Owners in Your HOA Need Guidance? Use a Model Code of Conduct for Homeowners

We've asked our experts for their best advice on the conduct homeowners should always follow, along with conduct homeowners should avoid. Here's a list that you can distribute to all owners in your association.

1) Be engaged. Start with the basics. Make sure your board and management company always have current contact information for you and your tenants if you're renting out your unit. Attend as many meetings as you can. Don't wait to be asked to participate in your community. Ask what you can do to help. And when you're asked—whether it's to vote, to respond to a request for information from your board, or to volunteer for a committee or the board—do it willingly. When homeowners aren't engaged, the burden of running your association falls on the shoulders of the few—and your association fails to benefit from the wisdom of diverse voices and opinions.

2) Read your governing documents. Boring as it may seem, you must read your CC&Rs, bylaws, rules, meeting minutes, and any other correspondence you receive from your board or association manager. Those documents form the framework that everyone in the association must live by and follow.

3) Always comply with your governing documents. First concentrate on your own property to make sure it's attractive and well maintained. Then, even when you disagree with them, follow the rules. They're there so that everyone can enjoy the community. Following the rules also helps you build a case when you're frustrated with a neighbor's rule breaking and you ask the board to get your neighbor to comply. How can you expect the board to enforce rules against your neighbors if you're not following the rules yourself? If you're not sure whether something you'd like to do is permissible, ask a board member or your manager before you take action.

4) Pay your assessments, and pay them on time. When investing in an association, you become a member of a not-for-profit business that has fiscal obligations. Delinquent revenue to the association directly affects the community's monthly operations and may limit the board in its attempt to maintain and enhance the community. All the benefits you get from your association—whether it's as basic as heat and lighting in your hallways to the beautiful grounds that surround your home—come to you because the association pays the money to provide them. If you and other homeowners don't pay assessments, service suffers and everybody loses.

5) Don't try to benefit personally from your association. Here's an example: Your board plans to vote on a roofing contract. Your brother owns a roofing company. Make sure the board knows your bother's is one of the companies that will bid, and don't attempt to improperly influence the vote. And never accept something of value in exchange for recommending a vendor to your board.

6) Support your board of directors. This may sometimes be hard, and in some communities, an us versus them mentality can develop. But for a community to be successful, everyone needs a "we" mentality. Remember that board may make decisions that inconvenience a few homeowners, but they're made based on the long-term good of the entire community. If you disagree on an issue, more often than not, a friendly and polite face-to-face conversation with a board member will give both of you the opportunity to explain your side, which you may not have been able to do before because of the time constraints of a board meeting or because you weren't able to attend prior meetings.

7) Always be professional. Follow whatever communication protocols are set up. If you're supposed to contact your association manager when the gates malfunction, don't call board members at work instead. Or if you're having a run-of-the-mill dispute with a neighbor, don't ask the board or property manager to take sides. Treat your neighbors, the board, and association manager with respect and decency. Many problems don't happen when there's open dialogue within a community. Never make personal attacks on your board or fellow homeowners. Don't harass board members or other residents, and refrain from defaming anyone in the community, including your board and manager. Even when you disagree, there's no need to be disagreeable.

8) Extend common courtesy toward your neighbors. Little things can make everyone's life easier. Be considerate about things like noise levels and breaking down cardboard boxes for recycling. And don't do things that will impose a burden or expense on your community or other owners. For example, don't remodel your unit and throw away the debris in the community trash.

9) Get to know everybody. Be on a first-name basis with your board members, your manager, and your neighbors so that you feel comfortable calling to report problems, ask questions, and offer to help. Knowing what's going on with your neighbor is the first step toward knowing what's going on in your community. The more that people within the association respect each other, the better the experience will be for everyone.

10) Keep things in perspective. If your association doesn't already have one, help organize a party at least once a year. If necessary to save money, make it potluck. The idea is to get to know your neighbors and have fun so that you don't take association life too seriously.

Sources: Tony Deblauwe, president of the 117-unit Millbrae Heights Homeowners Association in Millbrae, Calif.; Tanya Fairclough-James, an associate at Weissman, Nowack, Curry & Wilco PC in Atlanta who specializes in representing community associations; Lisa A. Magill, a shareholder and association attorney at Becker & Poliakoff PA in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Jim Taccone, Palm Beach regional director for The Continental Group Inc., a management company operating throughout Florida; Debra A. Warren, principal at Cinnabar Consulting in San Rafael, Calif., which provides training and employee development to community association management firms and training and strategic planning for association board members; Daniel Zimberoff, a shareholder-attorney at Barker Martin PS in Seattle, which exclusively represents community associations in both Oregon and Washington.

Courtesy: HOALeader.com
http://www.hoaleader.com/public/396.cfm?sd=1

This article is not intended to be specific legal advice. It only provides general legal information. You should consult a licensed attorney if you have a legal issue.