Website Legality

Perhaps community 123.com will provide info on this subject. You can remove the concerns about privacy by having pulic pages plus separate private pages which can only be accessed by a members only login. A web site needs to have privacy protection for certain HOA info, such as a membership directory with names, addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses which have had prior approval for publication.

Roger

To elaborate further, as Roger mentioned, personal information, such as addresses, etc, should only be published with permission from the homeowner.

First, I'm no attorney and the opinion below comes from my research only:

The opinion I've seen in my research is that the Board has a fiduciary duty/obligation only to its members, not to prospective buyers or the public at large.

How does this apply to a public web site? If the Board publishes documents that have an adverse affect on the community or a member, then there could be some liability for the association. Some hypothetical examples:
(1) A prospective buyer signs a purchase agreement, then backs out because of negative information it finds on your public web site (some feedback in your newsletter, some item in your financials, etc). You don't know what someone may consider negative. If that information was not a required disclosure item under your state law, then might the Board/association be liable to that homeowner for making them lose the sale?
(2) A Florida condo HOA publicly publishes their financials which show a relatively low reserve fund. The local newspaper is doing a story on the effect of hurricanes on local homeowners called, "Condos going broke!", where it lists your neighborhood as one to stay away from, due to it's low reserve fund and the potential for a huge member assessment after the next storm. Even if the community was in the process of addressing the issue, the damage is done.

The basic idea here is that the Board should only make documents publicly available that it is required to do so by law. Disclosing more may actually open up the Board/Association to liability. Please note that this is not a discussion of ethics and right and wrong, only Board obligations. It's not a matter of the Board trying to hide anything from the public; rather following the rules of it's obligations to its members.

It's better to publish most HOA information in a private, password protected website that only members can access. Of course, Community123.com (the creators of HOATalk) would be happy to provide you with such a web site :-) .

Lisa,
This may be beterr asked as a new thread but...
How are you suggesting to use he Freedom of Information Act to "force" an HOA (incorporated) to release information.

Our current HOA board is being very closed in their dealings and our attempts to get the board to release vendor contracts, management agreements, and the like are meeting a brick wall.

I just wanted to know how to use the FIA as another way to get this information.

Thanks

HOA's are not governmental bodies, hence, are not covered by the Freedom of Information Act.

A website is a good tool, but can not replace the responsibility of the boards to post and mail association related matters. Believe it or not, everyone does not have access to the web.
A member login is critical.
The minutes should be in PDF format as opposed to word format. PDF will keep the minutes from being easily reproduced or changed.

Gerald

An HOA's website should be designed so that there are pages that the public could visit, so that if someone is shopping for a home within that community can easily have certain information that would help in the decision of whether to purchase within that neighborhood.

The secured pages should have the downloads to membership only information such as newsletters, Minutes of the Meetings etc.

As a member of that community you have the right to see certain documents as per your governing articles.

As a board I would not recommend posting who is delinquent, however the board could say there are 9 owners in arrears totaling X amount of dollars.

I think communities need to keep up with the changes in technology. Websites are a common part of today's lives and people are becoming more and more accustomed to turning to the web for information. I agree with others that information sensitvie to the association such as minutes, etc. either be password protected or not put on at all. But a well constructed and informative website can be a valuable tool for both current owners and prospective buyers.