Rewriting CC&R

I am in the process of rewriting our CC&Rs and will submit them to homeowners prior to our annual meeting later in the month.

As a board we sent out letters asking for people to submit recommendations for changes and have received absolutely nothing in return. Even though we provided a formatted form to be used for submissions.

I have been to each home several times now delivering documents and such and the universal response has been "yes the CC&Rs need to be changed " and "yes, we are willing to help with community projects", "we are really happy that the new board is doing something", so I am reasonably confident that people will support good change.

Our current CC&R is loaded with references to the home builder and the protective convenants pretty much point directly back to them as the enforcer via the HOA. Many of the protective aspects are clearly designed to enhance the builders ability to sell the homes and many others are typical boiler plate that don't really reflect the current times.

Since nobody chimed in with recommendations, my current approach is to modify the CC&Rs and show exactly what was changed then ask for an up or down vote. I could submit each change independently but feel that with so many changes it will be problematic and confusing. I have no problem entertaining new recommendations at the time of the meeting and incorporating them at that time. What happens if the changes are voted down? The alterantive is to enforce the rules as currently stated or simply run the HOA from the perspective of maintaining the common areas. I hope it doesn't come to that since a few run down, neglected homes will hurt everyone. When maintained, this is a very pleasent neighborhood that is pleasing to the eye.

I have not added anything completely new but I have clarified or become more specific in the statements. Also, all reference to the builder and his rights have been removed or replaced with statements pointing back to the association. An example of one change has to do with pets and a very ambiguous statement concerning the number. The original wording was difficult and it appeared that the intent was to prevent someone from running a kennel. Now I simply state that you can't breed dogs as part of a business and run a kennel for keeping other peoples pets. If you do have a dog that has pups then you just need to make sure they find new homes elsewhere as part of a normal process. (I am paraphrasing here and generalizing and the rules apply to cats as well)

Our association is about 8 years old with 40 homes and has been very poorly run from the time the builder left the area (around 2003). For example, a past president selectively enforced rules while ignoring his own extreme violation. This has caused a lot of hard feelings amongst homeowners and probably is some of the reason for the apathy that I am seeing. Some people just don't care and enforcement of some basic rules is, in my opinion, a necessity. Others, many in fact, go the extra mile when it comes to maintaining their property.

The HOA is an absolute necessity because we have over 140 acres of common area, not including the storm holding ponds and the road. There simply is no way to just abandon things. Taxes need to be paid, the road needs to be maintained, the ponds need annual maintenance, the electricity for the street lights needs to be paif for..... on and on. Our HOA is isolated and surrounded either by greenbelt or farm land so we do not come under any city statutes. We do, of course, follow the county and state statutes.

My overall goal is to be reasonable and simple while still taking care of the common areas and maintaining home values. In the 9 months the new board has done a number of things that show the homeowners the positive aspects of an HOA while attempting to heal the bad feelings from the past.

I would appreciate any recommendations from people that have gone through this process as well as any critical comments about my methods. The tone of my message may make it appear that I am doing this unilaterally, but that is not the case. I have been working closely with the other board members on these issues and we have had many discussions on the issues. Since this website has so much to offer it ceratinly cannot hurt to hear what others have to say.

Thanks

Chuck

and, should you want someone to check for loopholes, play devil's advocate, or homeowner from hell, i would be happy to look over your finished product, and try to pick it apart and see what kinds of havoc i could wreak in the HOA under the new covenants.

Chuck,
I can tell you this with certainty. Do not attempt to do this on your own and do not attempt to do it if you are unsure of what is in the documents now and you understand them. The easy part is to get rid of the declarent. But you will find there are interconnecting issues in nearly everything in you documents. If you have a background in this sort of thing, it will help. You have to remember that anything you change is a reflection of how you view things.
Having been involed in some of this it is very important that changes are not made unilatteral. You will be very lucky to get a couple of people to stick to what has to be done. You will also experience folks with personal agendas that don't understand there is no place for personal agendas. I would first get your old ducments put on disc and loaded into your compuiter. Don't change anything on these old documents. Copy each part you are working on and make changes there. If you have available clauses from another association try and incorporate the wording if you want to cover items that are not in your documents.

It is impossible for 1 person to re-write the documents and do it right. I doubt very much if anyone knows your documents as far as intent is concerned and the intent of your association might be different now and you may need a professional to word the changes right.

I coulod go on for ever, but again the more you know about your documents the better job you will do. If you have three people jointly working together you will likely have a much better product. Then you have the Board and some of them might think they know more than you and want things their way. By the time you are finished you will have become the expert. Also remember these are living documents and changes should be made with the past and the likely future in mind, so don't look to render the Constitution of the United States. Be willing to accept different viewpoints. If I was going to be involved in this re-writing again I know I could do a better job because I know the documents better.

For starters after "Declarent", I would want to change the # needed for quorum to something like 20%. There is no advantage in making this management of association harder. I would also do away with with closed board meetings and get rid of all proxies. Make everything by absentee ballot or being present. The real fact is that at some time your association is going to have to operate without ownwers support and four or five people will end up do the job. Write to prepare for this. I would also insert a restrictive Rental clause in the Master deed. How restrictive you all decide. Insert a strong clause that the books are closed each year and some verified accounting made, signed and made a part of your documents.

Anyway, good luck!

Chuck,
You make a strong point about enjoying what you set out to do. All HOA's would be better served if those involved in running the place really liked to do what they are doing. We all need to step back and not take all this so serious. We have too many people doing jobs that don't want to do and this has a serious effect of how they perform. The first item on all agendas should be everyone has to write in blodd they will still have the same friends at the end of any meeting. Fight all you want but know what you are fighting about and whatever it is, is it rarely a deal breaker. We are much too serious about how we view the importance of all this. To say; "You don't agree with me I am going to get a lawyer and sue!" Now that's funny, looked at from some angles. Do a good job, enjoy your life, respect your neighbors is about all you need to do.