Florida is second in the country behind California for the number of HOA organizations in the state. There are a staggering 48,500 in Florida. Many people choose to live in these communities because they are pleasant communities and are well maintained. An HOA attorney benefits your HOA by providing the legal representation necessary.
If your HOA doesn’t employ an attorney, then you’re missing out on these five benefits.
1. Detailed Knowledge
Several laws apply to the formation, management, and enforcement of an HOA and its rules. If you want to have an effective HOA, you need to follow all applicable laws. While you may have experienced or knowledgeable board members, they may not know everything.
For most HOAs, the board members are passionate volunteers who aren’t professionally trained in community management. Hiring an HOA attorney gives the board valuable a resource full of specialized knowledge about local and federal housing laws, bylaws, and CC&Rs.
2. Document Prep and Management
Your HOA needs formation and governing documents. These outline the CC&Rs, regulations, bylaws, and anything else that is related to the formation and management of your HOA and community. These are the documents that you’ll refer to when maintaining peace, order, and standards within your community.
Document preparation is more complicated than simply typing it out. Your association documents are subject to federal, state, and local laws. While there are several templates and forms available online, it is not smart to use these. They can result in your HOA getting bound to terms they didn’t intend to be or having important terms getting left out.
3. Legal Representation
While no one wants to go through the court system and deal with disputes, they can and will eventually arise. A disgruntled homeowner who is unhappy with the HOA or its rules can pursue legal action. It’s important to have legal representation to represent the best interest of the HOA during these legal proceedings.
Your HOA’s attorney can also represent your community when resolving issues with vendors or contractors that don’t fulfill their contractual agreements. Your attorney will review these service contractors before signing. Then if an issue arises, they will help to resolve any disputes quickly.
It can seem counterintuitive, but enlisting the aid of an attorney early on can ensure that your community remains a happy and friendly place to live. Your HOA attorney can ease tensions by quickly resolving disputes and preventing them from getting out of control.
4. Rule Enforcement
Depending on how large your community is, it can be challenging to enforce the rules effectively. To keep the neighborhood looking beautiful and staying a pleasant place to live, you need to enforce the rules uniformly. Your HOA attorney can help you enforce the rules and follow through with legal procedures to ensure everyone in the community complies.
Your attorney can also assist with taking legal action when it’s time to collect assessments. While some community members may readily pay their dues and fees, others may not. Your HOA attorney can file the necessary legal documents to pursue collection.
5. Situational Consultations
While you want your HOA documents to be concise and clear, they can’t address every possible situation. This leads your HOA board and community members to interpret the terms. This can become confusing as different people determine differing outcomes. You’ll also want to ensure you don’t accidentally incorrectly interpret the law, resulting in legally defined harassment or discrimination.
Hire a Lawyer For your HOA
As you can see, hiring an attorney to represent your HOA is a must. With legal representation in place, your HOA’s rights and best interests are protected. This helps ensure you have a happy, friendly, and beautiful community for many years to come.
Contact our firm today and schedule a consultation for the representation of your HOA.
