YOU CAN STILL BE PRODUCTIVE By Eric Glazer, Esq.

YOU CAN STILL BE PRODUCTIVE

By Eric Glazer, Esq.

You’re under a virtual quarantine?  Haven’t been to work in a while?  Feeling a little trapped in your home?  If you’re a Board member…….when the going gets tough……..that’s no time to shirk your responsibilities and turn off the world.  In fact, believe it or not, now may be the perfect time to attack projects that you have been ignoring forever because you previously had no time.

Let’s start with finally getting around to reading your governing documents and figuring out what terms need updating.  You know you thought about it a million times.  Well…now you have time to address it.  I’ll help.  Maybe you want to focus on whether or not your documents adequately address the following:

1. The “as amended from time to time” language;
2. Allows the association to collect the maximum amount of interest and late fees;
3. Allows for the screening, approval and rejection of lessees and purchasers of units;
4. Prohibiting short term rentals;
5. Defines who family members are and requires owners to submit the names of family members entitled to use their unit;
6. Defines if anyone can occupy the unit in the absence of the unit owner.
7. Allows the association to charge transfer fees for background checks;
8. Allows for a specific amount of board members rather than a range;
9. Making sure your documents properly qualify you as a 55 and over community;
10. Maybe consider lowering the percentage required to make amendments to the documents;

There are certainly other amendments that may come to your minds and that may be specific to your community.  Now is the time to think about these things, not when life ultimately gets back to normal and life becomes chaotic all over again.  Utilize this down time to stay active, remain productive and finish that condo or HOA to-do list you and your other board members never got around to finishing.

Stop staring at the TV and all the doom and gloom.  Before you know it, you’re going to wish you had the time to do the things you now have the time to do.

*My HOA isn’t a 55+ community, so #9 is irrelevant. Our docs are deficient on 7 of the remaining 9 points. We’ve been trying to work on much needed amendments. We’ve been quoted between 50 and 75 thousand dollars by 2 different attorneys in order to bring our docs up to snuff, so probably not gonna happen.

*Good Morning:
Thanks for your great idea. I know we need to include dollar amount of expense that must be approved by the Board.
What is the maximum amount of interest and late fees an Association can collect?

Best not address it at all so you can get rid of the burdensome HOA.