Did you ever wonder what rules govern Homeowner Associations? Many of you know about the Covenants or Declarations that each association has, but did you know that there is an entire section of the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) that applies to Homeowner Associations? There is and you can take a look at: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/. Once you get to the home page, then scroll down to click on Title 64 and from there, select Chapter 64.38 – Homeowner
Associations.
In general, the governance of homeowner associations comes from this RCW 64 and from state laws about non-profit corporations. When a developer begins to plan out a neighborhood, typically they consult an attorney familiar with the state laws to prepare the Declaration and Bylaws for the Association. Hopefully, the attorney prepares these documents using the most current laws, ensuring that there are no conflicts with laws built into the documents. State law, the CCRS and the Bylaws contain the main rules for an association. Many times, conflicts are found between the state laws and other governing documents. The general rule about the priority of governing law for associations is that Bylaws are over-ridden by CCRS and CCRS are over-ridden by the RCW.
What makes the governing documents a burden to associations is the difficult process of revising them to eliminate conflicts or unreasonable requirements. Bylaws can generally be redone easily and in some cases, approved by a vote of the board with only a copy to owners, in other cases, by a majority vote of the owners. CCRS are another matter. Since this document is tied to the land, it binds current and future owners and requires a majority of owners to approve any changes. This can be a long process for boards who want changes made to CCRS.
New associations have the best opportunity to make changes to governing documents. If problems are identified before turnover by the developer, it is easy for the developer to make changes since they can be done without owner votes. Management companies and advisory boards can make suggestions to the developer for eliminating burdensome operating requirements like those above, saving future boards enormous time later on. Older association would appear to have the worst conditions for making changes, but sometimes opportunities can be found because state laws have changed and now over-ride older documents. Again, an
attorney would need to review all the documents and advise the board.
So, when an owner contacts the HOA and wants to know “why can’t we… or why do we have to …” the first step is to look at the RCW, the CCRS and the Bylaws. If the answer isn’t clear, then the board would need to decide how to proceed, including whether an attorney needs to be consulted to resolve any conflicts. Changes are possible but require dedicated effort on the board’s part and support from owners.