Methods for dismissing the chairman of an HOA

There are often cases when residents of an apartment building, for good reasons, come to mind about the HOA: how to re-elect the chairman of the HOA? People's dissatisfaction is quite understandable: chairmen often exceed their official powers and may act outside the bounds of the law. They demand money from the residents of the house, as if for major repairs, but as a result, nothing has changed; it is unknown where the money was invested. As a result, the current chairman is highly distrusted by the people. And sometimes they don’t know how to get rid of such a chairman ahead of schedule and how to remove him.

Grounds for re-election of the chairman of the HOA

When considering the question of how to re-elect the chairman of the HOA, you need to know on what grounds the chairman can be removed from office. First we need to figure out who he is - the chairman of the HOA? And what, in general, is an HOA?

HOA. Full name: Homeowners Association. This is a body that works for the benefit of residents of high-rise buildings and functions mainly at their expense. Initially, the money comes from the participants themselves, members of this partnership, and at the same time they are residents of this house. Thanks to these people, the activities of the HOA begin. There may also be various subsidies allocated from the state budget, if provided for by law.

With such a body it is possible to convene various kinds of meetings and meetings of residents. The most active participants form the board of the HOA. For example, if someone wanted to improve the courtyard area in front of an apartment building (plant flowers, make a spacious parking lot, organize a mini-garden under the windows, etc.), the HOA can call people together. And by voting, a decision will be made whether there is an opportunity and need for this idea or not.

Who is the chairman of the HOA? This is a person who is elected for a term of 2 years. He heads the HOA and performs a number of tasks: control, direct, sign contracts, represent the interests of residents in various government agencies, monitor residents’ compliance with their obligations, etc.

All work of this person must be strictly based on the law and the HOA Charter. He is obliged to report to residents about the work done for a certain period of time and much more. But often he does not do this and a logical question arises: how to remove the chairman of the HOA quickly and competently?

And now we can turn to the law of the Russian Federation. There is such a document as the Housing Code of the Russian Federation (LC RF) dated December 29, 2004 No. 188-FZ, and there, in section 6, it is stated what responsibilities the members of the Partnership have, including the chairman.

And, if the chairman constantly evades these responsibilities placed on his shoulders by law, then we can safely appoint a more responsible person to this position. There is a list of those responsibilities that the Chairman of the Partnership can evade, as a result of which this will become the basis for his dismissal.

In addition to the fact that re-election of a new HOA chairman may be scheduled for the following reasons:

• departure of the chairman for a well-deserved rest (retirement);
• decided to quit due to health reasons, etc.;
• does not pay attention to complaints or any important information received from residents of an apartment building;
• “caught” for bribery, extortion, fraud, misappropriation of common property;
• a violation of the Law of the Russian Federation was recorded in the areas of administrative, criminal, tax and housing law.

In such cases, if there was one of these violations, the question “How to remove the chairman of the HOA?” can be solved quite easily, unless there are any points in the HOA Charter that could interfere with the replacement.

The main thing is to know how to re-elect and what the sequence of actions should be. And of course, if absolutely all residents of a multi-storey building want this and are ready to fight to protect their right to decent living conditions, then the likelihood of appointing a new chairman who will suit everyone increases significantly.

How can the chairman of an HOA resign of his own free will?

According to clause 5 of the Regulations approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of September 26, 1994 No. 1086

“On the State Housing Inspectorate in the Russian Federation”

, the scope of the housing inspection does not include checking the internal process of the organization in the HOA, checking the audit of the HOA, etc.

Does the chairman of the HOA become liable for anything after dismissal?

Currently, I work as the chairman of the HOA. An OBEP (police) check showed that everything was in order in the HOA in terms of administrative, financial and economic activities. Due to intrigues on the part of two inadequate tenants, I don’t want to work anymore. After my dismissal, will various authorities (housing inspectorate, prosecutor's office) contact me with possible complaints for various reasons (you never know for what reason someone will take it into their head to pester me)?

If you quit because of every idiot, then who will work? After all, there are many more idiotic, inadequate people in the country than there are people. You're lucky, there are only two of them.

All documents are in order, checks have shown everything, what else is needed? Now call the same OBEP for these two (they didn’t just send it, that means they have their own interests, and obviously these interests are economic), send the police on them (they’re probably rowdy, breaking something, since they’re inadequate), call them an ambulance (maybe just an autumn-spring exacerbation). As the chairman of the HOA, you certainly can.

Convene an open general meeting, show the people everything you have and what is happening. At the same meeting, let them propose a suitable candidate. These two should be there too.

Count the number of members of the HOA (by footage, as if from the total footage of the house). Maybe this very HOA no longer exists, since everyone fled because of two inadequate people.

In all cases, there are cases that do not have a statute of limitations, but, as I understand it, all audits have not identified any such cases. And there are things that are forgotten due to the lapse of time. As far as I understand, none of these have been identified either. Therefore, there is no longer anything to call to account. Hand over the affairs to these two and let them rule under the supervision of those same OBEP and other financial inspectorates. If, of course, their residents take them in.

We invite you to read: Illegal dismissal: The procedure for appealing in court against illegal dismissal from work

Dismissal of the chairman of the homeowners association.

How to legally formalize the dismissal of the chairman of an HOA or housing cooperative at his own request? It’s good if the HOA has no complaints about the work of the chairman. What to do if the chairman performed his duties poorly for some time, for example, did not present valid contracts, financial statements, did not hold a reporting meeting, etc. Is the chairman obliged to prepare a successor to take his place and draw up a deed of transfer of property?

HOA is a homeowners' association, a non-profit organization (not created for profit), created by homeowners for the purpose of effective property management (Article 135 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation).

How to change: where to start?

If a firm decision is made to begin actions to change the chairman of the HOA, you need to collect “compromising evidence” against him, i.e.
that information that can become evidence and serve as a reason for dismissal. Information that will help with this can be found in various sources.

Necessary:

• Conduct a social survey of residents - are they satisfied, do they have any complaints about the work of this chairman or not.
• Inspect the condition of the house yourself.
• Review expense documents.

You need to go into the building of the house, which is under the control of the chairman, and see if there are any violations? Upon inspection, it is clear that the staircase is old, wooden, and is about to fall apart - people could get hurt. Mice or cockroaches run across the floor, no one cleans the garbage disposal - it's unsanitary. Or the elevator does not work well, it constantly breaks down, the plaster on the walls has all fallen off, there is a smell in the apartments, and sometimes mold is visible.

There are so many deficiencies, and the residents of this building paid money for both major repairs and elevator repairs. It’s just not clear that this money was used to improve the condition of the entrance. This means that the chairman used them for something else. Such facts need to be recorded in photos, or better yet, on video.

In addition to this, you can go to the accountant of this Partnership and demand to provide information regarding all expenses that the chairman made. No one has the right to somehow prevent this desire.

If they start trying to escort you out the door so that no one finds out anything, you can refer to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation - it establishes that anyone has the right to familiarize themselves with all transactions with money paid by the residents of the house. Next, you need to figure out how to change the chairman of the HOA.

The final stage can be considered writing a message to the GIS Housing and Communal Services. This is a site where information regarding absolutely all actions of HOAs, housing cooperatives, etc. should be posted. There you can also find documents and any other information of interest for a specific apartment building (apartment building).

This is a recent innovation, the site is young, just gaining popularity, appeared in 2015. Thanks to him, all activities of the HOA are made as transparent as possible. And, if citizens’ appeals directly to the HOA office do not receive a response, then the solution is to write an appeal to them via the Internet.

On this site, the user can register and leave feedback messages about the work of public utilities and organizations. They regularly monitor all messages from residents and work with them. Therefore, using this method is the best option to re-elect the chairman of the Partnership.

Under what circumstances is the chairman of the HOA re-elected?

The board of the HOA is entrusted to the chairman. There are often cases when management abuses their official position. Ultimately, this affects the condition of the house. In this regard, the question may arise about how the chairman of the HOA can be re-elected, can the owner remove him himself and how can the current management be removed?

The chairman of the partnership is selected based on a vote of the HOA members, the results of which are reflected in the minutes. Leadership elections are scheduled for a specific period. But if he fails to cope with his duties, there is an opportunity to remove him earlier than the prescribed period. There are several options for changing the administration of the HOA, even going to court.

Any commission will immediately be able to see the result of the HOA’s work. If the garbage is not removed from the yard or the roof is leaking, and no one cleans the entrances, but the residents of the house regularly pay for housing and communal services, it means that most of this money ends up with the chairman.

detailed instructions

The evidence base has been collected, now the next step will be one of the presented options that will help in solving the problem - how to fire the chairman of the HOA, and without his consent:

• gather residents and clearly show them that the current chairman is not fulfilling his duties within the framework of the law and an urgent change in the situation is required, he must be replaced with a more responsible one;
• initiate legal proceedings.

When choosing the first option, i.e. organizing a meeting, you need to know all the rules for voting to elect a new chairman.

In-person and absentee meetings of residents are divided to replace the current chairman. It should be clarified what the main difference between one and the other is: with an in-person meeting, people gather in one place and vote, and with an absentee meeting, each member of the HOA votes while sitting at home.

Also, the difference lies in the form of voting if this is an in-person meeting, i.e. members of the Partnership have expressed a desire to dismiss or re-elect the chairman, they are notified in advance (usually 10 days in advance) of the date, place and time of the meeting.

Moreover, the number of people must be at least 50% of the total number of HOA members. Everyone is given the opportunity to get to know each of the candidates. This topic is put on the agenda, people discuss which candidates are more suitable for this position by voting.

In elections, a psychological approach to people is necessary. It is imperative to tell everyone present about the existing problems and the need to fire the chairman. It is advisable to talk about the advantages that will follow after the change of chairman and the upcoming positive changes (especially in the material sphere of life). After such a speech, everyone will be more willing to participate in this event, because... an understanding will come of the importance of re-electing the chairman, that this will not only help change the current situation with the house, but will help save your own money.

Ballots are distributed to everyone on the issues that are raised at this meeting and a certain candidate is marked with ticks or crosses. They choose secretly or openly the one for whom the majority of the HOA members will vote. At the same time, minutes of the meeting are required to be kept, where the election process is recorded. This applies to in-person meetings.

The absentee form is a little simpler; now it is quite possible to remove a negligent chairman from his position and thus is permitted by law. Due to the fact that people often work from morning to night at two jobs, or look after children, or are busy with household chores, they have little time to attend meetings.

The way out of this situation is to re-elect the chairman of the HOA in absentia. Each member of the Homeowners Association receives a ballot, where he fills out the necessary columns and items and also votes for a candidate. A question is written at the top of the sheet and answers below, you need to choose one of them.

But it’s not always possible to do everything as planned. The board of the HOA may in every possible way prevent the meeting of residents; even the most basic premises may not be provided, or the residents may be deceived about the time and place of the meeting. And here we cannot do without a trial.

To win in court, you need to correctly draw up all the documents that the meeting was held in compliance with all requirements, and provide evidence of the chairman’s inaction.

And, having considered all this, the court can make a decision that will be in favor of the residents. If something was done incorrectly, then the meeting will have to be reassembled, because In this case, the court will side with the board.

Who can initiate?

In addition to understanding how to change the chairman of the HOA, you also need to know who has the right to re-elect, and who can do this. This can be done by:

• Residents of an apartment building that is managed by this HOA.
• Housing inspection.
• Tax and other government authorities.

All of them have the same right to appoint the re-election of the chairman of the HOA if the chairman poorly fulfills his direct official duties.

Government bodies may order an audit for re-election if any violations are detected, both financially and technically.

Procedure for transferring cases

After the meeting has been held, people have voted for a particular candidate, the main moment comes - the new chairman takes on the responsibilities and obligations of the previous one.
And the dismissed person resigns his powers and loses his former status as chairman - now he is an ordinary citizen and, if he begins to perform any actions that, so to speak, are the duties of the chairman, they no longer have any legal basis. Those. these actions will be considered illegal. When changing the chairman of an HOA, there is a certain procedure, a procedure for transferring affairs to a new person. In order to finally establish himself in such a position, the newly appointed chairman is required to carry out a number of steps step by step.

First of all, the dismissed chairman transfers to the new one everything necessary to ensure normal operation:

• work-related documents;
• instructions;
• keys to premises, safe;
• recent reports and estimates;
• various kinds of plans, etc.

No matter how good and respectable the new chairman may be, he still does not know what and how to do. He needs to be brought up to date, which is what the removed chairman should do. Therefore, it takes some time to adapt to a new position, to become familiar with all the nuances of working as the chairman of an HOA. Usually this period is up to two weeks. After this, the new chairman acts independently.

Change of HOA chairman: tax registration

Now the new chairman must perform a certain sequence of actions. You need to go to the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate - you need to register the voting results.

In addition, you need to bring a number of documents to this government body, along with the results:

• copy of the passport;
• HOA Charter;
• election protocol;
• receipt of payment of state duty;
• statement.

A sample application can be found on the Internet. All these documents must be verified, which takes a maximum of 7 days. If there are no violations, the filling was completed correctly, then the chairman receives the accounting department. The re-elected chairman becomes a registered official who can begin to fully perform his official duties.

If there are any violations in the documents, you will receive a refusal, which will indicate the errors present in the documents. This is not scary and does not mean that no more documents will be accepted. You just need to correct the existing errors and re-submit the documents to the specified inspection for re-registration.

Protocol of re-election

As stated above, when electing a new chairman of the Partnership, a special protocol must be drawn up.

This is an official document and all signatures left by those who voted and signed on it have legal force.

The protocol must take into account all the necessary details, such as:

• Date of preparation.
• Document type.
• Who is present at the meeting.
• Place of compilation.
• Signature.
• Who is the secretary, etc.

It should also indicate the reasons why the meeting is being held and all applicants for the position of chairman should be presented.

Protocol and order on taking office

The candidate for the post of chairman won the vote, registered, and now his activities must be consolidated by a new document - an order. Its preparation is a prerequisite in order to finally legitimize the activities of the new chairman.

As with the protocol, the order is drawn up taking into account all the necessary details that are on the standard form of the order to assume the position. It includes information about the new chairman - information from his passport is copied, as well as everything related to the Partnership itself .

Then this order is signed:

• HOA secretary;
• governing body;
• new chairman.

The order must be kept in a safe place, because the chairman is responsible for this document.

Process

According to Part 3 of Art. 147 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, the board of a homeowners’ association elects from among its members the chairman of the partnership, if the election of the chairman of the partnership is not within the competence of the general meeting of members of the partnership by the charter of the partnership. Who can initiate the process is established in the charter.

The procedure for changing the chairman in the event of a vote by HOA members:

1. After receiving all the necessary materials of the case, a general meeting of members is convened. Invitations are being distributed among the owners to host it. All residents must be notified in order for more than 50% of the owners to participate in the meeting. Only then will the decision of the meeting be valid.
2. Residents decide what kind of voting (secret or open) will be held. Voting can be in person (at a general meeting) and in absentia (by door-to-door visits).
3. Residents are informed in advance about possible candidates for the post of chairman, get acquainted and communicate with them.
4. The meeting is provided with information and evidence that the current chairman of the board is not coping with his duties. Next comes discussion and voting.
5. The head is removed from office by an absolute majority vote. If less than half of the participants vote for re-election, the chairman remains in his previous position.
6. The voting results must be entered into the minutes.
7. The new chosen one must appear at the housing committee and the tax authority to re-register the documentation in his name.
8. The partnership issues an order to assume the position of chairman. The order specifies the passport details of the new manager and contact information about the HOA. The document is signed by members of the board, the housing committee, and the tax authority. The new chairman takes office from the moment the last signature is received.

If a decision is made by the board, the actions are similar.