Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Condominium documents question

[Kay Wilson Fisk (caseyjackets]

Our attorney (in Washington state) advised us to limit the
Declaration of Covenants to the basics as required by state law,
and put the details in the bylaws and rules documents. The word
"cohousing" only shows up twice in our Declaration:

        10.11.2 Required Orientation. In order that prospective
purchasers of Units understand the nature of cohousing operation
of the Condominium before purchasing a Unit, the Board may
require that any prospective purchaser, before executing a
binding purchase agreement for a Unit, meet with the Board or its
designee, tour the property and receive such information
concerning the operation of the Condominium as the Board
determines is appropriate, in addition to receiving the
information required by the Condominium Act.

        Section 13.1    Form of Association. The Owners'
Association for the Condominium shall be Meadow Wood Condominium
Association, a Washington nonprofit corporation. The Association
is a nonprofit corporation, the members of which shall be the
Owner Members and Renter Members in the Condominium. The Bylaws
may provide for associate members, such as supporters of the
Condominium or cohousing....

The reason for this advice was that amendments to the Declaration
only become effective when filed with the County, which can be
costly and time-consuming because they should undergo legal
review first before filing. 

He advised that the bylaws and rules are not required to be filed
with the county each time they are amended, although it is fine
to do so from time to time. 

In our 6-plus years of existence we have only had to amend our
bylaws once. It was a lot of trouble, and more expensive than we
expected, even though we did most of the work ourselves. As the
point person on these amendments, I am personally grateful we
took his advice.

Kay Wilson
Meadow Wood
www.mwcondo.com

-----Original Message-----
From: David Heimann [mailto:heimann [at] theworld.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2012 1:00 PM
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: [C-L]_ Condominium documents question



Hello Everyone,

        I have a question that has come up with respect to
condominium documents.  These documents include the Master Deed,
the Bylaws, and Rules and Regulations.  My question is rather
straightforward: "What are the legal implications of having
something in the Rules and Regulations instead in the Master
Deed?"

        Thanks for any information and answers you may have.

Regards,
David Heimann
Jamaica Plain Cohousing

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