BY-LAWS

I'm a member of a POA in TX., that consist of 75 residences. Our Certificate of Incorporation and the Articles of Incorporation were effective on October of 1982. Our document of RESTRICTIONS for Twin Cedars Subdivision was submitted to record in our County on April 28, 1970 by the developer.

Though we have a document entitled "BY-LAWS of Twin Cedars and Holly Bay Property Owners Association" it is not signed, dated or of record with our Document of Restrictions in the County's Records. The best we know about this BY-LAW document is that it is the one that has always been used or referenced. We don't even know if it was formulated by the Property Owners, the Developer or a combination of the two.

On top of this our Document of Restrictions that is on file at our County expired in 2005. We, the currant BOD's, are attempting to straiten this issue out and get us back on track and in compliance. We want to do this correctly and not find ourselves repeating our work later down the road again. We are looking at re-writing the Document of RESTRICTIONS and the BY-LAWS, of which many items are way out of date. Thoughts and guidance in this area from those who may have been on this marry go round before themselves, would be most appreciated and to those I pose this question.

1. Even though the "BY-LAWS" are not signed, dated or of record (that we can find) they have been in use for so many years is it or would it be correct to continue with that documents wording as far as what the BOD's is authorized to do or do we have to take another avenue before continuing? IE: Article X of those BY-LAWS - "AMENDMENTS TO BY-LAWS" states: Section 1. "These By-Laws may be altered, amended, or repealed and new By-Laws may be adopted by a majority of the Board of Directors."?

Texas Title II Chapter 211 is clear as to where we go through the rest of this in the rewriting of the POA's RESTRICTIONS and their implementation.

I'm sure there are a few other POA's out there that have faced this problem in the past and we would sure like to have that experience to help us with ours. Thank You.

Most states do NOT require filing of the By-laws. By-laws are the "every day" rules of the HOA. The Convenants and Restrictions are what are filed at the COUNTY level and supercede the by-laws if in conflict. The Incorporation filing is done at STATE level.
So don't panic if you don't have your by-laws filed anywhere other than the HOA/POA office. Most likely that is EXACTLY where they need to be. It's the CC&R's violations that most likely will get any court action.

Melissa and Rodger, I would like to thank both of you for your replies, most appriciated. I would like to ask a couple of follow up questions.

1. Is it unusual to find BY-LAWS without a signature or date, at least those BY-LAWS the age of ours?

2. Does the Developer set up these BY-LAWS initially like they do with the RESTRICTIONS or would the BY-LAWS be formulated by the first BOD's, by the first BOD's and the developer or by the developer and released to the BOD's at the same time they take over control of the RESTRICTIONS? (Here no one ever heard of them refered to as CC&R's :-).

I have been trying to look up some of these basic TX. POA's steps in the POA's development but have not been able to locate when, where and by who the original BY-LAWS are established.

Thank You.

Thank You Gloria. I did go into our County Clerks Office today and was told that some POA's do record their BY-LAWS and some don't but there was no law in TX. requiring it. They will record them with the RESTRICTIONS if we wish however.

Thank you for your reply and support.

Thank You Melissa, that was great of you to forward that information to us. However, what is a Satellite dish? We live two weeks from anywhere :-). Our whole county population is just over 10K. If anything is added or installed in our neighborhood normally everyone comes out to HELP and watch because it would be the social event of the day. Well everyone would have an opinion anyway :-). This afternoon when going over old minutes of meetings (all hand written) back into the early 80's we did manage to find reference to our BY-LAWS being reviewed by the BOD's. BY-LAWS furnished by an Attorney for the BOD's to discuss, modify, accept and enact. There is where they came from.

We are not looking at anything in filing fees like you have experienced (thank goodness). Its so different here but that will not last I know and that is why we have taken on this project to get ahead of the curve and to make sure we do this correctly. I came into this area from the Tucson, AZ. area (Green Valley) and thought I had gone back to rural Iowa in the early 60's. I do have a good idea of what you are talking about however, having gone through the Age Limit Restrictions, how many cactus you have to have, lawyers, etc, etc and etc.

Well that's more than you wanted to know but again THX! and any other suggestions, heads up information or etc. will always be welcomed and appreciated.