Southeastern PA - Do you know of any...

Started by BetsieS • 5 replies • 1566 views

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BetsieS (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 7

Posted:

I am on the board of a small HOA in Southeastern PA (less than 100 townhomes). We do not currently use a property management company, but we were looking to find a consultant or PM firm that would assist us with a re-write of our current Rules and Regulations. We are hoping to make them easier to read for the members as well as clarify some of the points in them that are vague. We tried working with one PM company for expanded services, but truthfully the whole thing turned into a mess and has generally turned us off to PM companies in general, but we still want to get the R&R's rewritten.

Does anyone in Southestern PA know of any companies who do this kind of work, or has anyone anywhere ever heard of a company that does this kind of work.

Thanks for any info. you can provide.

GlenL (Ohio)
Posts: 5,491

Posted:

Betsie, rather than a Management Company or a PM since you don't want a permanent one, why not use the HOA's attorney for this purpose? While it may cost a little more the document you get should do what you want it to and comply with all relevant laws. Then comes the fun part, getting the required number of homeowner's to vote to approve it.

Studies show that 5 out of 4 people have problems with fractions

SteveM9 (Massachusetts)
Posts: 3,699

Posted:

Quote:

but we still want to get the R&R's rewritten

A real estate lawyer is what you want. You can amend the current R&Rs but I dont see how you can re-write them, its a huge legal problem. Plan on spending thousands of dollars on this process.

You would need:
100% of all homeowners to vote yes
100% of mortgage holders to vote yes
100% of 2nd mortgage holders to vote yes ...... and on and on.

EllieD (Vermont)
Posts: 446

Posted:

Steve,

I believe the poster is just asking about re-writing Rules and Regulations. Isn't the approval process usually "less" for just the Rules and Regulations?

But I do agree that using, or at least consulting with, a good Home Owner Attorney to review any re-write of the Rules would be a good idea.

Perhaps Betsie should confirm that it is just the Rules that they want to re-write and not their CC & R's

SusanW1 (Michigan)
Posts: 5,202

Posted:

The ENTIRE picture has to be looked at. The R/Rs can't conflict with the CCRs and the Bylaws, or should they be more powerful.

I'd also like to suggest a parliamentarian to look at how all your documents interact with each other.

BetsieS (Pennsylvania)
Posts: 7

Posted:

Thanks for all the responses. To be clear, we are just changing the Rules and Regulations (not CC&R) which covers your basic items (grass cutting, fences, etc.). Our problem is the current ones were written by a lawyer and therefore are confusing and can take a lawyer to decipher. This is why we don't want to have a lawyer do it, we do not want legalese, we want clear concise points (i.e. grass cannot be over 5" tall, etc). To be truthful, our lawyer gets pretty wishy washy about what certain "rules" actually mean. We have some ideas, but we were hoping to find a consultant with some expertise in HOA's who can offer us suggestions etc, for ease of use and also suggest any areas that may be lacking.

Our general plan was to get them written, have the lawyer review to be sure there is no conflict with the other docs and then present to the membership. To pay an attorney at the rate of $150 per hour (and our lawyer is pretty good at stretching out the hours) would be cost prohibitive, so we are looking into other options that would essentially, "give us more bang for our buck".

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