What records do members have a right to see?

I live in an HOA of 65 homes and about 3-4 years ago our board decided to rewrite our CC&R's. My question is do I as a member of this HOA have a right to request seeing both the invoices from the Attorney and the votes taken by the officers of the HOA members? I suspect that they rewrote the CC&R's and implemented them without a vote. I know I didn't get to vote and some of the new rules do not look like the work of an Attorney.

MikeR, Yes, DaveM3 gives you good steps to take. First check to see if your old ones give the Board such authority, which i doubt. But>>>? But make all of your requests for documents in writing and address them to all members of the Board if you don't have a property mgr.

Unless your minutes typically record (ours do) who voted how, you won't have access to that info. Who voted how is generally not required in minutes.

Do you have a copy of the old CC&Rs? In other words, are you sure changes were made. If changes were made, how were you notified about them? Were you send a who new set of CC&Rs? or just some pages? Are any directors now the same ones who served then?

Finally, what is your interest in this topic just now instead of back then? Is there a particular CC&R that you now disagree with? Or?

At the time it was clear that only one officer was involved with the rewrite. When I talked to the other two officers they where not involved in the process at all. It was a complete rewrite of the CC&R's. Our officers now are slow to enforce and one rule that they are stuck on is enforceable, but they question it. I have always been concerned that the rewrite was not done by our Attorney and that there wasn't a proper vote. Everytime we have a vote on anything its without a ballot and is just decided by a small group of homeowners. I would really like to know who made the changes and who voted on those changes. I think its important to know if its all above board.

Is it dishonesty or ignorance?

Not to get ahead or ourselves, but is your association owner or declarant controlled?

Mike, when you say "officers," do you mean directors on the Board?

In CA, Homeowners' ballots only are required to be kept for one year. Probably the same or similar in UT.

Your CC&Rs state how your CC&Rs may be changed. Please tell us what they say. Exact quotes are best.

Mike: "Everytime we have a vote on anything its without a ballot and is just decided by a small group of homeowners."
What do you mean by "anything?" There are many things that only the Board votes on. Please supply one or two examples of "anything."

What you really need are copies of all meeting minutes for the period in question. If your own Docs don't say you can have those, your state laws probably do.

Again, how did you receive your new CC&Rs? Whose signature is on them? Is it dated?

Your state probably doesn't require that an attorney be involved in doc rewrites.

Would you mind sharing us the specific CC&R that your say was added on but isn't being enforced?

I feel like you're holding back on us and I can't grasp why you haven't checked your own CC&Rs for proper procedures yet. I'm not going to speculate about anything until you're a little more forthcoming.

As others have suggested, Mike, look at your own governing documents first. It's usually the Bylaws that say who may vote, how elections must be conducted, how long directors terms are. Usually only one person per household is permitted to vote. Bylaws generally reflect a state's corporations codes/laws.

So if you don't have bylaws for whatever reason, turn to your state's laws. Since I live in CA, I have no need to look up your state's laws--you do!! But that depends on whether or not you're a corporation. Are you? If your are, your Articles of Incorporation confirm it.

It's possible your CC&Rs say thing about voting.

Right now, Mike., tell us what governing documents you personally possess and what they say about the matters that concern you and about which you've received some advice.

First check your documents to find out how votes need to be conducted and what's required to change the documents.
A door-to-door solicitation of votes without a proper notice of a meeting for the purpose of that particular vote is probably contrary to your documents.
What do the documents say? Did they do that? Do the HOA records show that "it" per the documents was not done correctly?

Thanks for the answer but also one of the questions was are you owner or Declarant controlled?

Thanks

Mike R:

This looks like a good place to start for Utah laws http://www.utahhoa.com/

This site even gives updates to the law.

When you look at this site, I think you'll see your board seems to be violating every known law. Time to organize and get rid of them. Your home is at risk.

Jeanne

Jeanne