South Fulton debates HOA accountability, lacks quorum to vote on proposal

SOUTH FULTON, Ga. - A proposal to hold homeowners associations more accountable in South Fulton failed to come up for a vote in a city council meeting that lasted late into the night. The measure would have established a task force to collect complaints from residents and curb what one councilwoman calls predatory activity.

Patricia Wise, a resident of a South Fulton subdivision, says her community lives with an absentee HOA board member. 

"It’s a problem," Wise said. "We have a member of the board who allegedly doesn’t live in the community. But is on the board." 

Wise said that makes it hard to hold the HOA accountable. 

"When you’re paying for a home in a subdivision and your board is supposed to be comprised of homeowners, and then you have someone who doesn’t live there, it’s like a betrayal," she said.

Councilwoman Linda Becquer-Pritchett, (District-7), says some boards are hitting homeowners with frivolous fees and intimidating residents. 

"It’s egregious, it’s terrible, Pritchett said. "It’s to the point that people are getting fined, liens on their homes, even the threat of foreclosure."

Pritchett tried to propose a task force to hold HOAs more accountable. 

"The citizens can talk about the issues they are experiencing and the abuses that are happening within their communities," she said. "We can provide recommendations to the state."

Pritchett says council members left throughout the meeting, leaving the panel without enough members to have a quorum to vote. Pritchett says it is not clear if it will come up for a vote will ever come up for a vote.

Councilwoman Helen Willis says she supports HOA accountability. 

"A lot of the declarants running HOAs are rogue," Willis said. When asked if Pritchett’s proposal would hold HOAs accountable, Willis responded "I think some of the language will, but I think we need to go deeper."

Willis says she supports another proposal to hold HOAs fiscally responsible. 

"We already have something on the table called the HOA transparency ordinance," Willis said. That proposal, she said, would "make them have to do audits. They have to have a certain amount of percentage in the bank account for residents, make sure that the common areas are inspected in good condition before they turn the HOAs over."