Articles of Incorporation

We are changing management company and the new company have asked us for our Articles of Incorporation. I scoured my own copies of governing documents and the AOI were not a part of the documents I received upon purchase. I could not find a copy anywhere.

I went to the Secretary of State website and found our annual statement filed by our financial company - that made me think they (financial company) would have a copy (certified?) and I advised our president to ask them for their copy.

Finally, the current management company forwarded a pdf of the AOI.

The president asked me (the secretary) if I thought the PDF provided by the manager would suffice and I responded that it would be a question for the new management company; they may require a certified copy.

The president's next request was that we put the pdf of the AOI on our website but I wasn't sure where it belonged (if at all) and shouldn't it be attached to the CC&Rs?

Please help me understand where and whether this document should be available on our website.

As usual, LmT, your old pal davis-stirling.com is helpful for Calif. HOAs: https://www.davis-stirling.com/HOME/A/Articles-and-Bylaws. You can see that there's no need to have an original version or the Sec'y of State seal stamped on it.

My HOA has the AOI on the protected website for owners to review. If like your AOI, it's brief. So, sure, post it. Because it is a governing document, it should be filed on your website with your other governing documents: CC&Rs; Bylaws, Rules & Regs; Election Rules, & Arch. Guidelines if a doc separate from your CC&Rs.

CC&Rs are separate from and superior to the AOI.

It appears that since your HOA has been filing your "annual statement," there are no problems. I recall you don't like to be billed by your HOA attorney, but imo, if you have quick question about your AOI, it goes to your attorney, not your MC.

To be clear, the CC&Rs & AOI are completely separate independent docs in CA. Not sure what Terri means here.