Comment by nrmitchi
5 hours ago
> that typically allows people to gain tremendous power and authority without anyone voting for them
Come on, at least try. HOAs (typically, your word) have elections. Someone doesn't just walk in and declare themselves the association president.
This is exactly what happens for many HOAs around the country.
Typically elections would take place during the annual meeting. Usually there is such low community engagement that there is no home owner quorum under the Covenants Conditions & Restrictions. Depending on the CC&Rs a property management or build rep will appoint the open board seats, or for example in the case of my HOA they will go by default to whomever is attending the meeting and wants the spot, assuming the current board doesn't object to that person.
For my association the board has basically been self appointing each other and their spouses for the last 15+ years. The current president has managed to obtain several proxy votes of rental property owners and the current board members use these to overrule any objections to them reseating themselves. They also squash any attempts to force a community wide vote, because again lack of quorum. Basically impossible to get enough people to actually attend the meeting to get the current board replaced, especially when they've gone all digital and tend to cancel/reschedule the meetings last minute and then provide very little notice of the new time.