is it worth it, or time to sell? HOA president is very shifty

[Katie Andrews]

Hi all,

I'm having a major issue with my HOA president, who did not know what CCRs were, and who balked at providing me, a tenant of my condo for 17 years, of the financials. I asked for the financials to see just what had been going on. (Full disclosure: my late husband, also with JK initials ironically, was the HOA president for years, but was in declining health and kept few records. I know for a fact he was honest in his dealings; I was the HOA VP.) Every SINGLE discussion, this guy (I'll call him JK, his initials) ducks out from doing anything concrete, or does things slowly or just whenever. He doesn't want to provide CCRs, financials, or fix the rooftop hot water heaters which only get up to 99 degrees, not the LA city mandated 110 degrees. Nothing ever gets done or gets done but we're never told, gets done slowly, etc. So my questions are these:

1) Is it worth it to go ahead, get the line of equity, fix up my condo really nice, and just sell, rather than dealing with this shifty responsibility-evader for the next six years until I retire? There are plenty of other properties, both here in LA and in Louisiana where I'll ultimately retire.  I'm not attached to the condo anymore, since my husband died there August 5, 2016.  I'm now evaluating it as a cost/benefit issue, and the costs are beginning to outweigh the benefits.

2) Is it worth it to fix up the condo and be a landlord, all the while being a full-time English teacher AND dealing with a shifty HOA president who is rather passive and hands off, and who could possibly be lying and/or embezzling? If I did do the landlord route, I'd hire a property management company since I'm new to landlording, do NOT know the business, and could use the income. But I'm also sure that getting JK to do *anything* would be a constant thorn in my side.

3) Other than a lawsuit, or taking over the HOA presidency myself (stop me before I volunteer again -- I just cannot do this too!), is there a way to MAKE JK step up and do what's necessary? He seems as an HOA president what a really crappy PM company is like, except there's no getting rid of this guy. None of the other tenants (in apartments 2 and 3) want to take on the HOA president job, are too busy working, etc. So I'm stuck with JK the passive, JK the shifty, JK the ultimate hands-off non-manager go-to person. (Should I call this the Hands Off Association, rather than a Home Owners' Association?)

Thanks again for any thoughts, suggestions, anecdotes, websites, etc.

Katie