created a new Resident Social Member II category with even greater annual fees including a minimum 5% annual escalation clause. The impacts to the Eastpointe real estate market, particularly for the condos and smaller 2BR/2 BA homes are projected to be severe. All changes forced upon the residents without being given the chance to vote on it. When members of the community raised concerns over the substance of the agreements to the HOA and ECC leadership directly, they were met with retaliatory action intended to silence and intimidate residents, and by extension, those informed voters who had a significant stake in the changes being made. Residents have repeatedly been told by HOA Directors that the HOA is fully within its rights to modify the Bi-Party agreement at any time, with a Board only vote. Meaning whenever the ECC and HOA Board want to raise fees in the future they can, and the residents have no say in it.
During the last couple of months, I have sought out a top Florida Law Firm to review the details of what has transpired over the last several months in Eastpointe as it relates to the Bi-Party Agreement, to get a real legal opinion on 1) what is legally required to approve a new Bi-Party agreement, 2) What actually constitutes an conflict of interest and the ramifications, and 3) what recourse do residents have when confronted by with retaliatory action intended to silence and intimidate those members expressing concerns and shedding light on the various deficiencies in the passage of the agreement, and encouraged voting members to voice their opinions accordingly.
More will be provided in the future on the details of the legal opinion but suffice to say the Bi-Party Agreement and the oppressive process used is unlawful in numerous ways and will surely be voided when and if challenged in court.
The primary concern now is to ensure our governing documents are modified to prevent this from ever occurring again. Had the residents been allowed to vote on the final agreement, the final agreement would have looked much different with many of the harshest terms softened or the residents would not have passed it.
We are at the 200+ owner threshold now for calling a special member’s meeting. However, we need a 10+ resident owner cushion to ensure that the HOA Board must accept the petition. Please contact your friends and neighbors and ask them to join us in our cause. Please send me their names and addresses so that I might add their names to our petition. Send to bobbyjva06@gmail.com
Our goal is to ensure the residents get a vote on;;
1) eliminating any ambiguity that the initiation of any special assessments, modification of any Governing documents, and modification of any Bi-Party Agreements that runs as a covenant with the Associations properties, must be submitted to be approved by a majority of the voting membership present at a special or annual meeting,
2) eliminate future conflicts of interest on the HOA Board, and
3) comply with Fl St 723.078 Bylaws of Homeowners Associations requiring the procedures governing the conduct of an HOA recall election as well as the operation of the association during the period after recall and before the recall election is required.