By-laws

Started by KayG1 • 5 replies • 1196 views

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KayG1 (Iowa)
Posts: 5

Posted:

Some of our by-laws need to be revised. Some need more details, and some need updating, and a couple could be eliminated. Can the board revise them, or do we need to hire an attorney to do it? Does the entire association have to vote to accept the changes?

JaniceM1 (Georgia)
Posts: 27

Posted:

Kay-

By Laws are recorded documents as well as CCRs. Its sounds like you my be speaking of CCRs, but either way you do need a vote to make a change to them. Your CCRs will out line the percentage you will need to make this happen. I like to error on the side of caution with such a big and important change and advise you seek a professional for this task. The BOD may be able to make Resolutions to help with your situation. It is almost unheard of to rewrite By Laws and CCRs & very costly.
If you have specific areas in question and would like to discuss them further post what you are thinking of changing.

Janice

MaryA1 (Arizona)
Posts: 7,043

Posted:

Kay,

The bylaws should have an article entitled "amendments" which will outline the procedure for amending. Some bylaws require a membership vote to amend, others only require a vote of the BOD.

The bylaws generally contain the following articles:

1) election of directors
2) meetings of directors
3) meetings of members
4) number of officers and terms of officers and directors
5) officer's duties
6) elections
7) indemnification
8) inspection of books and records
9) amendment of bylaws

SusanW1 (Michigan)
Posts: 5,202

Posted:

Our HOA has a ad hoc Bylaw Committee. Every 5 years, it goes over the bylaws to see if they are current and working. The Committee makes suggestions on amendments, they are presented to the board, then to the residents at informal readings, then for a vote of the entire membership at the annual meeting. We worked for over 9 months on several amendments.

You can either amend a few bylaws or do a total revision.

KirkW1 (Texas)
Posts: 1,665

Posted:

I would recommend that the members and the BOD work together to write the changes you want. Then take them to a lawyer for cleanup and the like. I would expect that this would be an iterative process. But I would personally not be inclined to pay for a lawyer to do all of the writing as that would get expensive.

MarianneG (Indiana)
Posts: 170

Posted:

As Mary stated, if your by-laws contain an Amendments Section, you must follow the guidance in that paragraph. Since our by-laws state that the BOD may change them, we convened a committee of residents and 2 board members to review and rewrite them. Then we submitted them to an attorney to ensure we were in compliance with state law. After the attorney's OK, a member of our community re-typed them, and then the new bylaws were duplicated and distributed to the homeowners. All in all it was a simple process but a lengthy one. Our only costs were the attorney fees and the cost of duplicating and mailing.

I really like Susan's method of convening a bylaws committee every so many years to review and change, if needed. Good luck with your efforts.

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