40 year old governing documents 140 SFH HOA

Started by JackieB4 • 6 replies • 94 views

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JackieB4 (California)
Posts: 398

Posted:

We are well funded and a nice community in the OC; however, my 2 Directors oppose my motion to seek to professionally update them. 2:1 vote to TABLE the motion (twice.) Our budget is well-funded, minimal amenities. Basically they feel "no one reads them, no one cares." Also, no one attended the last zoom meeting. Apathy has doomed this community and I see no solution other than a new BOD, which my winning the lottery seems more likely. I hate to seem like an old dog barking up the wrong tree, but I feel our documents should be in step with Davis Stirling law. Is is worth chest pain? NEVER!!!

MarkM19 (Texas)
Posts: 1,459

Posted:

Jackie,
Of course they need to be updated. They probably still have many items in there that are from the original developer that are not needed and many updates that have been made over the 40 years. The biggest problem is if you can't get a majority opinion of your board how can you possibly get a super majority of your community to agree with the changes? You are not alone in your frustration with updating governing documents I would be willing to bet that 95% of HOA over 325,000 HOAs in the US have similar outdated documents still in place today. It all comes back to owner apathy in HOAs. I wish we had a solution to this age-old problem.

JackieB4 (California)
Posts: 398

Posted:

MarkM, I appreciate your empathy; I expected if we had Board support, the 3 of us would work as a team, branch out to our community for concerns, be 100% transparent with "proposed/suggested" changes, hold numerous townhalls for Q&A (including legal counsel), investing 6 months into educating membership before vote. This shouldn't be a delusional idea! But having a rogue Board (2/3) approving unprecedented costly issues...opens a can of worms for the future.

JackieB4 (California)
Posts: 398

Posted:

One of the opposing Directors with updating, just sent a link that discusses AI to refresh bylaws.
It's new to me but I'm hoping if others have used this source to rewrite/update their original documents (40 years old),
each will share the good, the bad, the ugly. Once updated, the membership will require a passing vote to become effective.
Jackie

MarkM19 (Texas)
Posts: 1,459

Posted:

Jackie,
When I just started my board life about 16 years ago in Ca. the existing board had been working to clean up and re write our documents that were 20 years old. It took a while to just get them done and it was expensive. The lawyer that was hired ended up having to making notes on every article that was removed and every addition that was added. The first thought from owners was why are they doing this and what are they hiding from us. It was a challenge to get it passed and you can expect the same on your end.

If you can get the board to agree I would suggest a legal type, red line the document with all of the outdated declarant language that is obviously not needed and then focus on the laws that have changed and lastly note the changes that the board hopes to change in the document. You will really make it super simple because no one wants to read anymore.

DeanJ
Posts: 1,786

Posted:

Without reading your documents, I might agree with your other 2 board members. If apathy rules the day in your community, it is unlikely the required number of owners will approve the amended document. The reason is people don’t like change, even when it’s a good change.

MichaelS56 (Minnesota)
Posts: 858

Posted:

Are your governing documents in compliance with the changes with federal, state, county and local laws? This includes your Rules and Regulations.

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