Breach of Contract: The ‘Official’ Lake Shore HOA Facebook Group – Not So Official

Today, Trevor announced on the Facebook Group that the HOA Board use as an official platform to make announcements to the HOA members, and to answer questions to the Board from HOA Members, that he was removing members of the FB group who had made negative comments on that group.  By negative, I am assuming he meant ‘negative comments not made by himself, or Jeff, or other Board members’, rather, comments not in agreement with a statement by himself or other Board member.

And this is the day after someone created a new Facebook identity, then copied, retyped, and crudely edited posts made on the Lake Shore Speaks Out FB Group before posting these on the Lake Shore HOA FB Group.  

Below is an email I just sent to Lanier, because there is a contract between the HOA and its members: we pay our dues, in return, we get the amenities and courtesies as specified in the Lake Shore HOA Covenants, ByLaws and Design Standards.  Amongst these things are timely communication from the HOA Board about HOA matters.  If only those HOA Members that are ‘approved’ by Trevor, Jeff and the other Board members are allowed to have (1) access to the Board Members (none of whom chose to announce their email addresses, phone numbers or street addresses); (2) access to Board announcements made exclusively on the Lake Shore HOA Facebook group.

Email just sent to Lanier:

The Facebook Group claiming to be the official conduit to the HOA Board members has been removing HOA members in good standing and blocking others. Currently, I can see there is a group, but have been removed. 

This does mean that any Board announcements on that Group do not count as being given to the HOA membership. If they wish to announce anything, they will have to send these via the mail or have Lanier do an email blast. Despite this group claiming to be the conduit to the HOA Board, by removing HOA members in good standing, they have removed any claim to be an official HOA group. 

I understand that Trevor announced that anyone who had posted anything negative to the HOA FB Group was to be removed. Since a vast number of negative comments on the HOA FB group originated from Trevor and Jeff, they should have removed themselves first. 

It is not the Boards prerogative to remove access from Board Announcements, given on a platform describing itself as the official conduit to the HOA Board members, from HOA Members. They must either cease giving exclusive announcements to HOA members on this forum and remove any description that this is an official Board conduit or restore ALL HOA members access to this group.

Once the HOA Board declared the FB Group as an official conduit to the HOA Board, and because the Board make official HOA Board announcements on this platform, that are not made available by mail or email blast via Lanier, or other means, they have elevated this social media platform to an official state. In much the same way that the President of this country was forbidden to block comments on his Twitter account, due to the use of this account for official announcements, the Lake Shore HOA Facebook Group Is an official HOA platform. I do not believe it is legal for HOA Members In good standing or not to be denied access to the HOA Board and its pronouncements. 

The removal of HOA Members from information disseminated by their HOA Board will become one more item in any legal action taken against the HOA and the HOA Board.

Thank you for your help in this matter.