Suspended 37 years HOA

I just finished a trial against an HOA involving the Business Judgment Doctrine. It gives the HOA Board very broad discretion when it makes decisions. Judges will not substitute their own choices for the Board's. In many cases, the Board is going to be represented by an attorney appointed and paid for by your HOA's insurance. You will be paying your attorney by the hour, and the HOA Board will be getting it's defense for free. The attorney fees are likely to be high, for two reasons. First, the insurance company's attorney works for less per hour, both because the insurance company gives them lots of work and pays regularly, and because the insurance company lets them run up the bill because it knows that the HOA almost always wins and can obtain reimbursement for its attorney from you. And that's the second reason. The insurance company and its attorney know that they are going to win and get you to reimburse them. In almost all cases, in any lawsuit with an HOA, the prevailing party is entitled to reimbursment from the non-prevailing party. If you don't pay, the HOA can sell your condo to recover the fees. Unless you have an extraordinarily solid case, don't sue your HOA. If your HOA Board is as bad as you suggest, you need to get your neighbors together to vote in a new slate of Board members who will do a better job for you. Hire a really good condominium management company and a good HOA lawyer to show you how to do it all correctly. I recommend my best friend Glenn Youngling in San Rafael 415-454-1090. He has been doing this for 30 years, and has a great staff who keep the cost of all the compliance reasonable.   If you appreciate this free advice, please remember to refer me to any friends or acquaintances who need a lawyer. Referrals are still our best source of new business. Do you have a revocable living trust to protect your heirs against probate? Probate takes forever, is expensive, and is annoying. Do your family a favor. Set up a trust, and put all your property, especially any real property, into the trust. Since it is revocable, you can change it, add to it, take property out of it, or even cancel it completely, at any time. We set up such trusts, provide a pour-over will as a back-up for any property that does not make it into the trust, provide you with blank durable powers of attorney for health care and financial decisions, in case you become incapable of making such decisions while still alive, and convey one piece of real property to the trust, usually the family home, for $1500.00. If you would like to hire me to do this, let me know, and I'll send you a list of the information I need. Dana Sack