HOA covenents

Do minutes in a meeting at add to covenants? Is the covenents that are registered the only law that stands?

board makes rules at a meeting they are voted on and approved. The only record of this is the meeting notes. Can these rules stand?

we would need more info to fully answer Scott... Mary is correct, if everything is kosher, and all things are done properly, then yes, the board can make rules and add them to the covenants.

However, in my experience, it is likely that your HOA board is NOT doing the process correctly, and thus, minutes taken at a meeting and forced upon the owners as "gospel" wouldn't likely hold water in a lawsuit.

again, IF the meetings are proper (per your bylaws) and the voting is proper, then the rules are created as you vote. Recording in minutes is fine, however, you really need to get them into a record that ALL homeowners and POTENTIAL homeowners can see. If they are not part of the recorded covenants, and your HOA does not supply all the rules to a potential buyer, your HOA is asking for a lawsuit later in life, when someone buys a home and then finds out that trucks, beer, dogs over 100 pounds, kids, basketball goals, russian olives, etc. are banned from the HOA by the rules they never saw published only in the minutes they never got.

there should be by laws, those are the rules on how you do business.. elect officers, conduct meetings, duties, hold elections, etc. if you don't have them, you need to write them.

if you don't have by laws, what do you have? Covenants? Are they recorded? Are you incorporated in the state?

Scott,

I doubt you can include the rules in the covenants. Traditionally the covenants can only be amended by the members. However, in most assn docs, the board has the authority to enact additional rules w/o a vote of the members. These board-adopted rules have the same weight as the covenants. These rules should be maintained by the Board sec. in a separate binder indicating the date adopted. Copies should be provided to all the members of the assn. and also made a part of the pkg. of info provided to new property owners.

Our cc&rs allow the board to create rules and regs as long as they don't conflict w/the docs or laws of a higher authority. In other words we made a rule- no ball playing in the park. We posted a sign. Our docs are silent about whether the board has to notify the membership after a rule adoption. We print an article in the quarterly newsletter.

ahhh, but yes we can and we do. We have quarterly meetings and quarterly newsletters. If someone breaks a rule they then get notified by mail with a warning. Concerned h/os can always come to the meetings or check the minutes, we have a website too. MoF hos appreciate that we don't waste their money on what amounts to unnecessary mailings. Appreciate the advice, Charles, even though I wasn't seeking any.

We don't have alot of rules over and above the cc&rs. To be honest the ball playing rule is the only one I can think of off hand cause the President got his window broken a few years ago. Other than that, most changes have been things like relaxing the landscape guidelines, extending the paint palette and a number of changes to the by-laws like # of directors, terms, quorum amount, frequency of meetings, etc.

There's plenty of public info on our website if a prosective buyer wanted to perform due diligence.

A little background then- the park is a small grassy corner lot in the sub-division the developer set aside with swings, a slide, gazebo, a couple of BBQs and picnic tables. It's a basically surrounded by one and two story homes with big windows (as is typical in this part of az). At the time the pres home was a two story that backed up to the park.

His upper floor window was broken with a batted hard ball from the park. It could have been anyone's window. Hence the rule which was enacted when I wasn't a board member. It made sense then and it makes sense now even though someone else now owns that home. We have other safer areas where ball can be played. So no reason to make a mountain out of a mohill.

Presently what we're doin' works so we see no real need to fix what ain't broke. I suppose eventually some gung-ho, full of energy volunteer with time to spare will come along and want to collect all this data and distribute it. More power to 'em.

90% of the members use the ignorance excuse when they violate a ccr. They get the obligatory notice when necessary. Hey, we didn't know that you didn't know. Any member is invited to start or join the stamp out ignorance committee. What the members like most of all though is reasonable dues. The board does what it can to keep it that way.