Precedent vs CCR

There are so many smart people in this group. I may not post often but this is a good place to problem solve..
I’m in a 24 year old HOA community. The club covenants say one thing. A master board voted to do something else.
That something else.which is contrary to the club covenants, has held for 20 +. It is my understanding that is
Precedent and it over rides the covenants. I’m in Florida.

Thank you carole

The covenant says that Clubhouse can be used by residents and others.. a hey, master board voted after the turnover that there could be no private use of the clubhouse. It could either be used by a club or the association for a function for everyone..
The clubhouse was pretty much, gutted the price went from 7,000,000 to 14,000,000. they’re not approved by the homeowners a full scale restaurant for tomorrow was built and you can now have private functions and it can be rented out. It is a mess. The property manager had a wedding over the weekend there and there is not a certificate of occupancy. The master board members did not know. I just found the perfect.

The club covenant says that the clubhouse can be used by anyone. In one of the first master board meetings, the board voted there would be no private functions. The only functions could be by clubs or association activities for everyone. The no private functions has held until now.. so if no private functions has held for 20 years, does that override what the covenant says?

leased or licensed to third particsorMembers, exceptw a n dwhen permittedby Club Owner.
4.2. Useby PersonsOthec than Owners andT h a n tEbb Ownerhas the right at any and al times, and from time to time. to make the Club available to individualspersuns, firms or corporations other than Members, as it deems appropriate. Club Owner shall establish the fecs to be p a i d any person using the Club who is not aMembes. The granting of such rights shall not invalidate these Club Covemants,seduce orabate any Owner's obligationsto pay Club Charges pursuant to these Club Covenants, or give any Owne Theright to avoid any ofthe provisions of these covenants

It starts at 4.2

HOA approved clubs vs a wedding or private luncheon

The community voted for a café. The property manager convinced the board to have a full-blown restaurant, including a liquor license. and a full blown kitchen to have functions to offset $7 million increase in cost. that building has not gotten a certificate of occupancy yet. It has been 3+ years. This past Saturday night, a private homeowner together with the property manager had a wedding. The wedding was held on the veranda. The optics of the pictures taken inside the clubhouse are frightening. We use castle management.

Maybe... but it will depend on the exact language of the CC&Rs and the exact meaning of "private functions". If the CC&Rs truly say "anyone" - meaning the general public - and the board just hadn't allowed the general public to use them up to now but they've decided that they were overly restrictive in the past, I doubt that will override the covenant. Generally adding a new restriction requires homeowner approval.

And that would be an unusual situation since most HOA facilities are not open to the general public, for very good reasons.

Yipes.

If I were your insurer or your association attorney, I'd be having a "come to Jesus" meeting with the board about the nature and size of the risks the HOA is taking, along with a recommendation to find a new manager.

The more I think about it, the more messed up it seems. You decided you need a bigger facility to accommodate the bigger functions that you need to pay for the bigger facility...? My head is spinning.

Talk to a lawyer about your options, but it sounds like this community is off the rails and I'm not sure how much a single homeowner can do to change things other than through expensive and time-consuming litigation.

The covenant the OP attempted to quote speaks of use by "other than members." It also indicates selective use by "other than members." To me this particular part of the covenant is not saying that the clubhouse is open to the public, per se. It's saying to me that the HOA can rent out the clubhouse //as it sees fit//. But it does not //have// to rent out the club to any and all who ask to use it.

I do not know if this is up to the board's discretion. It's only my opinion that it is, based on the information presented so far. This is because it seems owners rarely have express, discretionary powers that are specific to common area usage. Instead the owners have the power to amend.

I think the use of the clubhouse as a cafe is largely a separate issue. It's also a minefield of other problems.

As is common, the OP can only get an introduction of how to talk about this with an attorney. Said attorney will look over every word and comma of the covenants. This forum does not have this benefit.

A BOD should have control over what purpose the club being rented for. Many avoid political, social, etc. issues when it come to renting.

This has been an exhausting, five or six days. We are a 55+ community. Lennar and Centex were the builders. The community is 23 years old. The documents have never been changed. They date back to December 1999. As is normal the documents are in favor of the developer. Over the years, I have tried to get them changed. The master board was never interested in doing it. Our clubhouse is 28,000 ft.² and it needed to be updated. All of the communities around us have very upscale facilities, including a café. The clubhouse was not included in the price of the home the community had to buy the clubhouse at closing. It was difficult to get a mortgage. Now comes the time to upgrade and refurbish the clubhouse. The first thing that happened was the loan had to be retired so every house was assessed $3400. An amendment to the documents was passed to upgrade the clubhouse as a fitness center and include a café. The maximum estimated cost was supposed to be around $7 million. The property manager, from Castle management, first change the logo. Send change the front of the community to work with the logo. No homeowner knew anything about this. I have been told but I do not know firsthand that the president of the board has allowed the property manager, a lot of leeway, and what he does, somehow along the way and no one can get a straight answer the property manager convinced the board to have a full-service restaurant and bar and kitchen. At the same time the costs are now at $14 million and no one can get a straight answer on where the money has gone and Marie have tried. This is the fourth season that we have had no clubhouse Covid did not help. The building has yet to have a certificate of occupancy. I don’t know all the details but last Saturday night a wedding was held at the clubhouse outside with access inside. The pictures are very bad. The club covenants 4.2 which I have posted above allow the board pretty much free rain and who uses the clubhouse. My problem with that is that when turnover happened the first or second board passed a resolution or a rule that there will be no private functions only club functions and associated functions, and that rule has held for 20+ years. I think a quart would say that the rule held for so long that the original rule is negated, but I don’t know that for a fact. There are 1060 homes most owners want to be left alone home prices skyrocketed as did everything else. New buyers were promised a new facility and they have yet to see it and some of them are very annoyed. The property manager was at the wedding in a tuxedo this past Saturday night, my feeling is that the property management company needs to remove this manager and get this community, working again fix the clubhouse and let people begin to enjoy the facility. The board who now has three new members is trying, but it is not very cohesive. How many hours have gone out on next-door and aired our dirty laundry to the world because they do not know how to use the app I run a private Facebook group. People are trying to stay focused on the issues that were just getting very difficult, the last time there was a major problem 10+ years ago I knew how to resolve it but I don’t have a clue what to do but it’s not good I hope I have explained this well enough I really am looking for suggestions and someone said it’s more than one person and I think I can get a group of people, but what do we do?

To the OP: this situation did not suddenly happen if your clubhouse has been shut down for four years. You are not presenting the whole story, which I understand because it's probably really complicated. You said you don't know where the money went. Have you looked at the budgets for the last four years? In Florida, the homeowner can request to view any of the official records of the association - so that would include meeting minutes and budgets. There must have been discussions and votes documented in the minutes. The management company didn't suddenly "convince" the board to do anything - and the board had to have voted on it. Plus the budget will tell you where your special assessments and monthly dues are going.

In order to convince your neighbors that the board has done something wrong or that they have wasted money and need to be replaced, you need to get your facts in place. Get copies and review the documents, the invoices, the minutes.

The story about the property manager hosting a party in a tuxedo doesn't sound great. Have you asked the property manager what exactly happened? Did you find out from the board if they knew about the party or approved it?

I understand your frustration with this project that seems to have gone off the rails for the last four years. But you clearly don't have all the facts and you can't really do anything about it without all the information.