Newbie Questions

You don't necessarily have to drown yourself in paperwork, but job one is to sit down and read the documents yourself - some of these questions may already be addressed. Take some notes - actually lots of them - and ask your colleagues if they know. If there had been assorted lawsuits, you could read up on them yo see what happened, or read old board meeting minutes to see if there was a summary. That may give you a hint as to what areas to focus on now.

The committee should be working, with an attorney on this - you want these amendments to stand up in court, and you'd be surprised how many people try the do it yourself option, thinking it's cheaper, but end up missing things and misinterpreting others. Not to mention putting in things that are unenforceable. That could be why the association had to contend with those lawsuits.

All of that said, many HOAs have one unit per vote, but I've heard of a few that are saying one vote per owner, regardless of how many units are owned. This is because it doesn't take much for an investor owner (especially the corporate types) to buy enough to get a majority and then try to do things like dissolve the association and turn it into a rental community, forcing the few remaining owner occupants to sell at a loss. I believe this has happened with several high rise condo buildings. Is that an option for your community? That may be one of the issues you'll have to review with homeowners if you want them to approve whatever the committee develops.

As you can see, there's a lot to this, so take your time. There are older conversations on this website about amending documents- read a few to get more tips on best practices. And remember, most of us aren't attorneys and what's true in my state may not be the same in yours. Some might look at some of sections of your documents, but you probably won't get a wholesale review in this setting.

I suggest:

* Read the relevant Texas laws governing your type of community. I've never heard of an Improvement Association, but if that's a legal thing it should be defined somewhere. I believe in Texas the laws may differentiate based on when the community was incorporated, so watch out for that. Also, some states differentiate between condominiums (often attached units, much common area, no individual ownership of lots, owners assessed based on percentage of ownership of the entire property) and HOAs (with detached homes, private ownership of the lots underneath them, owners often assessed a flat rate per parcel owned). Pay attention to any recent changes in the law - depending on the age of the community, your current governing documents may be out of date.

* Note about assessments and votes. As I mentioned, many HOAs assess a flat rate per parcel owned. People who own multiple lots/houses will pay multiple assessments. The amount may change depending on whether there is a house sitting on the lot or it's undeveloped land. In condos it's one vote per unit owned and in HOAs it's usually the same, but in the HOAs things can change. If the HOA's CC&Rs try to maintain fairly uniform sized lots, then they may have language in them that "punishes" people who want to combine multiple lots into a single parcel. It makes sense to me that 1 lot = 1 vote = 1 assessment. (Obviously this stuff can be the source of conflict.)

* Note about rentals. Sheila mentioned corporate investors who buy up enough homes to have a controlling vote and then dissolve the association. This is particularly an issue in condos, but HOAs are not immune to it. Think hard about rental restrictions in your community. Your ability to do much may be limited by Texas law which (IMHO) makes it hard for HOAs to keep the investors out. But if you have any chance of keeping down the number of renters in the community are low, do it! There is a window of opportunity that will close.

* Talk to the board and longer-term residents about past sources of conflict. Also think about how society has changed recently and how it may change in the future. Current challenges being dealt with around the country involve water shortages (pool usage), energy (solar panels, electric cars), and damage resulting from extreme weather. (Last summer one of our semi-regular posters from Texas had some eye-opening stories about his community's pool (long story short: unending hot weather and cranky, misbehaving owners).

* General suggestions. 1) Since you say that your documents are pretty rudimentary, look at how they limit the board's ability to effectively manage what is a multi-million dollar corporation. You don't want the board to be able to set up a dictatorship, but you also don't want to tie their hands so that they can't do their jobs. This can be hard to do as a newbie, or even as a long-term board member. One of our regulars has been dealing with a similar situation in the last year or so, so hopefully he'll chime in. 2) A lawyer is going to have to draft the final text of the revisions. When you review their work, look for statements that are unclear, ambiguous, or that seem to contradict other statements. These things create legal booby traps and conflicts where they can be avoided by good legal writing.