Not knowing your community's
governing documents.
Governing documents are the documents that establish how a community must
run: what's allowed, what's not allowed and how to make changes to the rules.
The governing documents are comprised of three key sections: Bylaws, Rules
and Regulations, and Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs) and they
are all unique to your community. They include important information like who's
responsible for property maintenance, pet regulations, parking and more.
"Acting before checking your governing documents can be hazardous. I know of a
board that approved a community association bank loan to build a new structure.
After they spent considerable association funds, they applied for the loan, only
to discover the documents required a community majority to approve the loan.
When the membership didn't approve the loan, they were left with an incomplete
structure and quite an eyesore. Luckily, when we took over the account, we were
able to convince owners to approve the bank loan to complete the project. But,
this could have been disastrous. I took over management of another association
where the board of directors voted for a dues increase in June. After the notices
were mailed and coupon booklets were ordered and received by members, the
increase was challenged because their governing documents didn't allow a mid-
year increase. Once we took over management, we suggested the board change
the dues increase into a special assessment and this corrected the error. But, it
took a while for the board to regain the confidence of the members. These are just
two examples of what can happen when boards react to solve a problem without
consulting the governing documents."
— Lisa Drobney, CMCA®, AMS®, Homeside Properties, Inc. — An Associa® Company
6 Biggest Mistakes Board Members Make
1
Not sure where to find your governing
documents? Here are 5 Places to Look.
!
