Condo Association Management Blog

I'm not a lawyer, but the by-laws are a legal document and you will be governed by state laws. 
 
You should consider the legal costs you will most likely incur and how it would affect other interests, ie: Mortgage Holders, etc.

We hired an attorney to review our bylaws and update where necessary. It cost us just over 8,000 and they only changed about five lines - re the garden in back and a line re what to charge for late payments and some other minor thing that I cannot recall at the moment - maybe a change away from cumulative voting. The back garden does not exist. And the Board never charged late fees for the past two years. I'd confirm that there is an absolute necessity before doing this. And just updating does not include filing fees, etc.

In Alaska, the board may change the governing documents, only with 1/3 or 1/2 of the homeowner's agreeing to the change. Can't remember the exact percentage needed to change a bylaw? 
 
I agree with Mary. The cost to review and re-write a few lines of verbiage in bylaws is a costly and expensive endeavor. 
 

A "Rules Committee" should review By-laws,Regulations, Rules annually. Changes,additions, edits may all be made in Florida, but they must be voted on by ___________. Lawyers are not necessary; although there could be consideration given to having an attorney review the changes suggested by the Rules Committee.  
 
Be careful that your changes are consistent with DOCs. If changes are warranted in the DOCs a different, more stringent process is followed.

In Washington State it may be limited by state law. Here is an attached link. http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=64.34 
 
 
 
As this has to be filed with the county it is a legal document and should be reviewed by a licensed attorney. Our governing documents require that any change must be approved by a majority of homeowners.

We have "SUMMARIZED" our by-laws to include our updates overtime. We clearly labeled the document as Summary for Clarification. Include a disclaimer that the summary is not intended to replace the legal doc, but is designed to clarify and make the by-laws user-friendly.

Your governing documents will spell out the percentage of ownership approval that is required to make changes to your documents. Whether an attorney drafts these changes or not, more than likely they will have to be approved by at least 51% of the owners (and in some states, the mortgage holders) up to 75% or more of the owners. Also, any changes (amendments) that you make to your documents must comply with your state laws governing condominiums. These laws, especially if they are recently changed, are the only thing that will give the association any authority to make SOME, but not all, changes to the documents without a majority vote of the owners. And, then, those changes that can be enacted without the majority approval of the owners is only some of those needed to bring an association's documents in compliance with changes in your state's laws. Most documents give associations the power to enact rules and regulations to supplement their documents. This is a good place to take some of the legal language and put it into plain English about what can and cannot be done in a condominium community. As already stated, any amendment to an association's docments, must be recorded with the county and becomes a permanent part of the government documents.

OWNERS THAT LIVE IN THE CONDO'S AND DO NOT FEEL THEY HAVE TO PAY THEIR DUES WHAT DO YOU DO I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU CAN CALL THE MORTAGE LENDER AND LET THEM KNOW ND THEY CAN DO A FORCLOSURE TRUE OF FALSE

Ms Mcallister must contact an attorney before taking any action.

User friendly should be the norm in every condo. After it is written have the lawyers go over it. I knew a Harvard trained lawyer who retired at age 75 and decided to take up re-writing insurance contracts for insurance companies and putting them into plain English... He gave up, saying that he couldn't understand the original legalese.

What kind of changes are you wanting to make? 
Usually a 2/3 majority is required. 
My hoa is trying to change ours to an easier to read doc but it isnt any easier and is still subject to interpretation. 
Also, they are trying to back handly bite us in the ass by allowing themselves unlimited spending/borrowing and ruling and regulating all freedom away from the owners in order to set up a near dictatorship. 
The board has power to get away with many things already. Be careful, what you may do now could have harmful effects years later when you arent there anymore. 
Less rules is better. Look no further than our government to see where too much law can get you.

I agree 100% with mikes last statement. Too many GD rules are coming from the government. Last week the "Marine Police" in Pompano arrested a boat captain for having too many people on board and not enough life preservers. What business is that of the government? People should be allowed to take responciblity for there own lifes. The captains God given right to make money shouold not be interfered with by the army. This is cummunist stuff.

Be careful of the cost. We spent about 10,000 and then only changed about five lines - one about the name of the garden area and another about late fees which they have not enforced to date anyway. Way to much. Am happy to send you a copy of the wording that we changed if you'd like.

Just realized I had posted earlier - but it was actually about 10,000.  
 
Also, our Board just had an attorney review something re definition of capital improvements versus modification of ceiling of a deck - someone wanted to put up a very nice ceiling that would blend with the building and at first the attorney said we needed an amendment to the bylaws, cha ching, and suddenly he is interpreting it as a modification to the building. It seems to me that the "definitions" change according to the needs of the Board and the attorneys concur because the case law is every changing and statutes become interpreted differently based upon the facts. We are still wondering why this "new" attorney isn't charging us anything for all his free advice.

EXPLAIN THE LAW FOR HOA AUDIT - ANNUAL, OUTSIDE, CPA? THX

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