Page 10 - New England Condominium April 2020

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Certified Public Accountants 20 Freeman Place Needham, MA 02492 Tel: (617) 566-3645 (866) 842-0108 Fax: (866) 681-2377 www.DALCPAPC.net DAL CPA See Our Display Ad on Page 9 BetterVent is a NEW kind of Indoor Dryer Vent. www.adr-products.com 1-888-609-5512 Condominium and Real Estate Law Phone: (781) 817-4900 Direct: (781) 817-4603 Fax: (781) 817-4910 We may be dressed up, but we aren’t afraid to get our hands dirty. www.lawmtm.com Solving your problems today & strengthening your association for tomorrow. 6 Lyberty Way, Suite 201 Westford, MA 01886 (978)496-2000 www.perkinslawpc.com Write to New England Condominium and we’ll pub- lish your question, along with a response from one of our attor- ney advisors. Questions may be edited for taste, length and clar- ity. Send your questions to: patgale@yrinc.com. Q&A Disclaimer: Th e answers provided in this Q&A column are of a general nature and cannot substitute for professional advice regarding your specifi c circumstances. Always seek the advice of competent legal counsel or other qualifi ed profes- sionals with any questions you may have regard- ing technical or legal issues. Accounting • Auditing • Taxes • Consulting Worcester 67 Millbrook Street 508-797-5200 Grafton 80 Worcester Street 508-839-0020 Holden 795 Main Street 508-829-5544 M Love Associates, & LLC Certified Public Accountants Serving Condominium Associations mlove 2.25 x 2.5 condo association color 9.19.2017.indd 1 9/19/17 12:59 PM BANKING Advertise In Th e New England Condominium Marketplace —Call 212-683-5700— Target Key Decision Makers In Th e Co-op, Condo, & HOA Community By Placing Your Ad Here See Our Display Ad on Page 4 grandfathering. Th e choice regarding the appropriate policy for the association is up to the community. “Once the policy has been formulated, the board should work with legal counsel to prepare the formal amendment or rule change to refl ect the restrictions/limita- tions that have been chosen. Th en, in the case of an amendment, the policy should be put to a vote or community approval in accordance with the terms of the govern- ing documents. In many cases, this may require calling a special meeting of the owners. “While there is no ‘one-size fi ts all’ so- lution to smoking at condominiums, there are certainly measures that motivated board members or unit owners can take to ad- vance smoke free or restricted policies.” n flict relative to who is responsible for what repairs, particularly when the repair involves systems like plumbing, which traverse both common and private areas. For example, where within a wall does a pipe become the responsibility of the as- sociation or corporation? Where does the liability of the owner or shareholder end? Documents should contain specific pa- rameters, spelled out in concrete terms of feet and inches to clarify these issues and to avoid conflict. The Process The process of amending and updat- ing documents is not a short one, and requires a number of steps. According to Reich, “First, the attorney should re- view the existing \[documents\] and rec- ommend changes. At the same time, the board should have some ideas of their own about changes they would like to see. The attorney and board should col- laborate on these changes. “The second step is to draft amend- ments. The attorney should then meet with the board to review the changes. The next step is to memorialize the changes for the owners or shareholders in both ex- act legal language and in a ‘plain English’ translation, along with an explanation from the board to the residents explain- ing why the review was done. A meeting should then be set up for the residents to provide feedback. After that feedback, a revision should be made, and a second version of the amendments presented. After a second community-wide review and perhaps another meeting, a final ver- sion should be produced, and a date set for a meeting to ratify the changes.” Shapiro outlines a similar process for changes to governing documents for condominium associations in Massachu- setts, but notes that in some cases mort- gage holders on the individual units may require consent to the changes, and that the changes must be recorded within six months of the first signatures obtained to ratify them. Trust amendments also re- quire filing at the county level. When, and How Often? How often should a co-op or condo association consider revising their gov- erning documents? According to Reich, Shapiro, and Weinstein, about every five to 10 years. One consideration factoring in to how frequently to review and revise is how attentive and responsive the board and its attorney have been to changes in laws and operational needs, and wheth- er they’ve been amending the govern- ing documents regularly to reflect those changes. The more prudent, incremental changes that have been made to keep up with legal and market factors, the less frequently a total revision will be neces- sary. According to Reich, this is where UPDATING... continued from page 9 Q&A continued from page 5 your community’s relationship with its legal counsel is key, because “attorneys should be on top of issues affecting the proprietary lease and keep the board in- formed!” Board members, owners, and share- holders must keep in mind that a co-op or condo community is a living, breath- ing organism — and like any organism, it needs to grow and change in order to remain healthy and vital. Those changes may be organic to the needs of the com- munity, like changing a policy relative to smoking or subletting, or they may be stimulated externally, by changes in law and legislation that affect corporations and associations. In either event, these changes need to be attended to for the overall health and effective operations of the community. n A J Sidransky is a staff writer/reporter for New England Condominium, and a pub- lished novelist.