Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Where to put the rules and regulations?

[Mabel Liang (mabel]

David,

A short layman's version.  I can put you in touch with our lawyer, who is a
specialist in Massachusetts condomimium laws.  I saw him quoted as an
expert in more than one Q&A column in the real estate section of the Boston
Globe.

My general impression is that anything that restricts the owners right to
do what (s)he wants in the unit needs to be in one of the recorded
documents - either the Master Deed or the By-Laws.  Otherwise, the
assumption is that the owner can do whatever he/she wants with the unit.
For instance, we were told that if we ever wanted to regulate resale,
rentals, business use, pets, or smoking in units, we had to give ourselves
that power in one of those documents.  He cited a court case where a woman
sued the condo board when they tried to enforce a restriction that was in
the Rules and Regulations, but not in a recorded documemt.  She won.  The
reasoning seems to be that you can expect a buyer to do due dilgence in
researching the recorded documents, but not into Rules and Regulations
which, as you say, are more easily changed.  Nothing in the recorded
documents alerted her to the idea that her use of the unit might be
restricted in that way (what pets she could have).  We added some
restrictions about guns - he thought that was untested territory, but that
if we wanted any chance of having restrictions stick, it had to be
recorded.  You do have to walk a careful line between what you want to
accomplish and what will make a bank nervous.  You can try and write
stricter rules and regulations, but if push comes to shove, you could lose
a lawsuit.  

We don't have two separate Rules and Regulations, but did write certain
things into our recorded documents.  Our documents are on-line at
http://www.cscoho.org, if you want to take a look at them.

Hope that helps.

                                                                -- Mabel :-)
  
Mabel Liang
mabel [at] twomeeps.com
Cornerstone Village Cohousing
Cambridge, MA

At 12:57 AM 10/20/04 -0400, David Heimann wrote:
>
>Hello Everyone,
>
>       In putting together our condo docs we've come up against (another)
>interesting question.  The documents include the Master Deed (describing
>the property and the apportionment) and the Bylaws (describing the
>governance).  Also a part of the documents are the Rules and Regulations.
>Generally we have thought that the more stable items should be part of the
>Master Deed and the Bylaws, which the banks and governmental agencies see,
>while the more changeable items should be part of the Rules and
>Regulations, which are not filed or shown to banks.
>
>       We have been in touch with a couple of lawyers who have suggested
>that the more important rules and regulations (creating and managing a
>waiting list, requiring that a new purchaser of a unit go through an
>information process and acknowledge that they understand what they've been
>presented, etc.) be a part of the Master Deed and/or Bylaws by reference,
>while the other rules and regulations (smoking, pets, noise, etc.) be a
>separate more-easily-changed document.  This is the first time that we've
>heard of two separate kinds of Rules and Regulations.
>
>       What is your experience about the different types of documents.
>Are there three (Master Deed, Bylaws, Rules and Regulations) or four
>(Master Deed, Bylaws, referenced Rules and Regulations, and unreferenced
>Rules and Regulations)?  Thank you very much for your information.
>
>Best regards,
>David Heimann
>JP Cohousing
>
>
>
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Mabel Liang
Software Engineer turned Gardener
mabel [at] twomeeps.com