Roles and Responsibilities as an HOA Board

I hope this is not too long an confusing...

We are a rather new HOA and have had a board for 4 years. The first 2 years was really just arguing with the developer over things we should have had as a neighborhood, but didn't get.

Anyway, when I became president 2 years ago, a lot of things needed to be put in place. We outlined budgets, set goals, etc. Now we are really starting to get into issues with the Restrictions in the neighborhood. There is a fencing issue that we don't know how to handle. The Restrictions are confusing to say the least. They were interpretted by the previous board to mean that if you had a fence, it must be a 6' shadowbox fence. But looking at the restrictions complicates things and makes several people in violation and others who have ugly fences possibly not in violation.

The by-laws do not set about provisions for granting exemptions to the restrictions or amending the restrictions. There are rules about amending the by-laws, but not the restrictions. So as a board, we don't know what to do. There has been a complaint about an "ugly" fence. We as a board feel that everyone who is in violation in regards to fencing should be notified, but the covenants say that wooden fences should be 5', not 6'. So this means that essentially everyone who has put up a fence will be in violation. Does anyone have any advice on how to handle this matter? This is of course only one example of the issues we are going to face regarding our restrictions and the lack of guidelines for exemptions and amendments.

Thanks,
Michelle

Michelle,
I think you might consider any fence already erected will be grandfathered and treated individually to seek resololution.

I think what you mean by changing or amending the restrictions is that you want to change or amend your CCRs or Declaration. If you mean amend or change your own Rules and Regulations, that should be easy. Your board can probably do that on its own.

However, if it is the CCRs or Declaration you are referring to, they can be changed, but it will take more steps and it may cost you money.

Take a look at those documents and see if they have a provision in them that says how they are amended. Most likely it will require calling a special meeting and putting it to a vote of your unit owners. Then, since they are probably legal documents filed with some government authority, you will probably have to hire a lawyer to do that part for you. You also might want to check your state statutes to see what requirements they might impose.

You can do it; you just have to read your documents to see what is required.

It sounds like a re-write of the fence restriction might be in order. By that I mean, involve the members of the community, for whose benefit the HOA exists to begin with, and have them provide input into a fence restriction that would be able to pass the membership as an amendment.

I would recommend one that contains the minimum acceptable guidelines and allows for flexibility of taste and function, yet still allows for certain standards.

A 5' fence, especially if one is interested in privacy, seems overly restrictive.

But, hey, I don't live in your neighborhood!

We were in a similar situation however, with fences that were erected prior to our taking over from the developer.

We grandfathered most of them in, with the stipulation, sent to them in writing, that when the fences require repair or replacement, which most all fences do at some point, then the fence needs to be brought into compliance with the CC&Rs.