Boards
A board is a few neighbors holding a binder
Most community boards are volunteers with a declaration, a handful of rules and a long list of complaints. The office advises the association itself, not any one director, and helps the board keep its steps in the right order.
That means documents the board can follow, hearings that can be repeated, and records another board can pick up.
Advice for the association, not for one director
Written answers a new board can find later
Plain-language drafts to send to owners
What a board can ask
Six jobs a small board hands us
Reading the documents
The declaration, bylaws and rules, set against one another, and a note on where they disagree.
Hearings and fines
A procedure the board can follow each time: notice, hearing, written decision.
Collections
A written policy for late dues, payment plans and when a matter goes to a lawyer.
Meetings and records
Notice, quorum, minutes and what owners may ask to see.
Design guidelines
Architectural rules that say what they mean, so fewer requests end in a dispute.
Vendor contracts
A review before the board signs with a manager, a landscaper or an insurer.
What boards ask before they call
Do you advise individual directors?
The office’s client is the association. If a director has a personal question, such as a dispute as a homeowner, that is a separate conversation about whether the office can take it.
Will you sue owners for the association?
Routine letters, payment plans and hearings, yes. A contested lawsuit is a separate decision; the office will tell you whether it can take it or whom to ask.
We can’t afford a lawyer every month.
Many boards call a few times a year. Fees are set in writing first, and the office suggests the order that costs least.
Do you also help owners against associations?
Yes, with a firm rule: never for a homeowner against an association the office advises, and never for an association against a homeowner it has advised.
Tell the board what you need answered
Send your declaration, a recent rule or the complaint in front of you, and say what the board is deciding.