This post is one of a series about 10 Most Common Misperceptions About Condominium Laws And Operations, which I presented at the Maine Condo Forum and Expo in Portland, Maine, on September 25, 2010.
“In the last 5 or 10 years, another issue has risen, and that is overreaching or perceived overreaching by the board…. It is really a hot button issue and I say perceived because in some cases I don’t think that it’s real but in other cases I know that it is real. So we now have a committee that’s hard at work drafting what we call a Homeowners Bill of Rights. A lot of it is procedure stuff. In the procedural stuff is a lot of substance: by way of example, requiring the board to give notice to the unit owners before adopting the rule, requiring the association to give notice to the unit owners to before commencing litigation, mandating that an association cannot act arbitrarily, requiring open board meetings, dealing with the whole contentious issue of foreclosures with regard to assessments needs.”
-Carl Lisman, Chair of the national committee writing the latest revision to the Uniform Condominium Act.
Most of the procedural requirements for condominium associations in Maine are governed by the Maine Nonprofit Corporation Act, which was really designed for volunteer groups with a limited mission. The Corporation Act vests most power in the Board of Directors, and this is appropriate for such groups.
Condominium associations have a much more pervasive influence over the lives of their members. Membership is mandatory. The association has the power of mandatory assessment and enforcement of its rules; it invites comparison with the powers of a municipal government.
Since a condominium association looks much more like a municipality that a local chamber of commerce or Rotary club, its members are beginning to expect the same rights that are written into Maine’s open meeting law, which applies to all levels of Maine government, for instance. Those rights do not legally exist, for the most part.
Lack of a voice in association governance, lack of transparency, perceived arbitrary behavior on the part of Boards, lack of due process; all these create a gulf between the board and its members, creating distrust and conflict.
It might appear that this is not strictly a legal issue, but this is not exactly the case. Challenges to a board’s authority are powered by distrust. Where there is distrust there is motivation to fight the board; indeed, to create legal challenges to board action.
Recommendation: Try to meet the expectations of unit owners with open meetings of the Board. Keep them informed of what is going on. When enforcement of rules or collections of assessments are required, make sure that the owner feels that the process has been fair.