Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: gun ownership/possession in co-housing

[Rebecca J. Hogue (rjhogue]

Being in Canada, we didn’t have as much of a concern about people who might 
need it for work – as our policy officers leave their guns at the office – they 
wouldn’t need to be storing them at home.

We thought through it, and came up with a no weapons policy using the same 
language that the town we live in uses for their bylaws.

Cheers,
Becky

From: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l-bounces+rhogue=pobox.com [at] cohousing.org> on 
behalf of Muriel Kranowski <murielk [at] vt.edu>
Date: Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at 2:38 PM
To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Cc: fernselzer [at] aol.com <fernselzer [at] aol.com>
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ gun ownership/possession in co-housing
More on the unenforceable aspect: Last year we had an attorney who
specializes in HOA law in our state (Virginia) review our Bylaws and other
governance documents. He recommended that we remove a Bylaws section about
registered sex offenders that worried parents had insisted on adding to the
Bylaws about 10 years ago, because having such a clause makes us as an HOA
subject to potentially ruinous lawsuits in case a sex offender were to move
in and do harm.

The legal jeopardy would result from the appearance in our Bylaws of a
guarantee of protection when in fact we couldn't make such a guarantee. So
we removed that clause.

In general, look at whether anything in your Bylaws or other binding
documents seems to promise some kind of protection that you can't actually
provide -- it leaves your HOA very vulnerable to huge costs if you are sued
for breach of promise or whatever it is called. A gun ban seems to me to
fall into that same zone for an HOA.

   Muriel @ Shadowlake Village Cohousing
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