ARC Request

Started by CourtneyS2 • 9 replies • 460 views

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CourtneyS2 (Texas)
Posts: 74

Posted:

Our board consist of 3 directors.
One director recently sent in an ARC request. Our management company sent an email saying their office would only vote if there is a split decision. Our community has been turned over to the residents for two years. Does the management office have voting rights?

DouglasK1 (Florida)
Posts: 2,046

Posted:

Typically the board appoints ARC members. If the board has appointed someone at the MC to the ARC, they might have a vote, otherwise I don't see why the MC would even think they had a say.

Escaped former treasurer and director of a self managed association.

CourtneyS2 (Texas)
Posts: 74

Posted:

Our ARC committee consist of only the 3 board members.

AugustinD
Posts: 3,698

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By CourtneyS2 on 05/18/2021 4:47 AM
Our board consist of 3 directors. One director recently sent in an ARC request. Our management company sent an email saying their office would only vote if there is a split decision. Our community has been turned over to the residents for two years. Does the management office have voting rights?

The management office has voting rights only if the governing documents give the management office voting rights.

In my experience, and as is parliamentary custom, a split vote here means the ARC request is denied. The director who submitted the request might try modifying his or her request per what the dissenting director indicates.

CourtneyS2 (Texas)
Posts: 74

Posted:

I checked our governing documents no where does it say they have voting rights. Is there somewhere specific I should look?

AugustinD
Posts: 3,698

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By CourtneyS2 on 05/18/2021 7:19 AM
I checked our governing documents no where does it say they have voting rights. Is there somewhere specific I should look?

No, there is no where specific you should look. In my ten+ years reading different HOAs' Declarations and Bylaws, I have never seen such a clause (proving that an HOA manager has a vote on ARC requests) after an HOA has been turned over to membership control.

I mentioned this to encourage you and others to always first go to the HOA's governing documents (Bylaws, Covenants, Rules and Regs, Articles of Incorporation) when questions arise. HOA Boards should encourage HOA members and HOA directors to always cite the governing document section that the member or director thinks will support her or his position.

Here, in my opinion the management company, maybe assisted by a not-very-savvy-board, is just making things up and so is a little dangerous.

Whoever is claiming the management company has the right to vote on ARC requests should be asked to cite the section of the governing document that supports her or his position.

MaxB4
Posts: 3,513

Posted:

Many HOA's have a document called Architectural Guidelines that is separate from the CCRs. Like the Rules and Regulations which are directly derived and authorized from the CCRs, such is the case for the ARC Guidelines. It could be possible that such an arrangement was created during the development phrase of your community. The language, if any, should have been updated once the community took over from the developer.

CourtneyS2 (Texas)
Posts: 74

Posted:

Thank you.

BillH10 (Texas)
Posts: 1,217

Posted:

Courtney

First, the Bylaws of your Association are likely silent regarding the composition of committees. Scan the index to see if the word Committee is present. If so, read the section.

Your Declaration should have an index, new associations have much better indexes than those from 30 years ago. You may find an entry in the index which is entitled Architectural Control or Architectural Covenants and Control or similar. In older documents the subject of Architectural Control was sometimes buried in other sections of the Declaration.

If you can find the section, read through it closely. It should describe how the Architectural Control process works, and hopefully describes the composition of the committee.

Although I have never seen enabling language in the Architectural Control section, some Association documents allow the appointment to the Board of a non owner, specifically to the Treasurer position, so as to gain a level of expertise regarding financial operations which may not be available from owner volunteers.

As was suggested by another poster, it is not uncommon for a community manager to be appointed to a Board while the association is still under the control of the developer. However, the right of the developer to name members of the Board should mostly or completely evaporate when the developer turns over control to the Association.

BillH10 (Texas)
Posts: 1,217

Posted:

Correction to my previous post--

Although I have never seen enabling language in the Architectural Control section, some Association documents allow the appointment to the Board of a non owner, specifically to the Treasurer position, so as to gain a level of expertise regarding financial operations which may not be available from owner volunteers.

Should read

Although I have never seen enabling language in the Architectural Control section, some Association documents allow the appointment as an Officer a non owner, specifically to the Treasurer position, so as to gain a level of expertise regarding financial operations which may not be available from owner volunteers.

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