Developer woes

I am unsure of the legality of this answer, but here goes:

Yes, the developer can likely change the covenants "at will", to a certain point. In general, the developer owns a ton of "votes", and as long as they follow the by-laws for holding the proper meetings, they can likely cast all their votes to change something, and a small group of owners can never outvote them.

What i suggest you do is study your original documents, and see what the by-laws have to say about how the declarations and codes can be changed. It is very likely that the developer forgot to follow them correctly: they didn't have a meeting, forgot to notify owners, didn't set the agenda properly, etc.. If that is true, then you can potentially sue to get what you wish, a reversal of their changes.

It all hinges on the declarations, and what they say exactly. That's the contract you and the developer agreed to follow, the conditions, etc.. If they didn't follow them, you have a case.

Thanks for the input! We have studied the docs and feel that what he did was inappropriate. If he wanted to amend the Declaration to change which homesites would be allowed to opt-out, he should have called a special meeting to amend the docs and put it out to the membership for a vote. This did not happen. At the time he amended the docs, the community was probably 2/3 completed and he sold at least 30 homes to individuals allowing them to opt-out when the Declarations clearly stated they were in a required maintenance area. So there were plenty of members who were available to attend a special meeting to cast their vote. He put the cart before the horse, as I see it. He never held a special meeting and didn't have the membership vote, he just changed it. Also he never sent out copies of the amendment, or even posted it.

As I said earlier, we are being told that was his right as the developer. I keep telling them that the Declarations are a legal binding document that is recorded at the county and state level, and they must be followed. If he did this illegally, is our only recourse to hire an attorney? Unfortunately, the president of our current board is his saleswomen, the CM handles several of his properties, and the lawn maintenance contractor is his personal friend. How does that sound for a conflict of interest!!

The homeowners in the required mainteance area were told by the current board that we had to get a petition to have a special meeting called to try and to get the Declaration amended so that area, too, could have the same priviledge as the rest of the community to maintain their own lawn, which we did several months ago. It is hard to get the homeowners who have been given the privilege to opt-out to get out and vote for something that does not pertain to them, so it did not pass. APATHY!!

We tried to approach it another way, too. The Declaration states, "The Association shall be entitled to levy a monthly assessment, due and payable in the manner set forth by the Association, to defray the cost of maintaining the lawns and landscape plantings of the individual lots, which maintenance "may" include the following services. 1)scheduled mowing and edging of lawns 2)pest control for lawns and plantings 3) fertilizing of lawns and plantings." I presented this to the CM and board to have the HOA attorney review this, but to no avail. The board will not vote to eliminate lawn mowing; however, they just voted to eliminate pest control and fertiziling of lawns. I called them on this by telling the board that they have the right to decide to eliminate lawn mowing if they have the right to eliminate pest control and fertilizing. Another stonewall!! We are working hard to get a more pro-active group of board members, and hopefully we can appeal to their good senses. Looking at the above statement, do you think that the word "association" means the members at large or the board?

Thanks for your help!

Here is my experience, Yes.....Our orginal bylaws gave the declarant several stretches during development until the first board was elected by the members. Check you bylaws and your state laws as to what the developer can do.