Fiscal Year

Well of course get this contradiction corrected.

This happens when people don't look at the entire document when doing amendments.

Minor error in drafting is not likely to create problems. The amendment, if signed by authorized parties, would supersede original document because the amendment had a later date.

On the other hand, there are some practical considerations.

Example - We changed our fiscal year end from 12/31 to 3/31 around a decade ago because we didn't want our snow season costs split across 2 fiscal years.

1. Short year. In the year we made the change, there was an extra year-end to deal with. First, we had our ordinary 12/31/10 financial statements prepared. Then, there was another set of financial statements for the 3-month period from 12/31/10 to 3/31/11 that needed to be prepared. For obvious reasons, that one was called the short year. Then, the next set of annual statements were prepared on the following 3/31/12. You should check to verify that your HOA properly accounted for the short year. In your case, the short year would have been from 12/31/X0 to 8/31/X1.

2. Other affected clauses. When we made our fiscal year change, the drafters missed the fact that our docs called for publishing budgets by 11/1. That makes sense when the fiscal year ends on 12/31 but not when it ends on 3/31. Our solution was to apply the rule of 60 days prior to the new year. So we now publish by 2/1, 60 days before the new fiscal year begins. The 11/1 publication requirement is still in our docs. If we ever get around to making changes, a revision will be made.

3. Cost. Until recently in PA, the law allowed deed recording offices to charge a premium of $10 per unit for HOA recordings. Our drafting errors were never corrected because of the cost. Now that the $10 per unit rule was overturned, we'll clean up those portions of our docs that are inconsistent.

4. Vote. There's a difference between a change and a clarification. A fiscal year change might require approval by the membership depending on what your docs say. But a clarification can often be accomplished with just the approval of the Board. Cleaning up the inconsistency in your docs would typically be recognized as a clarification.