Suspension of Rules and Regs

My fellow Board Members have suspended our Rules regarding parking limits and the definition of commercial vehicles. Been going on for 5 months now. First time for 90 days, then again for 60. Tickets are being issued and an extraordinary rate by Patrol Co. but nothing is being done (no towing) while Parking Rules continue to be evalutated.

Can someone tell me if there is a limit to how long these rules can continue to be looked at and not enforced?

thanks

Our Rules & Regulations are a part of our governing documents. In Cali, Rules cannot be changed without the Board sending out a 30-day comment-period notice to HOA members.

See davis-sterling.com on Rules. Even an "Emergency Rule," which must comply with civil code, can only be in place for 120 days.

I don't see how the board has any authority to "suspend" rules. Sounds almost like Board is reluctant to take action. But that's our job--to decide!

Carols, a 30 day comment notice, is just that a notice. Rules are not subject to membership approval. This is why rules are so much harder to enforce than CC&Rs.

In my Fl. HOA the CC&R's and Bylaws are separate from R&Rs in that R&Rs are promugated/ammended soley by the BoD not the membership per se. They are however restricted to the common areas/elements only. The CC&Rs purtain to personal property contained therein and the bylaws to corporate 'behaviour'.

I commend any HOA which solicits HO input before doing so.

Having said that... It's easy for them to be suspended by simply not enforcing them.

The process is taking so long because our HOA has a tendency to drag its feet and is reluctant to upset the masses. There were simply not enough Board members who voted against these initial decisions.

Our new Patrol Co. was granted 90 days to "evaluate" the parking conditions and then make a proposal for a Parking Permit Program. They failed to come up with any concrete recommendations, yes it's true, and were given another 60 days to perform the task.

The issue is that the Board has never enforced the existing rules regarding parking in garages and people have become accustomed to filling them with junk without any fear of penalty.

So now things have gotten so far out of reach, the Board is afraid of upsetting people. There is a Committee working on a plan in conjunction with the Patrol Co., just seems to be taking too long.

We need to get something in place, not all will like the decision no matter what it is.

Here you are, Zhenya. Davis-sterling.com is a really useful site, especially in CA, partly because it has an excellent Menu. The quote below edits out verbiage about emergency rules.

Civil Code §1357.130. Notice of Proposed Rule Change.

"(a) The board of directors shall provide written notice of a proposed rule change to the members at least 30 days before making the rule change. The notice shall include the text of the proposed rule change and a description of the purpose and effect of the proposed rule change. . .

. . .(b) A decision on a proposed rule change shall be made at a meeting of the board of directors, after consideration of any comments made by association members . . .

. . . (c) As soon as possible after making a rule change, but not more than 15 days after making the rule change, the board of directors shall deliver notice of the rule change to every association member . . ."

Read more: Davis-Stirling Act http://www.davis-stirling.com/MainMenu/Statutes/CivilCode1357130/tabid/865/Default.aspx#ixzz1bRErDEiE
from Davis-Stirling.com by Adams Kessler PLC.
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Jeff, 90% of our Rules & Regs were put in place when our 10-year-old HOA was new. They are a part of our governing docs. We've gotten rid of some rules either because they were unreasonable or unenforceable, e.g., residents may not use the stairs and must use the elevators (!). Over the 10 years, a handful of new rules have been added. None of our rules conflict with our CC&Rs in which there are, indeed, a few rules. There has never been a court case about our rules, enforcement, fine schedules, etc.

I'm confused, Richard. What do you mean when you wrote that a h'owner may "enforce" the rule? In our HOA, h'owners and renters can report corroborated violations, of our CC&Rs or Rules & Regs. Mgmt. will investigate, if necessary, and send a warning letter at the first incident and a call to hearing for the second violation of the same type.

Richard: "With the 30 day comment period, it only extends if the Board took a homewoners comment and made a change. No change, no extension." Sorry I'm so dense today, Richard, but what does that sentence mean?

Thanks, Jeff. Revisions of both our CC&Rs & bylaws were just placed in our 2012 budget. We have few rules in our CC&Rs, but indeed, have 2-3 CC&Rs that conflict with CA law. Also there's loads of "developer language" to get rid of. As noted somewhere below, we have revised our Rules & Regs, once with a fairly major overhaul in '08, and no revisions therein conflict with our CC&Rs.

Well, there is one exception: Our CC&Rs forbid any signs, etc. of any kind in (2 high rise towers) unit windows. But civil code gives folks the right to place signs in windows, which is now in our R&R's with the limitations that are permitted by law.

You may find this hard to believe but our Board is STILL suspending the towing of commercial vehicles. The original Patrol Company that was part of the intial discussion has since been let go because they would not indemnify Assoc. from a bad or illegal tow.

So we went out and hired a new Patrol Company and they have been given another 90 days to "evaluate" our parking issues. Residents have exploited this and are parking all over the place. The longer it goes on the harder it will be to ever curtail the behavior.

This has been going on for almost a year now. Can it be legal?

Thomas

Not sure why your HOA is having so many problems, but one that I know of unique to California is that here in Ca, a standard pick up truck is a commercial vehicle. Maybe they are trying to figure out how to word the rules so that if you park your 17 foot long 1969 Cadillac next to my 12 foot long Ford Ranger, that they don't two the smaller vehicle just because it's "commercial".