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In case you’re not familiar with how HOAs work, they’re more like a dictatorship than a democracy. Sure, there’s voting that happens, but the HOA president often acts like a dictator who demands to have her (or his) way, and often, the board is just as awful and goes along with horrible decisions.
In this story, one HOA president makes a decision that upsets everyone else who lives in the condo. She was clearly selfish when she made this decision and didn’t consider the consequences.
Keep reading to find out what happens when the tenants complain at the board meeting.
HOA President wanted heat!
I manage a NYC condo with central A/C that, once switched to winter mode, can’t go back to cooling until spring.
NYC law requires heat starting October 1st, but October swings from chilly to unseasonably warm, so we usually wait for a real cold stretch before turning it on.
Tenants were fine with this for years — one chilly day was better than being unbearably hot for ten.
But the board president got cold and cranky.
Last year, the board president lost it over a slightly chilly day towards the middle of October .
She sent an email demanding we turn on the heating system immediately and that going forward, the heat must always be on by October 1st — she didn’t care if other units would be uncomfortably warm and that she’s the board president, & she should be comfortable in her unit.
This year, we followed her orders , on October 1st — heat on.
Now, everyone’s unhappy.
At the annual meeting, tenants were furious. They wanted to know why a system that had worked for years was suddenly “broken.”
The president started chewing me out forgetting her email the previous year.
Not wanting to deal with her nonsense, I got the green light from my boss to pull up her own email on the projector. Her exact words, her exact demands.
Things changed again.
She went pale and, for the first time ever, had nothing to say.
She lost her position in the election.
Her replacement was very happy we called her out, and we renewed our contract for five more years
That clearly didn’t work out well for the board president. Hopefully the new president makes better decisions.
Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.
This person can relate to the situation with the heat and air conditioning.
Another person shares their opinion of HOA presidents.
Apparently not.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a couple who is sick and tired of their neighbor’s kids dumping trash on their patio.
I’d hate to live like this too.
It can be hard enough to agree on the temperature with family members who live in your home. I can’t imagine having to decide for an entire condo building whether to turn on the heat of air conditioning. That sounds so unreasonable!
The best part of this story is that the tenants remember that the HOA president doesn’t have all the power. I love that they voted her out.
Making a selfish decision can really backfire.