ARC Issue

Our Architectural Review Committee is appointed each December for the following year. Names are submitted by a Nominating Committee in November for discussion and appointment in December so taht the ARC will be ready to serve on January 1, 2022.

In November, the current 5 sitting members for 2021 notified the nomination committee that would like to be re-appointed for 2022. No other names were submitted.

In early December, all 5 members of the 2021 ARC resigned.

Shortly after their resignation, 4 of those 5 put forth the suggestion that they would be willing to serve in 2022.

Since there are generally 5 members, I submitted my name for consideration.

I was told that I would have to wait until 1, 2022 to submit my name to the current ARC chairman and that chairman would submit my name to the BOD. A notice will be sent to the overall community that there is an opening on the ARC and if they are interested they should likewise submit their name to the chair of the ARC.

My question is: since they all resigned, should they not have to re-submit their names as well.

They should but, bottom line, HOA Boards have the right to appoint anyone they want to ARCs. If this means the Board will keep seats on the ARC vacant for awhile (possibly reserving any architectural approval authority to the HOA board itself), then I believe the HOA Board is not violating any law or covenant by doing so. If this HOA Board does not want you on the ARC, then legally I do not think you have any recourse.

This is the process our community uses for our ARC. The ARC is defined as separate board in our documents with authority to make their own decisions, but the BOD appoints members to the ARC. We ask all members to resign at the beginning of each calendar year. Members who want to continue are most of the time re-appointed, but if we have a troublesome member and more volunteers than positions, we will appoint someone else instead of the troublesome member.

For example, last year we had two of the five ARC members who simply could not understand why the ARB rules had to be followed. One was a real estate agent who sells most of the homes in the community and would promise his clients he could help them get things through. The other was his friend who only joined because she wanted us to change the rules so she could change her fence color from white to black. All of the members resigned and we replaced those two with other members.

I know it isn't a fair process, but it's how the BOD keeps the ARC in line with their vision of the neighborhood.

How can a committee that is a "Review" committee make final decisions? They are not voted onto the committee by the residents, like the Board members. In our Association our ARC is only a review committee offering recommendations as we believe the Board of Directors are held to a higher standard and law. That ARC does not have any fiduciary responsibilities unlike the Board.

Does the same comment apply if the Board is the ARC?

In my experience, the HOA/COA Board may always lawfully overrule the ARC. In particular, since the governing documents almost always give the HOA/COA Board the authority to appoint and remove the members of the ARC, it seems to me the Board can always overrule the ARC via removing and appointing members.

Our ARC is actually called the ARB and is empowered by our documents to make independent decisions. We have the right to pay a professional to run it also if we choose, but we can never find any professional who wants to work on an ad hoc basis.

The appeal process was not clear in our original documents, so when we rewrote the docs last year we made the process clear. The ARB can approve or deny (or approve with conditions). If the homeowner is unhappy, they can appeal the decision to the ARB. If the ARB denies a second time, the homeowner has the right to appeal to the Master board for a final decision.

The ARB cannot levy fines for non-compliance. They recommend a fine to the Master board, Master board discusses at a meeting and recommends the fine. Fining committee makes final decision.

We have pretty extensive ARB regulations (a separate document, but some of the rules are in our declaration also). We have a situation right now that will likely go to the Master board. A homeowner put in an application for artificial turf by his front door and also a hedge across the front of his house that would be artificial plants. We live in Florida where plants grow like weeds, so not quite sure why he wants an instant hedge, but he does. Our documents don't specifically prohibit artificial plants. ARB denied because there are no other artificial hedges and they are concerned about the long-term look of a plastic hedge in the hot Florida sun. We believe the ARB has the right to make these decisions since the rules can't possibly cover everything.