ASHOKA LION HOMEOWNER ASSOCIATION COVID-19 PROCESS UPDATES

Ashoka Lion has instituted changes for our Houston and Dallas HOA management clients in keeping with the spirit of the protocols and regulations to help battle the COVID-19 Pandemic.



HOA BOARD MEETINGS


In accordance with the order from the Governor of the State of Texas in March 2020, every person in Texas shall avoid social gatherings in groups of more than 10 people. HOA communities still have obligations for regular board meeting and annual meetings.  However, the laws in Texas do not mandate that HOA meet in person.  In fact, according to the Texas Property Code, board meetings can be held by electronic or telephonic means ( Section 209.0051(c-2) ) as long as each board member can hear each other and, except for executive session, all owners in attendance hear all the board members. Also, notice of the meeting needs to include instructions on how to access any communication method used to conduct the meeting.


Electronic Open to the community HOA meeting sessions:

Ashoka Lion has developed platforms and processes to conduct HOA meeting electronically. In a electronic meeting, the HOA manager and the board conduct the following business in the open to public session.  These include the following items:


 

  • Fines (without providing specific owner information)
  • Damage assessments (without providing specific owner information)
  • Initiation of foreclosure actions (without providing specific owner information)
  • Initiation of enforcement action, excluding threats to safety or temporary restraining orders (without providing specific owner information)
  • Increases in assessments
  • Levying of special assessments
  • Appeals regarding ACC applications
  • Suspension of member rights before an owner can appeal (without providing specific owner information)
  • Lending or borrowing money
  • Adoption or amendment of a dedicatory instrument
  • Approval of an annual budget or approval of an amendment of an annual budget that will increase the budget by more than 10 percent
  • Sale or purchase of real property
  • Filling of a vacancy on the board
  • The construction of capital improvements other than repair, replacement, or enhancement of existing capital improvements
  • Election of an officer

 


Electronic Closed to Community HOA board executive sessions:

Our Association Managers help the HOA board conduct executive sessions where they can discuss more private and sensitive areas. The items can be put in the minutes in a general manner to avoid violating individual owners privacy.  These items include:

 

  • Actions involving personnel
  • Pending or threatened litigation
  • Contract negotiations
  • Enforcement actions
  • Confidential communications with the HOA’s attorney
  • Matters involving the invasion of privacy of individual owners
  • Matters that are to remain confidential by request of the affected parties and agreement of the board


Electronic Recording of HOA Meetings:

Ashoka Lion can record meeting to help the HOA board better prepare minutes and insure other members of the community can later hear about the events of the meeting.


Text and Email Campaigns to advertise the Homeowner Association Annual meeting:


HOA board meeting are advertised by email and text announcements by our Association Managers to help increase participation and quorum. Our HOA manager supplement traditional mail efforts with these efforts to insure greater participation at HOA annual meetings.


HOA payments


Ashoka Lion does not accept payment of HOA dues at our office:

Our HOA team has instructed all homeowners to no longer mail payments to our office as the USPS services have been strained by the online ordering happening during the COVID 19 pandemic.  Therefore, payments mailed to our office and then we mail those payments to the lockbox where the payments should be sent. This process increase time for payments to be applied to accounts, but it increase the risk the payments will be lost. Therefore, we are now warning owners that if they continue to mail payments to our office, then Ashoka Lion will charge a processing fee to those owners for forwarding the payment to the appropriate HOA bank lockbox.







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