Common sense bylaws - do they exist?

Heather

Welcome and I admire your tenacity.

Bylaws can be dependent on state and local law so my advice would be to look for a generic set in OH. Many attorneys will have such.

Bylaw changes will typically take 67% of fellow owners approving such changes. It is not something the BOD can do by itself.

It will be an expensive and time consuming task and if most do not want nor see the need for such, the cost and time would have been wasted.

I would suggest you check the height of the mountain you plan to climb before you begin your trip.

As has been mentioned have you considered the cost, the effort involved, and the odds in the end you might be successful?

To draw up new By-Laws will IMO require an attorney. Have you looked into an eistmate as to what that might cost? Does you property have that kind of money without another use for the same?

And just one final thought, some of the details in your existing documents you mentioned were not IMO life threatening. To go through this process I would hope the changes made would be needed and beneficial for the property to operate not simply cosmetic. How many numbers on the mailboxes doesn't really bother me.

In the end the simplest to understand, most complete set of By-Laws in the land will mean nothing and be worth nothing if their is no one willing or capable of implementing them.

It is not the paperwork that manages the affairs of a property but rather the volunteers
who put in the time and effort.

Our documents are over 30 years old. Never felt the need to update them or pay the cost and spend the time to do so. There are bigger fish to fry.

Do what is best for the property. And determine just what all this effort, cost and work might provide in return IF accomplished.

Either way good luck. I hope you have some others carrying some of the weight......

Yes, I know we need 67% to vote. It will be an uphill battle, but I have reason to think we might be able to get it done. Or perhaps I'm being naive. But my goal is to make it easier for future boards to manage and the current bylaws are anything but.

How many homes or units in your HOA, Heather? How many on the board? Glen always is very helpful.

The mailbox topic is something I'd expect to see in Rules & Regs or the covenants (CC&Rs), but not in Bylaws, btw. Is it that all of your arch. or design "rules" are in the bylaws?

There are 124 houses in our subdivision, we're a HOA, not a condo association. Our bylaws and CCR are one in the same, there aren't separate documents. What was filed with the state is what the builder handed off and there aren't any other documents.

In the absence of any other guidance, we sent out a letter that contained a summary of how we were going to enforce violations and delinquent dues. Our document gives no guidance -- not on the amount of fees, or the length of time, etc. Every board has done whatever they wanted, which was basically to enforce bylaws on their enemies and waive them for their friends. Needless to say, that hasn't created goodwill toward the HOA. Add that to the (apparent) theft of funds and I've got a PR nightmare. But I'm making some headway, slow and steady.

Be careful of the block watch. Keep it SEPARATE from your HOA. NEVER EVER intermingle funds between the two. They are separate entities. Block watches can include non-owners like renters or others to belong just for living there. HOA's are for members/owners only.

If you seen what happened with the Travyon Martin case, you will see why you do NOT combine neighborhood watches with HOA's. Your opening ALL the owners to a lawsuit if someone with a gun on patrol shoots someone. You want to keep it voluntary and have police officer to provide details. Our police department has a DVD on forming a neighborhood watch. They also will provide you with a sign advertising a neighborhood watch.

Good luck with your endeavors... Many of us have been there. So please keep asking questions. That is what we are here for.

Hi Heather

Like you, we have one or two who want the rules applied against people they don't know how to get along with. In fact, our worst offender is an ex-board member. In his mind, the rules apply to everyone but him. We spent many hours undoing some of the stuff he bullied a prior board into doing. In the past six months, he has complained about a dozen neighbors over petty nonsense. He has been to court with one of them.

Our Board has adopted the following practices which we publicize to the community:

1. We got email addresses for everyone who has on-line access, which for us, is 90% of the community.

2. When a written complaint comes in, we send an email to the purported offender which says: "We have received a complaint that ..." and we close by saying thank you. Our homeowners have come to realize that the HOA is not taking a position, but merely conveying information. Although we don't disclose who made the complaint, the recipient usually knows.

3. We take this approach automatically for the petty stuff, but not for matters that the Board believes should be enforced (such as anything relating to safety).

4. We delegated the responsibility to a Board member to screen and respond to these complaints immediately as they come in (we only use an MC for financials).

5. If a homeowner doesn't have email, we use the mails or deliver the note to the doorstep.

This approach is quick and efficient and keeps us from getting distracted. We are not a police force and we don't want to be one. Our message is clear. And like in all neighborhoods I know, our residents figure out who the jerks are on their own.

We have had a re-write of our rules on the back burner for over a year. It is a daunting task and it always gets bumped.

That's why we don't have a valid HOA in Ohio bylaws and cc&r is combined in one document, even though there is deed restriction on our 1st section the original developer went about it all wrong and now has no legal standings in our community, new developer bought property around ours and made more sections, every time they change property management company's we get billings from them saying were in their HOA that's a totally different name, last time they got sneaky and tried changing their name to the name of the Community and incorporate all around to them. they've been at it for over 10 years trying to get us to voluntary join by deceptive practices in mailings which I've pointed out to them that's a criminal act by them and repointed them to the appropriate documents. Finally resent everything and threated to start legal action before they have their board election meeting which our section was invited, was about to go to it but decided why stir the pot further and within 2 days they sent a letter saying sorry for the misunderstandings.

Since the other sections assumed our community name, they're responsible for maintenance of the entire community common areas including ours that we maintain as in minor cutting and minor landscaping but they have to pay street repairs and the light. poles. Which is not as bad as one community with the same situation has 9 sections completed yet only 2 sections are in a HOA and each ones in a different name even and they both have to foot the bills for the entire community, yet if they abandon the HOA's, all their lot owners (Previously in the HOA's) are legally responsible for the taxation and maintenance of the entire community common areas and street repairs anyways unless they get the city to take it back and assume it never heard of that happening yet, once you grab a tiger(HOA) by it's tail you can never let go of it, because it's still goanna come back and bite you anyways.