Real Estate & Property Law

Posting HOA or CONDO Meeting Minutes on an Open Website - Why Not?

In a recent message a very astute Board member asked me the question that follows about meeting minutes. The Board and manager were at odds about posting board and membership meeting minutes on the HOA website that was not password protected (not because of legal advice but because of cost savings). Board members in favor of "transparency" (a laudible goal) would tend to be in favor of doing what is suggested, but managers and attorneys exercise caution. This is a good example of where a little understanding goes a long way in the world of HOAs and Condo Boards and associations.

Question/Observation: "I, for one, can't understand why multiple lawyers would advise [our management company] not to put minutes on websites, when minutes are supposed to be (by law) available to all HOA members."

My response: The reason for that kind of advice being commonly circulated is that (we) lawyers have seen many sets of minutes that contain potentially harmful information - namely, too much information - usually about discussions that took place or statements about members, etc., that are or can be harmful to the association in some way. Minutes are not part of public records so they are private to the association.

Naturally, it is good to have them so readily available for the reason of being accessible to owners who want to keep up with the business of the association. But they can be damaging if poorly written or if they contain any information that could be perceived as defamatory, very personal to an owner (privacy issue), or confidential and executive or attorney-client privileged and that kind of thing.

It is advisable to either (1) password protect websites (which can be like handing out pool keys, their reach sometimes extends far beyond what was intended), or (2) Take great care to stick to posting information that would be otherwise subject to public review, such as pictures, recorded filed documents, basic information given to realtors about the community, etc. If you post board members names and numbers, comments from owners, discussion groups etc., watch out for trouble!

I once - in searching my own name on the internet - was linked to an HOA website where executive session minutes were posted discussing topics subject to an attorney-client privileged matter and my name came up through a statement by the manager, included in the minutes, about an article I had written. Proper credit was given for the article, but I am sure the attorney for the Association was not happy about such accessibility to private and very confidential information. Ouch for that HOA!!

Full post as published by California Condo & HOA Law on May 13, 2009 (boomark / email).