ARC Meeting Process

Christina,

First and foremost thank you for being someone willing to step into the most thankless job in an Association.

Typically, if there is no Architectural Committee (AC) then the duties of the AC is then performed by the board. Since you are a committee, you need to follow standard practices for committees. That is, post dates of meetings, have an agenda, keep minutes, etc. The AC, in addition to enforcing the covenants, must also support past practices or past precedence of previous committees. Therefore, if you allow one person to have a waiver from the guidelines, then you must allow anyone else the same waiver. Otherwise, you could be guilty of selective enforcement. The only time this wouldn't apply would be if the guidelines changed.

Example: Past committees allowed fences to be of any type of wood. However, a new guideline was adopted that required only ceder fences. Therefore, new or replacement fences should be of ceder only but the existing fences would not be in violation as long as the fence was in good condition. something to consider for your landscape issues.

If the committee is new, I would also suggest you get the records into good order so things can be found quickly and papers are not lost. If you wish, I've developed a record policy for our ACC I would be willing to share. Just e-mail me at [email protected]

Christina,

You need to review your CCRs to find out exactly what the Arch Comm is responsible for doing. My CCRs give the Arc Comm the ". ..authority and resp to control the architectural and aesthetic character of the property." The Arch Comm also has authority ". . .to adopt, amend and repeal rules which shall serve as guidelines to be used in rendering their decisions." All appeals are made to the BOD and their decision is final. Our architectural guidelines are also contained in our CCRs. So, what your committee can and cannot do should be outlined in the CCRs. As for not having meetings to make decisions I don't believe that is a good idea. In fact I believe it would be a violation of the MD HOA act which I believe states all meetings must be open to the members. Also I think your board Pres is remiss in advising that you do not need to vote on any A/C changes being contemplated. If this is an indication of her philosophy in how the BOD should also operate then having her serve as Pres seems suspect to me.

Just to clarify, our Arch Guidelines are very specific. They tell us what the Committee does, what the Board does, and what rights the Homeowner has.

According to our CCRs:

The Arch Committee can disapprove, approve, or approve with modifications or specified conditions. The final decision of the Architectural Committee is binding.

The Architectural Committee may adopt and promulgate reasonable rule and regulatiosn regarding the administration, interpretation and enforcement of the provisions of Article VII of this Declaration.

Our ARC has decided that our definition of maintenance is as such: "All standard maintenance and repairs to existing structures shall not require an architectural committee approval provided that the materials do not change the appearance, design, color or style of the original structure. The only exception to this is that all roofing replacements must be approved."

But our BOD is telling us we don't need to hold an official meeting to vote on this, which I disagree and it sounds like, from all the feedback here, that we should be meeting to vote on this.

The front yard of each yard shall be kept only as a lawn, including grass, trees, flowers and shrubs.

And...Failure by the Association or by any Owner to enforce any covenant or restriction contained shall in no event be deemed a waiver of the right to do so thereafter.

My compromise for the maintenance reminder is to keep the term 'rock garden' under gardens, not lawns. I think if we state "Yards (including but not limited to Lawn, trees, shrubs) - Must be in good condition. Lawns should be seeded and trimmed. Gardens 'of all types' should not be overgrown and should be maintained. Trees & Shrubs should be pruned or trimmed." This should be sufficient without leading Homeowners to beleive that they can make their entire front yard a 'rock garden' which is in direct conflict of our CCR's not just an arch guidelines.

The Homeowners with 'rock gardens' (which there are 2 out of 102) were approved by them selves when they were 2 of the 3 Board Members. They have no documentation that it was ever submitted or approved by anyone. But around 4-5 years ago the BOD told homeowners that they no longer had to submit an application to the Arch Committee, they could just do whatever. This has not gone so well, as you could imagine, and now the Arch Committee has been re-established and the BOD is doing alot of back pedalling.

The Arch Committee, which is chaired by one of the original BOD 'rock garden' owners, and is currently a BOD Member, wants to now offer a 3 month amnesty project. Where we allow homeowners 90 days to submit packages for previous projects. If done so, the Arch Committee will do its best to approve all said plans as well as provide documentation to the Homeowner of the approval for use upon re-sale of the home. I think this is a GREAT idea, but there are some things that the rest of the Arch Committee does not want to just approve, such as the rock gardens. So the BOD told us that we don't have to vote on items, just come to a decision. My fear, is without this vote, where will the record be that shows that a majority of the ARC did not agree to approve the rock garden applications? That's why I wanted to make sure we are supposed meet and vote on items, just like a BOD would.

Our Attorney is still looking into an appeals process. Since one is not required by the HOA Act, the ARC could adopt one as one of its rules and should, but they are still working out the details as unfortunately, our BOD is very secretive and has recently approved items for them selves and 'friends' that were denied to others. Which is why they put the ARC back into place, to try and remove the tension from Homeowners.

Christina,

Be careful that you don't overstep the committee's role. You may adopt an interpretation of an existing guideline (like your doing with the maintenance) but you may not make new guidelines.

Tim

Christina,

You are right, if there is no written policy on anything then a policy doesn't exist. Good for you for tackling that job of creating where none existed before.

Your Committee, and future committees can of course deny a request for a rock garden basing the ruling on the Covenants. If the owner wishes to appeal your ruling to the board, they may. Of course, your committee and/or a future committee could also approve a rock garden based on past precedence. This is the problem when Associations don't follow the rules as they are written. Since you are already talking with an attorney ask them how past precedence might apply in this type of an issue.

As far as the Boards pressure to you and your committee, I have the following suggestion, which I used when I was on our Architectural Committee: Tell them that you are enforcing the rules adopted by the board and/or membership and published in your governing documents. If they do not believe that the committee should be enforcing specific rules, the Board has the authority to take action to change them. Your committee only enforces the rules as they exist. Works like a charm.

For your committee member who has a rock garden/landscaping, as long as they have a copy of the written approval from the Association (or it is recorded in the minutes of the Committee or Board) they are protected and should not have to remove it. This is because they followed the rules, requested a waiver (effectively) and received approval prior to building it.

Tim

It is true that the board appoints and can remove. However, most Boards don't really want to go through that process if they have a hard time getting volunteers. However, if volunteers are plentiful, then that's another story. Our committee went through a conflict with the board a couple of times and on one of them the whole committee threatened to resign if they Board chose to ignore the rules concerning the issue.

This is also how I ended up on the Board instead of the Committee. I miss the committee, it was easier at times.


Two things need to be done to protect the homeowner and the Association.

1. Architectural files:

Organize and create missing documentation. When our committee did this we first searched the Architectural files and then past minutes of the Association for any documentation of previous approvals/disapprovals on a lot. We then organized our files and placed a summary sheet of requests on top (as this allowed a quick file check).

Then we set about documenting exisiting changes that didn't have documentation but would have probably been approved. This was done by first contacting the homeowner requesting any written documentation they might have. If none was available, we sent the owner a memorandum identifying the change and that the committee considers the item was previously approved and documentation lost, therefore this letter is being used to recreate that documentation. A copy then went into the file.

Some owners had the prior documentation. Some owners did not. Some said that they didn't realize they needed it and supplied a request for the change. Some simply removed the item.

I tried to attached a copy of our Architectural Committee's records procedure which is really more of a description on how the files are created and maintained. However, the word document is too large. If you would like a copy (or if anyone else would) e-mail me at: [email protected]

2. Lobby the Board to create a grandfather clause OR, since your documents allow the Committee to create administrative procedures - create one for the committee. Remember, any future committee can change an administrative policy but an amendment to the governing documents requires membership vote. My Association used the bylaws for this clause.

The clause read as follows:

Any design change (past, present or future) to a lot located within the [name of Association] that was approved, in writing, or identified as being in compliance on any past, current or future disclosure packet properly issued under the Virginia
Property Owners' Act, is hereby considered in compliance with current or future Architectural Guidelines providing the item identified in the design change or as reported on a Disclosure Statement is kept in proper repair and appearance and if replaced, the replacement must adhere to the current guidelines adopted an in force by the Association at the time of replacement.