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RobertR1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 5,164
Posted:
What do you all think and if they are part law and part rules, which is which. The Master deed can be changed by vote of council, the By-laws the same. Rules can be added to the By-laws, are they enforceable by state and local authorities. Can police enforce the By-laws. Does it matter what state is involved?
MaryA1 (Arizona)
Posts: 7,043
Posted:
Quote:
Posted By RobertR1 on 02/24/2009 12:21 PM
What do you all think and if they are part law and part rules, which is which. The Master deed can be changed by vote of council, the By-laws the same. Rules can be added to the By-laws, are they enforceable by state and local authorities. Can police enforce the By-laws. Does it matter what state is involved?

Robert,

The bylaws is a governing documents which traditionally govern the management of an organization. They generally cover the following topics:

1) how directors are elected
2) how meetings of directors and meeting of members are conducted
3) what officers the organization will have and a description of their duties
4) how elections are held

The bylaws, in many instances, can be amended by a vote of the BOD, although some assn may require a vote of the members

The rules are not a part of the bylaws; they are a separate document but are enforceable the same as the CCRs (which contain restrictions).

The bylaws are an internal governing document only enforceable by the BOD of the org. IMO, you cannot ask the police department to enforce your bylaws.

If, by master deed, you mean the declaration or CCRs: that can only be amended by a vote of the members.

In the hierarchy of governing documents, the bylaws are next to last, just above the rules: CCRs, Articles of Inc., Bylaws, Rules.
DonnaS (Tennessee)
Posts: 5,671
Posted:

Robert,
The Police and Federal authorities will not enforce within a HOA unless someone is breaking Federal and local law. They don't give a Rats Butt what happens to bylaws, rules and regs, etc. The State does not care either unless there are some State Laws that are being broken. Most States have no enforcement powers within the HOA. A few, like Florida do have some type of help in the form of an Ombudsman for condos and pretrial mediation for HOAs but basically, there is little enforcement, just laws that have been passed with the hope that HOAs will follow them. In extrememcases, the Attorney General might get involved but they have bigger problems than HOAs.

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