Tenant Association Bylaws

Started by JimR13 • 8 replies • 3077 views

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JimR13 (Rhode Island)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Are Tenant Association Bylaws considered public record? We have a newly formed TA in RI and the Lawyer for the Property owner has asked for a copy of our bylaws. Since we are newly formed and working toward a formal election process, we are hesitant to pass on any info to propety owners yet.

Thx very much

RogerB (Colorado)
Posts: 5,067

Posted:

Jim, all owners should be provided a copy of all of the governing documents as soon as they have been approved.

JimR13 (Rhode Island)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Thx Roger, since our TA is so new with many tenants afraid of owner retaliation we concerned that owners would somehow undermine our organization. TA is in RI with only basic Tenant law to fight major rent increases. Our leases are seasonal and renewed each year. The campground has been in existance since WW ll.....We will continue to run everything by our Lawyer.

Thx again

RobertR1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 5,164

Posted:

Jim, First off , whaat is a TA (tenants Association?) Equate thiis to and HOA.
Why is the property owner asking you for documents.
Why not go bacck to square one and give an accuarate description of your developement. Is this a RI thing to refer to homeowners nas tenents? If you have a set of CC&R's, where did they come from? Who is the property owner of what? Are you referring to the declarant (developer). How many units of what type association, condo, HOA, townhouse , mixed.What has happened up to know. Who is "we""? Right now it looks like you don't have a set of documents, you have to formally accept those documents from the declarant. We don't hear from RI too much around here, but my first impression is: You all got a lot of work to do. Maybe you have another concerned owner and if your questions could be posed by two, maybe, the old two heads are better than i will prevail. All association documents on file with a few narrow exemptions are discoverable. Any at courthouse are public record unless a judges order of some kind. As a general rule all association communication or records casn be viewed by any owner. I know of no law that restrict, per se, distributing this information anywhere. in general. Are your Board meetings open meetings, of course your annual meeting are open to all owners. Do you publish minutes and financial data? Keep in miond, if you were a perspective buyer and you demanded to know the fiscal health of this HOA or propety and you are going to end up paying these fees, they become part of your investment. You have a right to all information the other owners have, how else could you make a wise choice.

RobertR1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 5,164

Posted:

JIM, your latest is a startr, but you have a lot more to go. You are a mobile home park, is that correct?

JimR13 (Rhode Island)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Yes, TA = Tenant Association and we are very new....just incorporated in RI within last 30 days. I am interiem Co President until we have formal elections in June. To your point, we have a long way to go with certainly more legal Q's than A's. We are not a Trailer Park and fall under RIGL Tenant law. Dwellings are owned by tenants on leased land. Sounds like this web site is not the best "fit" for a group such as us. We are engaged with (local) legal counsel and will work through the process.

Thx for your quick response and take care.

RobertR1 (South Carolina)
Posts: 5,164

Posted:

Jim,
I am sure we all here wish you well in this new venture. However, the oppotunity has presented it's self amd you and this site could benefit if you kept us in the loop and gave us updates occasionally about what your process is like and the problems you are encountering getting set up. What ever you all are, I would automatically believe some of our problems and some of your documents and some of our methods of management are going to be identical and probably covered under the same kind of laws. I imagine your record keeping will closely follow what we us, in general, and the accounting date will be similar.
Also, you should know this site has an extensive library that has thousands of informative postings, There are several links on this site to state laws of all kinds, good available library resources, etc. We are not JUST a pretty face. And, if heaven forbid, you just want to drop by and argue, you will find a wide diversity of topics.

MaryA1 (Arizona)
Posts: 7,043

Posted:

Jim,

Even though you say you are not a "trailer park", I believe you are more like one than like an HOA. However, we can still try to answer your questions. There are no attorneys here, just ordinary people who have opinions to give. The majority of us either live in condos or planned communities of single family homes. Most of us are board members with lots of experience in running an HOA. As I said, we can offer our opinions no matter what you are, but in the end your RIGL Tenant law prevails together with your gov. docs.

MaryA1 (Arizona)
Posts: 7,043

Posted:

Jim,

I googled the RIGL Tenant law and found that it applies to Chapter 34-18, the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act. I scanned through the statute and could not find anywhere where it talks about tenants forming an assn. IMO, the purpose of this statute is only to state what the rights of tenants are and what can happen when those rights are infringed upon. If you are inc. as a nonprofit then the nonprofit corp statutes would apply. Those statutes do state that all books and records (which would include all the gov. docs of the corp.) of the assn must be made available to all members.

In answer to your question, if you are required to record your bylaws with the County Recorder, then they are a matter of public record. However, even if this is not a requirement, the bylaws should be made available to all members of the corp. In fact, as stated in the first para, all books and records must be made available to all members. To withhold them simply because the board is new makes no good sense to me at all. If the members are going to complain about anything that contained in the bylaws, they will do so, no matter how long it takes for the BOD to decide they should have copies of the bylaws. If you want to impart a feeling of transparancy in your actions, IMO, you would be wise to not withhold anything from the members.

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