HOA Board states "Onsite Construction" Clause invalid if oringal docs are altered
California
First some background:
I am in CA and just took on a HOA board President position (with no prior experience or attendance). I am a product manager and familiar with running daily meetings of a cooperative team. The board is highly dysfunctional and appears to have many civil compliance issues in my short time investigating the Civil Code and attending meetings.
Examples include: No reserve study or tracking of reserves appears to have been completed or in the budget. Items have been voted on as board motions that appears should have required a member votes, as noted CCRs, to provide exclusive access to a common area to a single homeowner who has since fenced the area to adjoin his personal property. This is without modifying the by-laws or CCRs to the original voting rights of the membership, including meeting quorum requirements, allowing proxies and such. There has been no formal agenda for years and our last meeting, for an association of 227 units, was 2.5 hours long with 6 board members and 4 members present. In that meeting one board member refused to make further comments on discussions due to fear of voicing herself further. The experience was completely unacceptable
I have since decided that I take control of meetings, as per the role of the President. I have been spending hours upon hours gathering information and insight, shifting back the responsibilities to which I should be accountable.
To address some of these issues I have prepared an agenda and intend to keep the meetings under an hour. I plan to add time limits on non-board members speaking time to very specific time constraints. On the agenda I have new business to set a reserve study in motion, to allocate funds to a temporary reserve budget, until that money can be allocated appropriately. Also, to increase the current legal/welfare budget from $500 to $5k.
The issue at hand:
I am looking to bring the CCRs,(noted as DCRs) and by-laws into the modern age (with professional assistance at some point). These items appear to have been static since 1972.
A significant concern and protest of some board members, which they indicate is also a concern represented by the membership at large, is a section of the CCRs under "Building Design and Material" which states:
"Any building placed, erected or maintained upon any lot or plot shall be entirely constructed thereon and the same shall not, nor shall any part thereof, be moved or placed thereon from elsewhere."
The feedback I have received is that this is a grandfathered clause and can no longer be binding if changes are made to alter by-laws or the CCR's.
Does this sound accurate? I have been unable to locate specific information indicating this concern is valid. If I cannot update the by-laws or CCRs without maintaining the ability to keep modular homes out of the development it would seem I am going to face huge obstacles gaining compliance to civil code. It would also seem a significant liability to ever level of the HOA.
Any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Christopher
California
First some background:
I am in CA and just took on a HOA board President position (with no prior experience or attendance). I am a product manager and familiar with running daily meetings of a cooperative team. The board is highly dysfunctional and appears to have many civil compliance issues in my short time investigating the Civil Code and attending meetings.
Examples include: No reserve study or tracking of reserves appears to have been completed or in the budget. Items have been voted on as board motions that appears should have required a member votes, as noted CCRs, to provide exclusive access to a common area to a single homeowner who has since fenced the area to adjoin his personal property. This is without modifying the by-laws or CCRs to the original voting rights of the membership, including meeting quorum requirements, allowing proxies and such. There has been no formal agenda for years and our last meeting, for an association of 227 units, was 2.5 hours long with 6 board members and 4 members present. In that meeting one board member refused to make further comments on discussions due to fear of voicing herself further. The experience was completely unacceptable
I have since decided that I take control of meetings, as per the role of the President. I have been spending hours upon hours gathering information and insight, shifting back the responsibilities to which I should be accountable.
To address some of these issues I have prepared an agenda and intend to keep the meetings under an hour. I plan to add time limits on non-board members speaking time to very specific time constraints. On the agenda I have new business to set a reserve study in motion, to allocate funds to a temporary reserve budget, until that money can be allocated appropriately. Also, to increase the current legal/welfare budget from $500 to $5k.
The issue at hand:
I am looking to bring the CCRs,(noted as DCRs) and by-laws into the modern age (with professional assistance at some point). These items appear to have been static since 1972.
A significant concern and protest of some board members, which they indicate is also a concern represented by the membership at large, is a section of the CCRs under "Building Design and Material" which states:
"Any building placed, erected or maintained upon any lot or plot shall be entirely constructed thereon and the same shall not, nor shall any part thereof, be moved or placed thereon from elsewhere."
The feedback I have received is that this is a grandfathered clause and can no longer be binding if changes are made to alter by-laws or the CCR's.
Does this sound accurate? I have been unable to locate specific information indicating this concern is valid. If I cannot update the by-laws or CCRs without maintaining the ability to keep modular homes out of the development it would seem I am going to face huge obstacles gaining compliance to civil code. It would also seem a significant liability to ever level of the HOA.
Any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you,
Christopher