Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Unit Entitlements

[PAMELA LEITCH (info]

Pare,

So well said. 

> all of the knots communities tie themselves into legally without proper legal 
> design workshops, and it
> almost feels to me like learned helplessness in doing such a great job of 
> architectural design but
> not so much with legal design.

I see this as a two pronged process.  First, during the development phase, 
doing what you can with the Declaration/CC&Rs and Bylaws to make them as you 
wish. (I am using US terminology). In many states, the law will constrain how 
this can look because state law always take precedence over those documents. 
Since some US states highly regulate condos and HOAs, you need an attorney in 
your state or province that specializes in Association law so that you 
understand how far you can go to do things as you wish.

Second, after you move in, get creative so that you can do things as you wish, 
while still staying in compliance with all of the legalities.  Keep in mind:
in highly regulated states, you many not be able to do things exactly as you 
wish. 
in some states, you can do almost anything you want because there are not many 
state laws governing your community. 
your community could decide to not comply with legalities.  Ideally that is an 
informed choice knowing the small risk that you could have a legal problem down 
the road.

I think some communities see the legalities as just something they need to do 
to get themselves moved in without realizing that they can get into a legal 
quagmire if they choose not to follow state law and their legal documents.  No 
one has told them that state law and their legal documents are an enforceable 
legal agreement. For example, if you are in a state where the Declaration 
states how assessments are to be calculated, that usually can’t be changed 
without first changing the Declaration.  Again, local legal advice will keep 
you out of trouble.

I would be interested in being a part of your workshop on legal design issues 
so that communities can keep their legal house in order if that is what they 
chose to do.

Pam Leitch, JD, CMCA
HOA Coaching, LLC
hoacoaching.com <http://hoacoaching.com/>