Re: conflicts between documents?
From: drmaryanngroups (drmaryanngroupsmac.com)
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 10:02:53 -0700 (PDT)
When we had to re-write our legal documents (CC&Rs and By Laws) about 10 years 
ago because of changes in state law, we included our Policy & Procedure Manual 
(Villagers Guide) among our legally binding documents. These form a 
three-legged stool that supports the community. At the end of that revision 
process all three documents were approved by the community, so all three are 
completely binding.

Because we are legally an HOA only homeowners can vote on changes to the CC&Rs 
and the By Laws but the Villagers Guide can be updated through the consensus 
process at our community meetings (Plenaries). These makes day-to-day policies 
and procedure easy to change and keep "fresh" based on the current makeup of 
the community without having to put all those details in the other documents. 

Mary Ann
Manzanita Village where our extended fall has brought us bright sunny days and 
cool clear nights

On Oct 14, 2013, at 1:22 PM, Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah <welcome [at] olympus.net> 
wrote:

> 
>> Many feel the CC&Rs shouldn't have any power over our community since we 
>> didn't approve them by consensus in any meaningful way, way back in the 
>> development phase, or at least that consensed community agreements should 
>> have priority over the CC&Rs.  Others feel the CC&Rs should be controlling, 
>> no matter what.  Have you faced a similar situation regarding priority of 
>> CC&Rs vs. later adopted community agreements and how have you dealt with it?
> 
> RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA, long built. We don't have any potential 
> conflict between CC&Rs and community agreements. We are governed by our 
> Articles of Incorporation (brief, standand legal item), Bylaws (mostly about 
> how we govern) and CC&Rs (mostly about what we govern). Our CC&Rs and Bylaws 
> recognize that we have the power to adopt various policies according to our 
> community's due process, and that anything we adopt in such official process 
> (notice, quorum, consensus) is called a "regulation"  and such rules and 
> regulations have the same legal force as our other documented restrictions or 
> requirements. The Documents define a hierarchy in the case that our documents 
> conflict with each other. But if we change anything that's in our Bylaws or 
> CC&Rs, say changing our quorum requirement, we do so as an amendment to the 
> relevant document. For convenient reference, our document binder also has a 
> print out of our major regulations -- pet policy, some financial policies, p
> olicies about use of common areas. However, ANY duly adopted policy has legal 
> force, whether or not it is in the printed reference copy of the Regulations. 
> 
> Twenty-some years in, our documents challenges are more in the details. Much 
> that we wrote up years ago, as diligent amateurs, albeit with a lawyer 
> reviewing it, was about then-hypothetical situations. Now some of these 
> situations have come up and we've encountered unintentional loopholes or 
> confusing bits or lack of clarity in what we have to turn to. Example just 
> now: pet policy says if you want an exception to the pet rules (like to have 
> a third dog), you make your request to the Steering Committee. The way it's 
> been handled till now has been to ask for objections, find none, allow the 
> exception. But this time there is one household opposed to granting the 
> exception. This is further complicated by the fact that this household has 
> complained about almost everything for years, people are frustrated with 
> them, they don't listen or compromise, and their objection to this doesn't 
> seem to make sense. So does Steering have the right to override their 
> objection? Nothing defines th
> is in our documents. 
> 
> We have a document revision task force, and are in the process of trying to 
> improve and update our documents, but the proverbial horse is sometimes "out 
> of the barn" when we realize something in the documents isn't clear enough, 
> or complete enough. Fortunately, most of our legal paperwork has been good 
> and useful. If you haven't got CC&Rs that are consensus based, and fairly 
> current, it is important that you get this happening. 
> 
> (We are neither coop nor condo, but -- for reasons lost in history -- a 
> Miscellaneous Nonprofit Mutual Benefit Corporation, with a Homeowners' 
> Association.)
> 
> Maraiah Lynn Nadeau
> where it's still often sunny, the garden still full of vegetables, and the 
> apples and pears are coming in
> 
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
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> 
> 

--
“Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents and everyone is writing a 
book." -Cicero, 106-43 BCE

Mary Ann Clark                                                  drmaryann49 
[at] mac.com
Check out DrMaryAnn's Academy at http://drmaryann.wordpress.com/





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