Mandatory Club Memberships May Land Your HOA in Court
February 5, 2010
This week's tip is a cautionary tale for homeowners associations
considering making club memberships mandatory in an effort to
generate additional funding. Cash-strapped HOAs in Florida, Oregon, and Washington have
been testing a new plan to generate income for their
communities—making membership in association clubs mandatory
for all homeowners. Angry homeowners have been fighting back by
challenging those efforts in court, and they're starting to
have some success. A growing number of Florida courts have held
such amendments invalid because they substantially change the
scheme of the community from homeowners' expectations when they
moved in. After losing in the lower courts, a few associations have
settled with the homeowners who sued. "With all the cases I'm
aware of," explains Lisa A. Magill, a shareholder and
association attorney at Becker & Poliakoff PA in Fort
Lauderdale, Fla., "they settled because the association couldn't
take the risk that the amendment requiring the masses to
participate in the expenses would be in jeopardy [if a decision
by an appellate court upheld the trial court's invalidation of
the amendment]." Still pending is the appellate court's decision in a case
against The Aberdeen Golf & Country Club near Boynton
Beach, Fla. "Aberdeen amended its documents to say all new
buyers have to become members of the club and are responsible
for club-related expenses, including purchases at the restaurant
and the annual fee," says Magill. "Everyone's waiting with bated
breath for the decision in that case. That's really going to
change what has transpired with respect to a number of country
club associations that have done this over the last several
years." But those are just the first steps in the battle over mandatory
memberships. If the challenges to the rules are upheld in
appellate courts, what about homeowners who were forced to join
because of the new rules? To learn more, see our new article:
Can Your HOA Make Club Membership Mandatory? Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President
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