Governing Document Revisions

Our Expert Team Will Work With Your Board To Create Documents That Make Sense

Many condominiums and homeowners associations were created before changes in the law to the Condominium Act (Ohio Revised Code 5311) in 2004 and implementation of the Planned Community Act (Ohio Revised Code 5312) in 2010.

We can help your community to ensure that your Declaration and Bylaws/Code of Regulations are current with the most up-to-date laws. While many changes to these documents require a vote of the membership, some changes or restatements may only require the Board of Directors to vote.

When Is It Time To Revise The Documents?

For many associations, setting out to revise the declaration or bylaws can be a daunting task. Let us work with your Board, community, and management team to ease the difficulty of the process. Many Boards have questions on whether they should bother with the time and expense of employing an attorney to revamp the documents. Not all documents are created by attorneys who have experience in handling day-to-day association legal issues. Here are some good indicators that amendments or a completely amended and restated set of documents is necessary.

Documents are Older than 10 years
- It is time for a professional to review and ensure the documents are compliant with the law if your declaration is older than 10 years.

To Understand the Documents, We Need to Call the Lawyers.
- If your documents are so full of legalese that the board, owners, and management have trouble understanding the documents, it is time to re-write them to be user-friendly.

Our Association Has Several Amendments.
- When there is a declaration, bylaws, and five or more amendments, answering a simple question involves reading 10 different documents. We can put your documents into a single amended and restated document, which is PDF searchable, not only for ease of use but to prevent incorrect interpretations.

There are Provisions That We Never Enforce.
- Some associations run more loosely around the declaration and have many restrictions that the Board does not enforce. Since the Board generally has to enforce these documents, they should be updated to function the way the association does.

We Need Different Restrictions.
- There might be an issue that the Association wishes it could implement, but there is no documentation. (Prohibit sex offenders, prohibit smoking, allow for working from home, prevent vacation housing, etc.)

There Are Violations of the Law or Conflicts in the Documents.
- You have come across a provision of the documents you know violates the law and needs to be changed. Possibly there are conflicting provisions in your restrictions. The time to change is now before the association ends up in litigation.

The revision process for a declaration and bylaws does not happen overnight and the Board is often worried about the potential cost. We can help guide the process with our experienced team, address Board and owner concerns during the process, and provide estimates and timeframes so that the Board can budget for this project.

Contact Us To Discuss How We Can Help Your Association Revise Your Documents To Make Sense, And Be Legally Enforceable

Our experienced attorneys can help you achieve your goals and offer guidance as your Board faces the many challenges of operating an association.