HOA Rules

Sorry I am going to try this again.
My name is Mark I live in Michigan.Somehow my profile says Nevada, Maybe I'll move .
I am going to tell my story again. I recently joined a HOA that only pertains to a piece of property that the association owns. Iam on the Board.
I received a set of by laws that have no rules pertaining to anything other than shares needed officers duties etc.There to my knowledge are no CCRs.
I put in a 8' dock on this property. The president / Dictator informed me I could not do this because it was in the by laws. Nothing is in the by laws. He then stated that it was voted on 25 years ago and was in the minutes if I cared to check. Since this problem I have come to learn this gentleman does this all the time and people have let him because he has been here a long time.I want to do what is right and fair but do not know the laws in Mich. pertaining to this.
My question is does there have to be something in writing somewhere ?, is this HOA a hoax ? How can I legally stop this Dictator from telling us all what we can do ??
Help From Michigan

I think there has to be something in writing. If an owner doesn't pay, who has the right to put a lien on their home or take them to court? Somebody must if it's a real bona fide HOA, and it has to be in writing somewhere.

I am surprised that you are on the board and do not know the existence of status of your CCR's. From your post, it does not sound like you are an deed-restricted Association. It sounds like you are a corporation only and of course, corporations do not have the power and authority to restrict property use of private property. If the corporation owns common property, the corporate documents will contain all the rules of the road for shareholders' use and enjoyment of common property.

I was unclear about if the 8' dock was on the corporate common property. If yes, there is no doubt a clear pathway in the Bylaws for the shareholders to vote affirmatively or by representation for material alterations to common property. If the Bylaws are silent, go to #2 below.

#1 FACT CHECK Recorded Governing Documents: Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws are CORPORATE documents. In many states, these do not NEED to be recorded, but typically are recorded along with property restrictions, if any. Get a copy of the recorded documents. The reason I suggest this is there may have been document-tampering. (That was the case in my HOA.)

Covenants (and possibly Rules) are PROPERTY USE documents. Your HOA may simply be a voluntary Corporation, in which case you will not find Covenants/Rules/CCR's. This will be revealed by identifying all documents which are indexed to your common property tracts, as is done with a Title Search for private property.

Aside from checking your title search policy for restrictions/easements on private property use, you can also search your county public records for your subdivision plat. What is recorded in the public record is all that matters.

#2 FACT CHECK relevant Statutes: You should also be aware that if there are recorded CCR's, Michigan has a Marketable Records Title Act and the CCR's could possibly have expired per statute. (The Corporation would not expire unless the Annual Reports are not timely submitted.)

#3 DOCUMENT your Findings in the Official Records of your Association by placing a matter on the Agenda for discussion. I would be prepared at that point with a motion depending on the complexity of findings or lingering questions. This should not be allowed to remain a cloudy issue with the board and with members.

The answer to the question about being smoked by the know-it-all board member starts with gathering the facts. From there, it will be a process of the best way to address an alternate reality going forward in a clear-eyed way.