Bylaws & CCR's

BB2,
Go to court house and search any entries dealing with your HOA and the one you merged with. What state are you in? Look up business filing for the state and see if you are Incorporated. You probably come under some state statute. If you can not find any evidence of your merger in court house, or other records concerning your association you are probably no an association. Some where in the original CC&R's filed with the state you will find some procedures for merging two HOA's. Did you have a lawyer handle the merger, find out and ask him what is going on. Your documents are missing the State Staute, the Incorporation papers, the Master deed and all the exhibits describing the property. Not to mention the Board minutes, records of meetings, financial data, tax filings, and God knows what else. What document was recorded where? Any signers still around, who maintains your books, do you have a board?

Marsha, read your CC&Rs to determine what is required to amend them. The Developer may still own a sufficient number of lots to have the votes necessary to amend. For example, the CC&Rs may require 67% of the votes of all lots in Phase I and Phase II; and Class B owners, the Developer, may have several votes per lot while the homeowners, Class A, have one vote per lot.

I think the attorney may have been parsing words to remove your concerns. The changes may only relate to certain things which only occur in Phase II but they would also apply to Phase I and need to be voted on by all owners in both sections.

If a quorum is defined as more than 50% of the members, then in your case that would be 21. A majority vote with 21 members is 11. Therefore you need a meeting with 21 members present, with 11 voting for the changes, in order to achieve your goals.
If a quorum is 2/3, then it would be 28 votes, with 15 being the majority.
A 75% quorum would be 31 votes, with 16 being the majority.

Roger, I agree. I think there may some confusion of the terminologies.

For example, in my HOA we have 3 different documents; CCR, Art. of Inc. and By-law (in order of precedent, respectfully).

The CCR is in effect for 30 years and may only be changed by 90% approval of the association. At the end of the 30 years the CCR will automatically extend in ten year increments. However, after the first 30 years it can be changed by 75% approval of the association. (there are a few other voting requirements in there like the amount and type of insurance and raising annual assessment more than 20% etc.)

Art. of Inc. can be changed by 90% approval of the association.

The By-laws define voting on matters other than described in CCR, Art. of Inc. and By-law. Such as voting for HOA BODs, rule changes etc. This requires a quorum of 15% and 51% of the quorom approval for a change. There is also an allowance if a quorom is not obtained in that those present at a rescheduled meeting make a quorom. Changes to the actual By-law is as described here.

The difference in the various voting requirments, in my docs., can be subtle particually if you are not aware of which section you are in. While the docs. flow, I have found that you can't just skim them once or twice.

Regarding the developers rights to change the CCR, my docs. say he can. In fact he had time after he turned over the association to the owners to do so. Then again my docs. define class A and B members. I would double check.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Thank you to everyone for all the helpful information. I will seek legal advice here in Oregon about these issues. I feel the same way - everything is open to interpretation ! Just depends on the size of the wallet...