Real Estate & Property Law

What About a 5 Year Statute on Enforcing CC&R Restrictions in an HOA or Condo?

Is it true, you say. I just published an E-Newsletter (free) that is available on my website on the subject. And I got a response, well ... several in fact. Good to know someone is reading my information.

Here's the note I received:

"I am on the HOA in Fl. What we did (advised by our attorney) was to do a republication of our governing documents. It was done at a BOD meeting, voted on by the board and that re established us back to the rules that had been overlooked or ignored by previous boards. We then were able to enforce them again.

Have you ever tried that?"

And this is my response:

"Interesting. Maybe there is some law in Florida that supports that concept legally - and maybe its just a way of drawing some lines in time. Here in California, I do not believe there is any legal effect in doing that. But its innovative! And getting minds of the members reset is part of the challenge. I do not know if doing that cuts off rights to go back in time to correct some or most of the existing violations. I do not know Florida law. Here, there might be some questions about that that would need to be resolved. As for me, when confronted with a difficult set of existing violations in one association, I generally set out a pragmatic program for the Boards that involves communications revitalizing the enforcement efforts, to get the community on board as much as possible, and usually republish the rules or revitalize them too. None of this eliminates the issues of longevity of violations though, each has to be treated properly to avoid legal issues.

For more on this, see the E-News Archives on http://www.californiacondoguru.com/CCNewsletter/CCNframe.htmlmy website, and check out the Primers available in the webstore. There are 5 of them including one on Forms. (Look for the Enforcement series!)

Onward and upward in 2010! Have a good holiday.

Full post as published by California Condo & HOA Law on December 22, 2009 (boomark / email).