Q: We have a past HOA secretary that will not turn over past documents. How can we get her to turn them over?
She was asked following her term in 2018. Recently since May of last year she has been asked again repeatedly. She says she has them but shrugs it off as forgetting to bring them when she is on site. These are important to our history and what decisions were made in the past. We are in Puerto Rico.
A: If the HOA covers a condominium, the first forum would be to go before the Department of Consumer Affairs. If it is a closed urbanization or community, you could file a lawsuit against the former secretary before a court of law. However, before taking that drastic of a measure, the current president should send a certified mail with receipt request to the ex secretary, requiring her to produce and bring the documents within the 15 days following receipt of the letter. Once the fifteen days are up or said letter is not claimed in the post office, you can sue her. Once served, the court can order her under penalty of contempt to produce the documents. That being said, my gut feeling is that she either does not have the documents, has lost them or somehow they are not available.
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