Consumer Law, Warranties Can HOA board member legally sign an agreement that was not approved by the Board?

[cpagirl]

A HOA board member signed a warranty deed accepting undeveloped land (drainage channel, retention pond, undeveloped hike/bike trails) from the developer but there is no record in the Board minutes that the Board approved this agreement? Additionally, 90% of the lots included in the warranty deed had previously been deeded by the same developer to the City a few years earlier.

1. If the Board didn't approve the agreement, is it valid?

2. If most of the land was already deeded to the City, did the developer have the right to then deed it to the HOA?

3. If not, would the entire agreement be invalid or only the lots that were not owned by the developer?

4. What recourse would there be to get out of the agreement since the land provides no benefits to the HOA and only costs a lot of money to maintain (mowing, etc)?

5. If the developer was supposed to install cement hike/bike trails according to an agreement with the City (or plans submitted with their site plan), does the HOA have any way to get the developer to pay for those improvements? Would the HOA then have a requirement to install the cement hike/bike trails?

6. If the HOA has no way to get out of the agreement given the facts above, would there be any recourse against the former Board member under the non-profit management insurance policy if he signed an agreement without Board approval?

Thanks for your help!

 

[dee_dub]

The answer lies in the bylaws of the HOA, the terms of the agreement deeding the land to the city, and the terms of the agreement deeding the land to the HOA, and any number of other circumstances.

Whether the Board needs to approve, or whether a member has authority to act on behalf, is up to the HOA bylaws.

Generally, land that was deeded to the city does not belong to the developer any more, and cannot be deeded by the developer to ythe HOA. Google "nemo dat". What happens if the developer tried to deed things it did not own is anybody's guess.

Whether the developer can be compelled to make improvements is also anybody's guess. Why were they compelled in the first place? Why haven't they? Have they been released from that obligation by anyone with the power to release them?

 

[pw47617]

HOAs are corporations! Two-thirds of the membership of a HOA can dissolve the corporation. A corporation is NOT a country club and once I educate all of you homeowners that common areas are nothing more than land use created by a developer who is a corporation who turned over the maintenance of common areas to another corporation called a HOA versus turning it back over to the county who approved the development and zoned it RESIDENTIAL. Amazing how y'all think that a HOA can stop me from painting my house PINK with PINK flamingos in the front yard. By the time a house wife who is a BOARD member could figure out what to do, I will be dead and buried. BOARD members are running a corporation and sueing them for a breach of fudiciary duty is how I will win my Circuit Court case in the Commonwealth of Virginia.