Condo Owners Angry with Board’s Secrecy

M.K. from Pennsylvania writes:

Dear Mister Condo,

What are the homeowner rights in Pennsylvania to attend all board meetings? We have a real mess from the last president and board who have not done their job. People were angry at the last yearly meeting where we voted in a new president. The past President responded to a question as to why an expenditure was made and his response was “we are the board and we make all decisions”. The community went ballistic to say the least. We plan on attending all meetings to protect our financial investment as our condo sat for a year with no sale due to the poor maintenance. The condo rules and regulations book does not specifically address this. We have a local real estate management company but they are worse than the board. Thank You for your website.

Mister Condo replies:

M.K., I am sorry that you have had such issues with your previous association leaders. I am not an attorney nor am I an expert is Pennsylvania Community Association Law. I did review the Pennsylvania Uniform Condominium Act. Chapter 33 deals with unit owner’s rights and meetings but I don’t see anything that allows for unit owners to attend meetings of the Board of Directors. That being said the Minutes of those meetings are association records and are available to all unit owners once approved. You might want to check with a local qualified attorney for a legal answer. Since there was an issue with the transparency of the Board’s operations recently, you might suggest that allowing unit owners to observe (not comment or vote) at Board meetings would be a great way to dispel any uncertainty as to what actions the Board is taking on the association’s behalf. Depending on how the Board feels about it, you might just get an invite. Good luck!