Uniformity and how to enforce?

David, if they are not violating the CC&R's then other than asking them nicely to "conform" there is little you can do except change the rules and even then in CA they can vote to overturn the new rule unless it is a safety issue.

Civil Code §1357.140. Member Veto of Rule Changes.

(a) Members of an association owning 5 percent or more of the separate interests may call a special meeting of the members to reverse a rule change.

(b) A special meeting of the members may be called by delivering a written request to the president or secretary of the board of directors, after which the board shall deliver notice of the meeting to the association's members and hold the meeting in conformity with Section 7511 of the Corporations Code. The written request may not be delivered more than 30 days after the members of the association are notified of the rule change. Members are deemed to have been notified of a rule change on delivery of notice of the rule change, or on enforcement of the resulting rule, whichever is sooner. For the purposes of Section 8330 of the Corporations Code, collection of signatures to call a special meeting under this section is a purpose reasonably related to the interests of the members of the association. A member request to copy or inspect the membership list solely for that purpose may not be denied on the grounds that the purpose is not reasonably related to the member's interests as a member.

(c) The rule change may be reversed by the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes represented and voting at a duly held meeting at which a quorum is present (which affirmative votes also constitute a majority of the required quorum), or if the declaration or bylaws require a greater proportion, by the affirmative vote or written ballot of the proportion required. In lieu of calling the meeting described in this section, the board may distribute a written ballot to every member of the association in conformity with the requirements of Section 7513 of the Corporations Code.

(d) Unless otherwise provided in the declaration or bylaws, for the purposes of this section, a member may cast one vote per separate interest owned.

(e) A meeting called under this section is governed by Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 7510) of Part 3 of Division 2 of Title 1 of, and Sections 7612 and 7613 of, the Corporations Code.

(f) A rule change reversed under this section may not be readopted for one year after the date of the meeting reversing the rule change. Nothing in this section precludes the board of directors from adopting a different rule on the same subject as the rule change that has been reversed.

(g) As soon as possible after the close of voting, but not more than 15 days after the close of voting, the board of directors shall provide notice of the results of a member vote held pursuant to this section to every association member. Delivery of notice under this subdivision is subject to Section 1350.7.

(h) This section does not apply to an emergency rule change made under subdivision (d) of Section 1357.130.

David, with all due respect, trying to "enforce" something that is not currently in your documents is over-reaching and you should just drop it.

If you care that much about the hoses and garage doors, then follow the steps in your documents that allow you to AMEND the covenants to include restrictions in them.

But, frankly, I would spend my valuable volunteer time on the board dealing with real violations and ensuring low rates of assessment delinquencies.

Well, this is not necessarily a hard and fast rule. Our board has offered various amendments over the years without knowing if the majority of the members want the restriction amended or removed. Sometimes we did so as a result of a petition by some residents (they only need 25% of the residents to agree to vote on something to bring it forward), and sometimes we proactively did so because we felt that it might be supported by the majority. But we really had no way of knowing.

Some of those amendments passed; some of them failed.

But in all cases the board must follow the governing documents for any amendment change. I know of very few, if any, HOAs that give the board the authority to change the covenants without some majority of the membership voting for the change.

Thanks for the clarification.

But I'm still a little confused.

Are you saying that the BOD cannot initiate an amendment?

David, I fear you are relying too much on what the management company is telling you and not enough on your own knowledge of the governing documents.

If your documents do not SPECIFICALLY allow you to keep the doors closed, or make rules regarding the garage doors (beyond color, materials and style), then I know of no "general" covenant that would allow you to make rules to do that.

Please show us two things:

1) The the GENERAL COVENANT that your property manager says you can use to enforce things that aren't in your covenants.

2) The language in your governing documents that discusses how amendments to the governing documents are to be made.

Keep in mind RULES and COVENANTS are TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS.

It would be very rare that an HOA's governing documents allow only the BOARD to make changes to the COVENANTS.

That being the case, if your board is making RULES (which they may be able to do) regarding things in that the COVENANTS DO NOT GIVE THEM AUTHORITY OVER, then the RULE would be invalid to begin with.

In other words, your board can only make rules that clarify or expand on things already in the covenants.

If your covenants do not have any restrictions on parking, for example. The BOD CANNOT make a RULE that dictates anything regarding parking.

Michelle,

You may be right regarding what rules we can create based on the existing covenants...but I have a feeling that the laws in CA differ from those where you are (KY, correct). But I will look into this.

For example do your HOA rules (dictated by the state, amended about a year ago as per a state ruling) say that you must post your open meeting agenda 4 days prior to the meeting AND you can ONLY discuss items that are on the agenda? Items cannot be added during the meeting (of course, the simple way around this is that, during the 'homeowner open forum' anyone can begin discussing other topics 'as a homeowner')?

I will review my CC&R's to see what they say about creating rules.

Thanks!

DF

Thanks, Mary. That makes more sense to me now. Not your fault, mine, but thanks for clearing that up.

David, it would be highly unlikely that any state laws would give BODs the ability to make RULES and REGULATIONS INDEPENDENT of the governing documents.

Highly unlikely.

While open meeting laws for HOAs and various other things will vary, giving a board the ability to create NEW RULES out of wholecloth that are not already addressed or given to them in the governing documents would be shocking.

Most states with HOA laws tend to have a bias to the membership, not the regime.

Well, to be sure, that actually doesn't shock me as it, as you said, is very specific in scope.

That sort of allowance is very rational to me, and I can understand the need for it.

So allow me to equivocate: I would be very shocked if the governing documents of an HOA allow for covenant amendments being able to be made outside of those listed in Glen's example.

But it is very helpful that we see that, too, because there are probably some HOA/COA boards that may need to make changes based on the scope enumerated above, and that may not be aware they are able to do that without the full vote of the membership.

Thanks for, as usual, adding more knowledge to the knowledge pool!