Rules and Regulations or a clever side step?

A couple months ago a "beautification/planning committee" meeting was set up to devise some rules and regulations. Only one board member was present, 4 or 5 homeowners and the management company rep. Our covenants are very slim so we talked about what we would like the lawns and flower beds to look like as well as any stains on sidewalks and driveways. Pretty basic stuff. I emailed the management co to see if the board had looked at the rules and regulations. The reply I received said the board did approve them, they are in effect now and they are "standards" not rules and regulations. I had a couple of questions but the board nor the management co can or will answer them.

1. Are "standards" different from rules and regulations? If so what is the difference?

2.Is the beautification/planning committee the same as the ARC? To my knowledge we do not have a beautification/planning committee. In fact the ARC was set up less than a month prior to this planning meeting.
3. What power does an ARC have, if the ARC is the same as the b/p committee? Can they approve standards or does the board still have to have a vote?
4. If the board approved them like the PM said, don't they have to have a meeting? Fl Statutes 720.303 covers board meeting and I know they have to give notice which did not happen here.

It seems to me like there is some sidestepping going on but it may be that I just don't know enough about the laws. On a side note our covenants do not say anything about committees, rules and regulations, or standards.

Susan, that is the problem, this in not just a plan. Assuming we have this committee, are you saying that
1. the committee can decide what standards they want and declare them laws of our community and enforce them? or
2. the committee comes up with these standards, present them to the board and the board votes on them?
If #1 is proper procedure then I have no issue but if #2 is proper procedure then I do have an issue because no board meeting was called to vote on the standards and people in the association are receiving violation letters referencing these standards.

I had an aspiring decorator in our neighborhood. She took it upon herself to decide on redecorating our Clubhouse. She wanted to paint the walls a light brown and so some other pretty upgrades to the interior. All good and dandy. However, I told her to take her ideas and present them to the board at our next meeting for them to decide. She choose NOT to present her ideas but to bad mouth me instead as I had not automatically "approved" her plans. She had talked to the crooked Ex-president who had assured her that her ideas/plans would be followed through if she had just talked to me. He later tried to talk me into her ideas prior to a full meeting. I refused stating all she had to do was present her ideas and costs to the ENTIRE board for approval or denial. Ideas costs money and they have an effect good or bad.

I am not a total monster on her ideas. I did indeed talk to some homeowners to get an idea of what they thought. Honestly, their opinions were NOT at all supportive of the decorator's plans. Matter of fact they were very much dead set against them. The biggest issue involve her wanting to pain the walls. The walls were purposely painted a neutral light blue tone white to hide the frequent removal and adding of scotch tape for decorations for parties. If she had painted the walls, this would have led to multiple unsightly paint chips requiring us to paint over and over again. Plus our HOA couldn't afford to spend money on a project for decorating when we had so many repair items on the to do list.

I bring this story up as why your not getting the approval you seek. It's not a personal thing but a cost effective issue as well. Someone's got to maintain those flowerbeds and people tend to lose interest after awhile. Plus there is a continous maintenance aspect and who's going to keep doing it for free? They also can factor in if they get damaged will this now be an insurance issue or is it just a loss?

It's never an easy decision and standards do have to be kept. Otherwise, things get out of control, unsightly, and can cause more issues in the end. Plus you can't trust lawncare people to know the difference between a flower and a weed...They ruined a hosta garden I tried to plant at our front entrance...They did it to other's flower beds as well...Just to give you a heads up on depending on lawncare to maintain flowergardens is a bad idea...

Jessica,

The Statutes give the power to the Board to set up committees IF the governing documents say so. It may be in your Articles of Inc. which gives the Board the ability to set up committees. Again, the Board has the responsibility to do this, not the members.. Do not look for Statutes to have this wording.

So why don't you tell us what is bugging you about the set of standards that were written.

Hi Jessica:

Any rules and regulations or standards must be supplied to the membership if expected to be followed. What the HOA needs to possibly consider is anything contained in the Declaration of CCR’s is potentially absolutely legally binding because it was voted and approved by the majority of homeowners. Other rules or standards must be reasonable or there could be the issue of not holding up in a court of law because these were possibly adopted by only a few board or committee members.

My personal opinion is if they want to add the right to enter a lot to correct anything they potentially should put it to a vote of members to approve. There is a possibility if not in the CCR’s then someone could have an issue with trespassing. I am not an attorney, but if my property was to be trespassed it had better be in my CCR’s allowing such right.