HOA Management Advice

[Patrick Johnson]

I'm currently treasurer in my HOA. I took the position mostly as a way to stay aware of the community decisions, and get to know the HOA president. I took for granted that it would be a mostly passive position - and now the pressures are mounting.

The HOA is managed by a property manager (10+ years now) who recently failed to secure a loan (missed a deadline) that would have (1) paid off substantial outstanding fees to a vendor, and (2) helped fund a number of moderately important and urgent community projects (pool maintenance, and pine-straw).

• - Ok so just use some reserves?: reserves are startlingly low, only about 5% of our annual revenue
• - Quickly find a new loan?: Property manager is dragging his feet, only found 1 option so far with a minimum loan balance far greater than what we need, and no option for early repayment -- too expensive to make sense
• - Issue a special assessment?: HOA president is on his way out (selling in a month or two), and somewhat disgruntled and belligerent, and trying to claim fraud / misappropriation of funds / screaming at Property Management to fix it and not issue an "unethical tax on the community"

I'm favoring the third option, but have no idea how to work with the the HOA president, or how to help convey the seariousness of the HOA's financial position to the community - because I'm fairly certain if I fight with Property Management to go for the special assessment, the HOA president will put some serious effort into riling up the community and convincing them that we're robbing them blind. -- he's a loud talker, commands attention, and probably has the most and deepest personal connections throughout the community (I'll add, he has admittedly done a LOT of work himself in helping to maintain the community, we are in debt to him for that -- he just doesn't appreciate the seriousness of long term financial issues, and now he's on his way out).

One more kicker -- the third member of our Board, the Secretary, just resigned for family & health reasons, so it's only me and the president for the near future.

Does anyone out there have advice? Know of any resources to turn to?
I'm feeling rather lost, panicked, and overwhelmed.