financials

Its not illegal.

If your board wont show you who is past due, ask for a figure on how much is due for everyone. Show $$$ amounts past due 30 days, 60 days, etc. This isn't private.

As for legalities that is for someone smarter...my personal belief is no information such as name, address, lot number, etc. that could identify a person should ever be distributed to the masses. The masses have a right to know what is outstanding and how many accounts are overdue but giving them personal info serves no purpose other than to create a hostile environment.

This is all my opinion.

In Fl, as a member of the association, it is your right to obtain this information. It is not distributed, or passed out or posted, but if requested it MUST be available to the homeowners. The HOA is required to do so by statute.

As Carol and Effie pointed out, the account status of members of an HOA can be made known to other members of the association.

Disclosure of personal facts to the general public is very likely a privacy tort, but making members of an Association aware of the operations of their own Association is allowed and even required. Delinquent homeowners should know that they cannot hide their situation from their neighbors.

The HOA board should be careful that any disclosure of such information is very controlled and strictly limited. For instance, posting it at the pool house where non-member guests may see it would be a problem.

That is true. But if you can't trust the attorney who can you? He said we could with hold some confidential stuff and judge ordered all info except those listed on statue as not assessible. I think some on this site have never been sued for it so they don't know they have to give everything to inpsect.

Oops:

Most statutes create gray areas by specify that the Association

should have read specifying that the . . .

Well that is the question isn't it - Does a member have a reasonable expectation of privacy for releasing personal financial information that is not a public record?

Per 12 USC §3401
A Bank can not release this information without your consent or a court order. Granted, most forms used to open bank accounts or obtain loans have consenting language within the documents you sign. Did purchasing your home relinquish similar rights?

Larry submitted that by entering into the contract known as your CC&Rs, that any party of that contract has a right to know who isn't upholding their end of the deal. However, I think an argument could be made that within that contract you agreed to pay a third party (the Association) not your neighbor, certain monies so this third party could maintain the common area and enforce the contract. Therefore, there may be an expectation of privacy with this third party until such enforcement of obligations takes it into the public sector (filing legal action).

Which side of the argument is correct? I believe that this would depend on your perception - hence the gray area I posted about earlier.

No matter which side of the issue you believe is correct, most of the State laws I've seen indicate that the release of such information is the option of the Association and not a requirement. Therefore, if the issue on how this option is exercised I would encourage you to solicit votes and become a Director on your Board so you may be part of the process in determining how your Association will exercise their option.

If you do not have the time or desire to serve on the board but strongly believe that the release of such information should not be an option but an absolute (one way or the other), I would encourage you to gather support and change your governing documents.

If you strongly believe that the release of such information should not be an option but an absolute not only for you but all associations within your State, I would encourage you to gather support and start lobbying your elected officials to change the State law.

The justifications or rational of perceived benefits or detriments for releasing the information or not isn't going to change. The actual reasons why someone may be behind in payments may be reasonable or not. Eliminating the gray area isn't going to change anything because if it becomes an absolute someone isn't going to like the result - which appears to be the way it is now. Therefore, I am of the personal opinion that it should remain a gray area and something each Board or Association can decide on their own.

I started a new thread on the pros and cons of releasing your Association financial information to your neighbors so a Board might be able decide on how to exercise their option, I believe it would be an interesting topic of discussion. However, it won't change the bottom line - that for now, it's still an option.

Therefore, it's something each Board will have to make on their own or bring to the membership in the form of an amendment to the governing documents.

Tim

Please, Lets leave this thread to discuss if it should be released or not and use the new thread to discuss the pros and cons of releasing the information.

Tim,

There is an enormous difference between a general release of personal information and distribution of information among the membership of an association.

Public disclosure of private facts about a person is likely a privacy tort.

Distributing details of membership accounts to other members is not only allowed -- it is required. All of the State laws regarding members' access to financial records and the ability of members to view corporate records apply.

The US Code that you cited has to do with release of information by a bank to the general public. It does not apply to the distribution of information among members of an association.

Larry,

Right you are about private information.

However, an HOA may end up holding some of this private information if they have pulled a homeowner's credit report during collections, or received a bankruptcy filing from their lawyers. Like you say, an HOA must take steps to keep this kind of information secure, and destroy it as soon as it is no longer needed.

Tim,

It is my understanding that any and all records of the Association must be made available to members upon request. I did not think that the board could pick and choose what to release (with a very few exceptions such as minutes from executive sessions). Do you understand things differently?

This is the one of the best reasons why payments from members to the HOA should not be concealed. Concealment will eventually lead to corruption and favoritism.

Lawrence,

Thank you for sharing. If you haven't done so, would you please post those reasons on the pros and cons thread it would be appreciated.

I'm hoping to do a summary of the reasons at the end.

As a side note: I'm not positive that not being able to vote on an issue would prevent a members signature on a petition to call a meeting to enable the vote invalid. Of course, this would depend on the specific language within the State laws and governing documents.

Lawrence,

Thank you for the kind words. I do indeed read your posts and those of others in the desire to help but more so as a desire to learn. Whenever possible, I try to look at an issue from the other persons point of view as I tend to learn something from doing so.

I had asked what you would do with the information because I honestly didn't see what having that information would provide someone not on the board. This may be because our Association only has roads, sidewalks and playgrounds as amenities. By law we can not prevent anyone from using the common area for ingress and egress. These leaves only the playground and the Board doesn't want to prevent a child from using a swing and a slide because the parents couldn't make an assessment payment. It probably would be different if we had a pool or other recreation facilities.

As you pointed out, depending on what perspective you are viewing an issue there may be different opinions on what is right or wrong. This, in my opinion, is why a board needs to be concerned on doing what is legal as sometimes, what might be viewed as right might not be deemed legal. Just as doing what is legal isn't always considered to be right, moral or ethical.

Tim

Just to add a little more "fuel" if the logic behind handing out the names of people that are delinquent is "You signed a contract" (everyone) signed a contract with the HOA so that gives them the right to know who is delinquent. Lots of people have "Signed a contract" with the utility company for example does that give them the right to hand out a list of delinquencies (sp?) to everyone ?

I agree it's making me dizzy also

I honestly don't know which is the exception or which is the rule. Realistically, it doesn't matter. I believe everyone concurs that the Board has to do what is legal and that would be defined by their State laws.

Charles,

There may not be as much confusion here as you think. Several posts have noted that the issue is not whether members have a right to see the information, but instead whether the board should release the information without a specific request.


I am sure you mean well by warning about a possible problem, but to the best of my knowledge law enforcement personnel have no special rights with regards to their homeowner association accounts. If that were the case, every HOA would have to keep records of the occupation of all its members, and that is nowhere required.

Please post a reference to any state statute that shows otherwise.