Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Condominium documents question

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Oct 3, 2012, at 4:00 PM, David Heimann <heimann [at] theworld.com> wrote:

>       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?"

Our lawyer has said that they are all enforceable legally. We can "take people 
to court" over failure to follow policies (rules and regulations).

Guidelines are not enforceable.

The other question of what belongs in the Bylaws is things "you don't want to 
be easily changed." The basic structure of the condominium and things banks 
want to see, whatever that is. I don't know what those things are because we 
haven't asked that question and they seem to change anyway.

The Master Deed requirements I think would be covered specifically by the state 
real estate law. So would the minimum Bylaws requirements, for that matter. 
Those codes should be onlline.

On ammendment of the Bylaws, this has been a tedious job of getting approval of 
the banks to change them in the ways you want to. Not all banks care so getting 
the letters becomes more difficult. Passed in MD and proposed in DC, is an 
amendment that says mortgage holding banks have to be notified of bylaws 
changes but their agreement is assumed if they don't respond. That will it much 
easier to amend bylaws.

For new communities, there is hidden value in working to get one bank to 
morrgage as many units as possible because it means if you do want to get 
amendments, it reduces the number of banks you have to deal with. 

Sharon
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Sharon Villines, Historic Takoma Park, Washington DC
A Deeper Democracy
http://www.adeeperdemocracy.org