HOA Documents

Hi Larry:

Welcome to the forum.

First and foremost the MC is technically an employee of the Board; therefore, items they allow or prohibit should be at the direction of your association BOD. They may have requested paper format so that the owners are paying for printing and paper instead of them printing any emails for their files.

Yes they can impose a reasonable charge for any copies of documents requested.

Here is a link for FL HOA statutes:

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0720/0720ContentsIndex.html&StatuteYear=2011&Title=%2D%3E2011%2D%3EChapter%20720

Scroll down in this Section:

720.303 Association powers and duties; meetings of board; official records; budgets; financial reporting; association funds; recalls.—

And you will then find these Subsections:

(4) OFFICIAL RECORDS.—

(5) INSPECTION AND COPYING OF RECORDS.—

Thank you kindly for your assistance.
Ok, let me take this a step further. When a new unit owner wants to purchase in the community should they be able to obtain these documents prior to purchase as they may affect the decision to purchase. It seems a bit absurd to expect a new buyer to pay for documents that may affect their decision to purchase or not purchase the property. Personally I am all for creating a section on our website (maintained supposedly by the MC) where all of the pertinent documents are stored, updated, and available to anyone in the community (password protected). Is anyone doing this?

Fred, you bring up an interesting point. My solution would be to scan all the documents (cost = 0), post them to the aforementioned web site, and when things change, scan them again. Now, I hear someone saying you need to pay for the MC to do this (time = money), but if a member wanted to do this, should they be able to get the documents for this purpose. Seems rather silly to take a scanner to the MC location to scan this stuff. There should be nothing to hide here I think.

Sorry Larry ... I thought that Chapter 720 had similar statute to Condos regarding copies of contracts and member approval, but I guess not.

For Condo it states:

718.3026 Contracts for products and services; in writing; bids; exceptions.—

(d) At the next regular or special meeting of the members, the existence of the contract or other transaction shall be disclosed to the members. Upon motion of any member, the contract or transaction shall be brought up for a vote and may be canceled by a majority vote of the members present. Should the members cancel the contract, the association shall only be liable for the reasonable value of goods and services provided up to the time of cancellation and shall not be liable for any termination fee, liquidated damages, or other form of penalty for such cancellation.

If that was the case then potentially someone would maybe have a copy.

Hi Larry:

On to your step further questions … missed that earlier.

A potential purchaser will want to review potentially at minimum the Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions, and any Amendments to CCR’s.

My HOA is fairly young (under 5 years) and I am working on a website. I have the above mentioned documents in PDF format ready to post to the website. These documents are all on file with the local County Records and any yahoo can request, so I do not care who views these documents and they can be available for anyone and their dog.

Now the other documents such as meeting minutes, financials, contracts, etc. are personal HOA documents and potentially no one else’s business, so these will only be available for the association members to view. Now granted a potential buyer may want a financial statement (need to insure HOA is financially stable) and that will be up to the seller to provide, if requested. By law in many states potentially only the documents filed with the County Records are required to be provided and any other items are icing on the cake and only if requested.

LOL … now we all know how many individual potentially read those darn CCR’s ahead of time, so if they are not going to properly address their cake then they potentially are not going to ask for the icing.

I like Melissa’s idea of a general brochure so I might have to do one of those up also for the general portion. This way any potential purchaser or realtor can access the information. I also figure it can save time and effort by allowing someone else to print themselves.

Hi John:

Yes any Amendments would also need to be filed to be legal. If not filed they are not legally attached to the property.

LOL ... you notice I did not say it.

> The hoa is under zero obligation to a prospective buyer to provide anything. Anything they provide is at their discretion

Not always correct. This is state-dependent- but- in Arizona- for example- either the HOA or the seller is required to provide the CC&Rs and some financial information to the buyer. This is a required disclosure and the buyer can back out with no penalty if it is not provided.

However I think there is very good reason NOT to provide absolutely everything. For example, a management or landscaping company might not be happy to have the text of contracts released. Indeed, the bidding process might involve assurances that contract information is not released.

From the Vermont Statute which is based on the UCIOA: See (b) in particular which I think answers the question.

§ 4-109. Resales of units

(a) Except in the case of a sale where delivery of a public offering statement is required or is exempt under subsection 4-101(b) of this title, a unit owner shall furnish to a purchaser before the conveyance or transfer of the right of possession of a unit, whichever is earlier, a copy of the declaration, without any plats and plans, the bylaws, the rules or regulations of the association and a certificate which discloses the following:

(1) The effect on the proposed disposition of any right of first refusal or other restraint on the free alienability of the unit held by the association.

(2) The amount of the periodic common expense assessment and any unpaid common expense or special assessment currently due and payable from or by the seller.

(3) Any other fees payable by the owner of the unit being sold.

(4) The amount of any reserves for capital expenditures and of any portions of those reserves designated by the association for any specified projects.

(5) The most recent regularly prepared balance sheet and income and expense statement, if any, of the association.

(6) The current operating budget of the association.

(7) Any unsatisfied judgments against the association and the status of any pending suits in which the association is a defendant.

(8) The amount of any insurance coverage provided for the benefit of unit owners.

There are a few more items then under (b)

(b) The association, within ten days after a request by a unit owner, shall furnish to the unit owner a certificate containing the information necessary to enable the unit owner to comply with this section.

> which is it, the seller or the HOA? If the HOA refuses is the seller liable for the info and if the seller refuses is the HOA liable? who is liable if they both refuse?

In AZ the seller is supposed to provide this if a small HOA and the HOA if it is large.

There's no question of liability- it's just that NOT providing the documents provides the buyer with a way out of the purchase. In practice the seller wants to make sure the deal goes through and the HOA, after all, works for the seller.

You have to keep in mind that a potential buyer is NOT a member of the HOA. Certain information that is NOT public should NOT be provided to a potential buyer. It's like handing over your HOA's documents to someone who is walking down the street. Do you think they need to know how Joe Blow voted at the last meeting or how much money is in the bank account?

My welcome brochure included information that was general. It explained there were CC&R's and Articles of Incorporation located at the Courthouse in the records department if they wanted to know the rules. The rest of the brochure had things like what amenities we provided, basic rules, and what dues amount was. It was a helpful tool to address many of the frequently asked questions recieved.

HOA's were originally created as "sales tools" for the developer/builders. Once they are turned over to the owners that aspect of a HOA tends to dissolve. It's now more of a property value maintaining entity. The
Sales tools now is how well a HOA works together and represents itself to potential buyers.