April 24, 2009

This week's tip comes from a new article on how to avoid creating trouble for yourself with your HOA meeting minutes.

"Minutes are a wonderful place to get into a lot of trouble in your corporate operations," says Robert L. Tankel, the principal at Robert L. Tankel P.A. in Dunedin, Fla.

We also spoke to David C. Swedelson, principal at Swedelson & Gottlieb, a law firm that represents associations in the Los Angeles area.

"It can come back to haunt the association if somebody mentions something dealing with maintenance or repairs," David told us. "In California, we have to allow homeowners an opportunity to address the board at every meeting. That often gets reflected in the minutes, but comments from homeowners shouldn't be included in the minutes. Inevitably, some homeowner sues claiming the association didn't maintain something, and the association claims it wasn't aware of the problem. But then there's a record in the minutes that Joe mentioned the problem.

"Minutes should be a record of decisions made by the board, not everything that was discussed at a meeting."

To read more tips about getting your HOA meeting minutes right, read our complete article. (Go to article now »)

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President