Ohio HOA Law question

Wesley,

From your earlier posts on another thread I know that you are on your Board and trying to rewrite your governing documents. I also know that the main issue is that it appears your governing documents currently has assessments being voluntary (beyond the initial fee when a home is purchased).

The Courts in some States have started interpreting governing documents as written. What I mean by that is if the document is silent on an issue it was intended to be excluded from the contract. To put it another way, if the document doesn't allow for monetary charges, then it was intended that monetary charges may not be collected.

I do not know if Ohio courts are interpreting governing documents this way or not.

I know you don't have a lot of money in your Association but it may be good to gather a group together and hammer out a few questions to ask an attorney to give a legal opinion on. It may cost between $500 and $1,000 but it could be money well spent.

As for rewriting your governing documents, this is a good process to use:

1) Form a committee of members to make the initial draft This frees up the board to concentrate on other things.
This helps allow members to have a direct say in the changes and feel part of the process The committee members should ensure the draft complies with existing applicable laws (HOA/COA and Corporate) A good place to start is to review the governing documents of similar Associations around you.

2) Board reviews draft submitted by committee and ensures that their is no conflict between the draft documents, that they comply with applicable laws and make changes accordingly. Board also proposes changes that the Committee may not have thought about or where the Board disagrees with the committees recommendation.

3) Depending on the document, Board sends the revised draft to the association attorney for review and comment.

4) Board reviews attorney comments and makes changes based on those comments.

5) Board sends final draft to the membership for review, then holds a meeting for comments and questions.

6) Board considers comments by the membership and makes any changes based on those comments.

7) Board sends proposed amendments/rewrite of documents to the membership for a vote.

8) Board busts their behind in getting proxies (if allowed) so their are enough votes cast (hopefully approving the proposed change/s)

9) If adopted, board (perhaps through the attorney) files the adopted changes with the State or County as needed.

10) Board announces the results and publishes adopted documents.

Thanks Tim. You pretty much hit the nail on the head. Except our problems are worse we've done all our homework and everything is ready to go. Most residents don't see the need for this and think we're just trying to take their money. Reality is we'll be bankrupt in 6 months and then it will be the courts that take our money.

Wesley, I understand your frustration but I still do not believe that you can force voluntary members to become mandatory members, short of them voluntarily joining. The section of 5312.02 you cited says:

(C) Nothing in this chapter invalidates any provision of a document that governs a planned community if that provision was in the document at the time the document was recorded and the document was recorded prior to the original effective date of this chapter.

Since your documents were filed in 1960 and are valid and contain the specific formula for financing the HOA, I don't think you can use this section to overturn it. Remember that section B states: Any declaration for a planned community shall be accompanied by bylaws that provide for the operation of the planned community. The declaration and bylaws shall provide for all of the following:

(9) The common expenses for which assessments may be made and the manner of collecting from the owners their respective shares of the common expenses;

Unfortunately the manor stated does not give you the resources to accomplish the goals. From what you posted in your other thread, it would seem that your only choice would be to increase the pool fee or close it.

Other than the pool, is the HOA responsible for any other common elements?