E-mail addresses provided to homeowners

A homeowner requested e-mail addresses of all homeowners be published and provide them to all homeowners.

This particular homeowner, when serving on the board a couple years ago, undermined the board and operated separately, not together with the board. He even attempted to circulate a petition to dissolve the association, which ultimately fell through thankfully. I'm uncomfortable with his having access to everyone's e-mail address to be potentially used as a source to facilitate his personal agenda.

If individuals want to provide their e-mail address to him that is their choice, but I do not believe the information should be provided from the HOA Board.

Agree or disagree?

While serving as president of the HOA, I helped collect them for the property manager. The property manager and I are the only ones who currently have the information.

I have not discussed this yet with the PM since this request only came to light yesterday. I trust the PM will make the prudent decision not to publish them, but wanted to see how other HOA's function in this regard.

Thanks for your input.

Joyce,

I would not recommend releasing or publishing homeowners' email addresses any more than I would recommend releasing or publishing their telephone numbers. It should be up to the individual homeowner to decide if he/she wants that kind of information given out. I believe you could risk incurring a liability if you give such information out without permission.

We distribute a spreadsheet with names and most of the emails. I suppose some don't provide an email address to the association but I was not asked (and I don't mind) if mine is published in the spreadsheet.

> He even attempted to circulate a petition to dissolve the association,

That's just democracy in action. The barriers to dissolving the association are very high. The decision to provide emails to all residents should be made for other reasons.

Think about this: having emails available makes it easier to OPPOSE an initiative of this type.

The Association must do what it is legally obligated to do. This is irregardless of a board members personal opinion. If the governing documents or State law requires the information to be released, then the Association must comply.

Typically the only member information required to be maintained by Associations is the name, address and lot # of the property owned, mailing address if a non-resident owner.

If an association keeps phone numbers or e-mail addresses they become part of the records. As part of the records, depending on State law, members may be able to review them. Some Associations publish neighborhood directories but being included in them is typically voluntary.

Indiana Homeowner Association law appears to be silent on access to records. Per Indiana IC 32-25.5-3-1 does require the Association to keep a roster of e-mail addresses for those members who have voluntarily provided it. However, that same section of law is open for interpretation as to if the e-mail addresses must be released.

Indiana Condominium law does mention financial records access but does not mention access to other records.

Indiana Non-Profit Corporation Codes (applicable only if the Association is incorporated as a non-profit) does address what records are to be maintained under IC 23-17-27 . However, it also appears to be silent if members have the right to inspect the records.

Since State law appears to be open for interpretation if the member has a legal right to those addresses or not, the Board needs to review the Associations governing documents to see if they provide members rights not addressed within the State law. If the governing documents do not give a clear interpretation, and if the Board feels this might be a litigation issue they may want to seek a legal opinion.

Personally, if an Association released my e-mail address without permission I would immediately change the address and never provide it to the Association again.

I know that this doesn't provide much help. It's a shame that Indiana law wasn't more clear.

Tim

>(c) The mailing addresses and legal descriptions maintained by a homeowners >association under subsection (a):
>(1) shall be made available to a member of the homeowners association upon request;
>(2) may be used by a member of the homeowners association only for a purpose >related to the operation of the homeowners association; and

This quoted section is from Indiana law and of course may not apply elsewhere. However. It DOES require that addresses be made available to any member on request. It says nothing about email addresses, very likely because email was not a significant means of communication at the time the law was written.

WHY would this be required? It seems to me that one good reason is that it facilitates any action on the part of the homeowners. Such as deposing an incompetent board of directors, petitioning for an election, etc. Or even (attempting) to dismantle an association. NOT to provide such information would make it very difficult to exercise democratic rights.

I don't see, then, a reason for a big distinction between mail and email addresses. Especially today, when we may be facing a collapse of the snail-mail postal sytem, maybe not right now but in a few years.

found Indiana law (see links in previous post on this thread) to be unique. It specifics (in item a) the requirement for an Association to maintain the name, property description and mailing address of each member. Additionally, in a separate section (item b) it specifies that the Association shall maintain an e-mail list of those members who voluntarily provided it. This is one of the first States I've discovered that specifically addresses e-mail addresses. (TIM)

T, Florida says the same thing..

(g) A current roster of all members and their mailing addresses and parcel identifications. The association shall also maintain the electronic mailing addresses and the numbers designated by members for receiving notice sent by electronic transmission of those members consenting to receive notice by electronic transmission. The electronic mailing addresses and numbers provided by unit owners to receive notice by electronic transmission shall be removed from association records when consent to receive notice by electronic transmission is revoked. However, the association is not liable for an erroneous disclosure of the electronic mail address or the number for receiving electronic transmission of notices.

Tim,

I may be wrong, but this may not be the entire act, just a revision which applies to HOAs formed after 2009.

In any event, the bottom line is that Joyce does not have to release e-mail addresses and this was her question/concern.

T,

I respectfully disagree. The act does not state this provision can be trumped by the By-laws. Nor does the Florida act. In this instate state statute prevails

Indiana State laws didn't prohibit the release of that information and didn't prohibit members from inspecting and/or copying all the records. Therefore, if the governing documents specified that a member does have the right to inspect and/or copy all the records of the Association there would be no conflict. It isn't a question of one document having control over the other.

Even if you were to look at privacy laws, since Indiana law did specify that the e-mail list is part of Association records, I don't believe privacy would come into play. In my opinion, this is because the Association would be responding to a request vs. openly publishing them. As you pointed out, the question would be if the Association is required to release that information. Since Indiana laws doesn't require or prohibit the information from being released, the next logical step would be to review the governing documents to see if the member has a right to the information or if releasing the information is left up to the desecration of the Board. Since we don't have access to those documents, I don't believe that we have all the facts to provide a definitive yea or no.

Granted, State laws vary. I am specifically basing my opinion on my interpretation of Indiana laws and the fact that we do not know what the governing documents specify.

Petunka, I suppose that we will just have to agree to disagree.

In rereading the original post, Joyce did not specify if she is a member of the Board or not (so this decision might not be hers to make). She is simply asking the question if we agree or disagree if the info should be released. I stand by my initial posting:

"The Association must do what it is legally obligated to do. This is irregardless of a board members personal opinion. If the governing documents or State law requires the information to be released, then the Association must comply. "

I will add to this that if I was on the Board and had the option of releasing the list or not, I would vote against releasing it. It appears that Indiana law provides the option. However, to reiterate, depending on the governing documents, the board may not have this option available to them.

P -

I believe that the intent of the law is to allow the board to deliver notices, etc. electronically if the member agrees to it.

The language of the law specifies that the Association shall maintain the list if e-mail address are given. Therefore, I believe that logically this would become a record of the Association. Based on this logic, the question becomes: does a member of this Association have a right to review all of the records of the Association or just some of them.

Earlier threads have already discussed if a member has the right to all Association records or not and discussed it into the ground. I have no desire to start that discussion up again.

I agree to disagree.

PS. I agree that Joyce being on the board or not isn't necessarily relevant to the discussion. It was just an observation that she may or may not be part of the decision process.

> Indiana law implies the same, since the e-mail provision is identical (see #5).

Umm, I am not a lawyer, but I don't think you get anywhere in a court by saying that something is implied.

I read the Indiana law (not as a lawyer, but just as a guy who tries to read what's there) as not saying anything at all about distribution of email addresses.

My personal view is that the Florida rule will, in time, become unworkable.

"Things will change"

I read the Indiana law (not as a lawyer, but just as a guy who tries to read what's there) as not saying anything at all about distribution of email addresses. (Fred)

Yes, this is what I read. And, this is what I keep saying.

As I understand it:

You are of the opinion that the e-mail addresses did not have to be released based on Indiana law.

I am of the opinion that Indiana law didn't exclude the records from being released therefore the deciding factor would be contained within the governing documents. If the documents grant access to all Association records then the e-mail list needs to be released. If the governing documents are silent or allows the list to be excluded, then releasing the info is at the discretion of the Board.

If the governing documents are silent or allows the list to be excluded, then releasing the info is at the discretion of the Board. [Tim]

T,
This is where I disagree 1000%. I sign consent that Board can use my e-mail for notice; I sign consent the Board can use my private cell for emergencies only. When I revoke consent the Board can no longer use it. Nowhere, did I give the Board any permission to distribute my e-mail or cell number to anyone else. I cannot understand how you concluded that Board has the authority to distribute this info to others? IN fact Indiana law prohibits it.

Please read the last a paragraph and tell if you still disagree:

‘ Except as provided in subsection (c), a homeowners association may not sell, exchange, or otherwise TRANSFER information maintained by the homeowners association under this section to ANY PERSON.’

Note: Subsection (c) is about mailing addresses. I think the provision is quite clear.

Shelia,

Yes, Florida 2010 statute was almost identical to Indiana. It allowed HOA to use e-mail addresses for notices but did not permit to distribute those to owners under any circumstances. However, this law was amended and the 2011 law now permits HOAs to publish a directory with e-mail addresses providing the members agree. Finally, the legislature realized that it is up to the owner to release his/hers personal information and e-mail is considered just that.

There is always an argument about Federal law superseding State laws. However, that being said, Federal law states that it is illegal to "spam" your E-Mail. Spam is defined as un-solicited mailings. So, if a person gets an E-Mail from this person with out his / her permission, that would violate Federal communication laws.