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[mickey13]

Jurisdiction/Place:

I moved into my condo in June 2005. My complex is an apartment renovation. I was one of the first to move in. While the other units were being renovated, I was never asked to pay HOA fees. I was asked to pay for my water which is covered by my HOA fees, but I went ahead and paid it since I wasn't paying for the HOA.

Important note: our units are 4 to a building. I think the developer got a bill for the whole building, divvied it up and billed us each for our share.

Last fall, a management company was hired to handle the HOA and started billing us for our HOA fees. I was very unhappy about this since we didn't (still don't) have the use of our clubhouse or pool. I only started paying the dues because we were going vote for our "transitional committee" and I wanted to be able to vote. Our HOA board is still comprised of the developer and whoever he assigned to it. We thought that we would be electing our own board by now, but it hasn't happened. I need to look through my docs again....I know that enough units have sold for us to be able to take control, but I don't know if there was a time frame stated.

Actually, we haven't heard anything from our "transitional committee" either. It's supposed to be the developer, the mgmnt company and 2 community members. I think that we received the results of the voting back in Nov-Dec. If there have been any meetings, the community has not been informed of them.

We STILL don't have the use of our clubhouse or pool. I can't believe that I've been paying that darn HOA fee for the last few months!!!

On top of that, they have continued to ask me to pay for my water. In every document I received when I bought the place AND the realtor info on the mgmnt company website, it is stated that personal water is included in the HOA. I have not paid it. The documents I'm referring to were filed with the county and the state and I have received no amendments. I've talked to the developer and the mgmnt company....their stance is that they will have to increase fees in order to pay for our water. Funny - nobody thought of that when they wrote up all of those docs? They tried to scare me a little by telling me I should talk to a lawyer and that they would tell me I have no case. I'm pretty sure that I'm right in my decision, but I wanted to see if anyone could back me up.

Actually, if I hadn't contacted them, I'm not sure if anyone would have called me on my non-payment. In January, I received my first water bill that came from the mgmnt company instead of the developer. They want us to write and mail 2 separate checks every month to the same place!!! I haven't paid that one and I haven't heard anything about it.

Any advice on how to deal with this disaster would be appreciated. Thank you!