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Has anyone found a Revised Statute that claims that the revised statutes supersede CC&R,s and HOA By-laws? I can't. Or any information making that claim.
Laws that address condo, common interest and master associations are at the state level.
In my own state ( Illinois) there are now clear provisions within the law that when there is conflict between the law and governing documents, the law trumps the governing documents.
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
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CA has a law (Davis Stirling) that governs how HOA's conduct their business. Basically any HOA that doesn't adhere to the provisions of the law can be fined.
Middle age Mom. Thank you for taking time to reply. I agree with what you said but let me be more specific. The manager of our Propery Management Company replied to a letter I sent the President of our Association requesting, why the Board failed to comply with our By-laws. (It took 82 days to get their answer)
We have a by-law that says: Pay recurring bills without membership approval, however, except one (1) time expenditures of over one-thousand dollars ($1000,00) will require membership approval.
They paid a $19,000.00 bill without membership approval and I questioned it.This is their answer:
The Board in consultation with the CCR's made decisions at our budget meeting last year about the lawns. The Board subsequently presented the results to the membership at the annual meeting.The board has fiduciary responsibilty to the membership and the best option was presented and completed.
There were ony17 families at that annual meeting. I believe the board members were included in that figure.
There was no mention that our by-law conflicted with anything. There was no mention that of membership approval.
That same Property manager is the one that told me that the State Revised Laws supersede our HOA's governing laws. I do not believe our by-law, in this case conflicted with our State Statutes and I believe that the answer I received was just blowing smoke to cover up the Board's failure to comply with our by-law,for whatever reason.
In addition, I have been unable to locate any specific provision anywhere that say's that Revised Statutes supersede HOA's governing document.
We had serious HOA Board violations and the BOD knowingly operated for decades in violation of state HOA laws. (They had failed to to annex a section of the subdivision correctly). Your docs will state what constitutes a quorum, when proxies are allowed, what kind of notice is required for one-time expendatures and so on.
Start collecting the minutes from prior membership meetings, request a copy of the budget. It's not a real stretch to take shortcuts when apathetic homeowners won't get involved in their own community (not referring to you). This problem plagues HOA's across the country. Frustration can prompt not following the rules. Keep on this. If there was abuse, it may even be covered by a liability policy many HOA's carry on their Board of Directors. (A stretch, but worth pursuing).
To Middle-aged Mom and Smart Money:I live in Arizona. Did I mention that it took 82 days and several reminders before I received a reply to my letter. I have since sent another letter (july 9th.) to the President asking if she was aware of the reply I received and approved it since her name was not on the response letter. I also noticed that the letter said that 17 families were at the Annual Meeting. Families have only one (1) vote. Now I'm beginning to think they may not have had a quorum. I'll have to check that out among other things. As far as complying with the by-law that states it requires membership approval, I hope the Board didn't think that a few, very few members that attended that annual meeting didn't justified membership approval. In any event, his response never mentioned that at the Board meeting any vote was taken. I'll keep you both informed. By the way Middle -aged Mom at 88 years old I guess I should sign off as Old Man.
To Middle-aged Mom and Smart Money:I live in Arizona. Did I mention that it took 82 days and several reminders before I received a reply to my letter. I have since sent another letter (july 9th.) to the President asking if she was aware of the reply I received and approved it since her name was not on the response letter. I also noticed that the letter said that 17 families were at the Annual Meeting. Families have only one (1) vote. Now I'm beginning to think they may not have had a quorum. I'll have to check that out among other things. As far as complying with the by-law that states it requires membership approval, I hope the Board didn't think that a few, very few members that attended that annual meeting didn't justified membership approval. In any event, his response never mentioned that at the Board meeting any vote was taken. I'll keep you both informed. By the way Middle -aged Mom at 88 years old I guess I should sign off as Old Man.
To Middle-aged Mom and Smart Money:I live in Arizona. Did I mention that it took 82 days and several reminders before I received a reply to my letter. I have since sent another letter (july 9th.) to the President asking if she was aware of the reply I received and approved it since her name was not on the response letter. I also noticed that the letter said that 17 families were at the Annual Meeting. Families have only one (1) vote. Now I'm beginning to think theymay not have had a quorum. I'll have to check that out among other things. As far as complying with the by-law that states it requires membership approval, I hope the Board didn't think that a few, very few members that attended that annual meeting didn't justified membership approval. In any event, his response never mentioned that at the Board meeting any vote was taken. I'll keep you both informed. By the way Middle -aged Mom at 88 years old I guess I should sign off as Old Man.
My HOA is 45 years old and so are the governing docs. Prior to just a few years ago, the common interpretation of our bylaws was that a majority of 10 % of members had to vote by proxy or in person to approve the annual budget and elect board members. My association was oblivious that there were state laws that trumped our bylaws and likely never had a legal election.
When an election is not legal, it's easy to challenge any action taken by the board.
This stuff persisted not because anyone was trying to pull the wool over and all that. Instead, everyone did as prior boards did and never subjected their governing docs to a legal audit with the law cause that costs $$$. It's been quite an eye opener since then. My HOA is self -managed. If your HOA is professionally managed, your property manager should be up to speed on laws in your state.
Arizona has substantial laws for HOAs and several amendements this year.
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