Brunswick residents share HOA concerns at Raleigh hearing

Brunswick County residents journeyed to Raleigh this week to push for legislative reform regarding homeowners associations.

Laura Lewis

Peter Kirkby, a candidate for the Carolina Shores POA, complained this week his POA board is trying to slip through a bylaw change on member ballots for POA candidates.

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Ole Madsen, a resident of Oyster Harbour at Holden Beach, was among those who spoke Monday at a state House hearing.

The meeting was an opportunity, he said, for people to express concerns, “about people who have been abused or mistreated or somehow have a problem with HOAs—it’s a long, long story,” Madsen said. “I could write volumes. It’s one of the biggest abuses around. I don’t even know where to start.”

Basically, he said, HOA boards “sort of take over. The people don’t really know what to do.”

Fines can be implemented for violations. When fines aren’t paid, the board can get a lien and take property away, he said.

“The whole thing is totally rotten,” Madsen said. “What happens is nobody obeys the law.”

There are many instances and complaints about HOA boards becoming dictatorial, he said.

“They just tell you what to do. These are people that are your neighbors. All of a sudden they get voted in and their head swells up.”

Complaints about HOA boards having too much carte blanche and power in North Carolina are not new.

Carolina Shores resident Peter Kirkby complained this week his own POA board is trying to slip through a bylaw change that must be signed before members’ ballots cast for three new POA directors can be validated.

“Over the past two years, instead of acting on behalf of property owners, they’ve been doing their own thing,” said Kirkby, a candidate for one of three available director seats up for renewal. Votes are to be cast at the board’s annual meeting at 3 p.m. Feb. 4 at the Carolina Shores POA Clubhouse.

POA and HOA issues are complicated, Madsen said.

“After a while, you’re going to have to sue them just to get normal rights,” he said.

HOAs involve 53 percent of North Carolina’s population.

“The problem with complaints is nobody will take them,” he said. “There isn’t one government agency that will take a complaint.”

While some HOAs are OK, there are problems when residents don’t know the law and don’t know their rights, Madsen said.

Kirkby complained his community POA implemented a “confidentiality agreement” every board member had to sign or be excluded from executive sessions.

Madsen said it happens all the time among HOAs—“secret meetings, secret deals. They don’t obey the law. If someone objects, they just hire an attorney. Basically, no judge wants to hear it, it’s such a can of worms.”

Madsen said he’s taking his concerns to Raleigh because “enough people are mad enough to do something about it.”

Within the next 30 days, he plans to launch a nonprofit homeowners education group, using the acronym HEAR, to address concerns.

During his allotted three-minute speech Monday, Madsen told the House committee the meaning of N.C. Planned Community Act 47F, passed 12 years ago to address HOAs, has not only been ignored, but misinterpreted, “mainly to give control to the board of directors.”

As an elected board member and vice president, Madsen said he was “repeatedly publicly

humiliated and threatened for opposing this abuse of the board. This only stopped after the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Department arrested the alleged suspect.”

Madsen’s recommendations for HOAs are for a bill of rights to be included in the Planned Community Act, to prohibit proxy voting, that board members be licensed or sign a statement they have read and understand 47F, Robert’s Rules and the “standard for directors” of the Nonprofit Corporation Act.

He also recommended enforcement of a board’s activities by a government agency.