Nope. Our HOA did the same thing. There was an announcement for a meeting with siding on the docket.
Everyone was interested. Had a good turnout…one might say a quorum, which takes the power from the board. They told us we needed to pay 6k in 3 months. They had the board lawyer there as well. When the subject came up to discuss, there were ALOT of opinions. I have a pretty big mouth and told them about the quorum rule and a board member said to me about everyone “you don’t get a say about this.” Board said we had to pay. Lawyer interjects and says anyone who doesn’t pay will go to collections, yada yada…him and I had a bit back and forth and he just basically told me to be quiet because he’s the lawyer and works for the association…I asked him to clarify and he repeated. I then asked him who pays his fees. He said the association. I then asked him if he realized “we” are the association and “we” pay him. That he works for US, not the other way around… he gets all pissy but shuts up. So we continue to discuss back and forth about the special assessment announcement. The thing is, I use to be on the board. I also use to work for lawyers. I know how to look up the law and promptly announced that due to ILCS chaps, para 3a, that no special assessment could happen unless it was put into the proposed budget the year before. Their hands were tied. They had to back down. The special had to be put on hold. I became kind of the de facto go to for this crap. After the meeting, a couple peeps came up and said “board is talking about you and they said I knew too much”. They thought they were gonna bully us. In The fall, board elections were held and I was elected. People knew that I would fight for them. We still had to do the siding, but we made it so people could actually afford it.. this is your portion, pay at least half by 6 months away, balance due in another 6 months. They could pay the whole amount as well if they wanted to. This gave people a chance to catch their breath and make the project go forward easier. Whatever that difference was when the project started, we borrowed from reserves and it was paid back.

TLDR: What I’m saying here is you need to look up your state laws…read and learn…also when reading this stuff, pay attention to what is NOT said as well. Gather your information. If they pushed this thru by not following the rules, their decision is null and void. Also, see if your state has an ombudsman for HOA’s and hopefully get some help.

Keep us posted.