We live on a private road and years ago when the land in the subdivision was for sale the developer maintained the dirt roads by grading periodically. when all the tracts were sold the developer did not want to maintain roads at his expense any longer so he created a HOA for the property owners to take over that responsibility.
Decisions on the road maintenance is voted upon by property owners at the HOA annual meeting. There are 87 (5 acre) tracts and each tract counts as one vote. One particular owner has 50 acres equivalent to 10 votes. The rule is that if you’re not up to date on your dues your are ineligible to vote and at our last meeting this property owner carried 1/3 of the vote. This is not fair. This person's wife is the vice president of the HOA and her husband is the one responsible for grading the roads. Problem is that they are doing what they want and when they want to do it because they carry the majority of the votes.

I spoke to her (VP of HOA) in-depth about this issue and told her that the only fair way to make sure everyone’s vote counts for something is to have one vote for one household no matter how much land you own. She did not like that idea she informed me that it is in the bylaws created by the developer and the only way to change the rules is to have a vote by property owners but since they (VP of HOA) carry the majority of votes I feel they will control the outcome.
The current situation is bad she explained that they are allocated (paid) to grade the roads two times per year and if you’ve ever been down a dirt road thats just not enough based on the conditions of our roads.

- They put down crushed concrete on our roads and it stirs up a dust cloud 30' high and takes ten mins settle.
- They also recently added speed bumps (she refers to them as water diversion burms to divert the rain water) I asked her whose idea was that and she mentioned her husband’s.
-They ripped a culvert in front of my home and never replaced it we are on a hill so when it rains I have
to shovel approx one wheel barrel load of sand off my driveway now.

They have hand written signs in small print that are hard to read that say bump and I hit one of those bumps and almost lost control not to mention the front end alignment I had to have done. They have these bumps on every road but the road leading to their (VP of HOA) house which is well maintained. She says the reason her roads are good is that they put their own money in road base to improve the road leading to their house. ( This could be misconstrued how do we know they used their money for material) property owners are forbidden to do any work on roads. It is the soul responcibility of the HOA to insure it gets done.

It is well known that they are constantly preaching about slowing down and this is a way for them to do that. The problem is the roads are in need of serious repair but they claim it is not in the budget.

Currently they collect approx 12,000 dollars per yr in dues. The cost to grade each time is $500 which at the end of the year they aspend $1000 for grading and $2500 for liability insurance. They buy a few loads of
road base a year and thats pprox $2000-$3000'max a year.

At HOA meeting we have discussed having the county take over the road but they contend that they
will not do that unless the roads are up to county specs (ROAD: Length 3 Miles Width: 30' Surface: 6" above grade and we at grade now}. It will cost a small fortune to improve the conditions of our roads.

Please Help.

QUESTION: Is there a legal wayto change the bylaws so it’s fair for all who contribute to the HOA.
My wife and I ccarry two votes with ten acres and always pay our share but we're content with only one vote.


Note: The HOA was originally created to maintain the roads but they are spending money on beautification not practicality.

The bylaws can be changed by following the procedure set forth in the bylaws. I know that sounds circular, but that is how this works typically. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.