cc&r

CCR's are documents that are filed with the court, right? Why can you not type an ammendment and file it yourselves? Is an attorney actually required?

FrankT - You're in California? I read Davis and Sterling and it's very good in many areas, seems to have anticipated many hoa situations.

In section (d) of Davis Sterling it states the board of directors of the association may not amend the governing documents without the apporval of the owners, casting a majoriy of the votes and that more than 50% will be required for a meeting or election of the association constituting a quorum to take action to amend.

You need a majority vote of owners, so let me play devil's advocate. Where did the request to amend your cc&r's come from? What is outdated, is anything not in compliance with the law? An argument could (and probably should) be made that it doesn't make sense to amend the cc&r's piecemeal rather to do it all and seek community amendment once in final form. This will cut down on legal, and time and energy costs.

Do you need an attorney, probably not. But I recommend your HOA get one to help with the formalities, and possible legal contradictions to Davis and Sterling.

Certainly begin the process by getting amendment discussion onto a published agenda for your next open meeting to the community. This must be the first step you take. Otherwise, won't the board be in an awkward position if someone feels the rules are just fine and they start changing without due process? I come back to my question, where did the request for amendment come from? What's not working in your HOA that an amendment would fix?

An agenda item for amendment is sure to stir some of the "sleeping giants" so to speak and get people interested, and hopefully provide input. Even if it dies on the grapevine. If your pulse on the community tells you owner apathy may occur, you may just publish an agenda item that states your cc&r's need to be updated and amended as they are in conflict with Davis and Sterling. This opens up amendment discussions and the community input may flow. What you probably need are covenants that are more in touch with the times and your community dynamics. The covenants you develop need to be in compliance with the law and benefit the eligible mortgage holders.

Spend the next year or so advertising to form a legal committee for the purpose of looking into the governing documents and rules and regs. Include the agenda item and provide updates until it is achieved.

Hope the methodology helps.

GeraldT1

Frank,

If you don't see anything that is of concern or in non-compliance of sterling, and the other board members agree, than an expense to amend is not warranted. Therefore, my suggestion for wording of an agenda item (cc&r's need to be updated and amended as they are in conflict with Davis and Sterling) does not apply. However, if I was on your BOD, I'd propose an agenda item to state: Develop Team to Research Compliance of Current CC&R's and (the unit owner(s) name) Proposed CC&R's to state laws and Davis and Sterling. I would seek a discussion with the source(s) of the new cc&r you received, why was it expanded to "everything else"? Seems there's an agenda that is exclusive instead of a cc&r amendment process that is all inclusive. Your last line states the new request copy of the cc&r have more restrictions. This is not good. Look at your governing documents, there may be passages about amending current rules that restrict owners.

All I'm advocating is a process that is inclusive and gets the ball rolling on community input.

GeraldT1